A Renaissance of Rudeness
Perhaps you read about Lakeysha Beard, the 39-year-old woman who was charged with disorderly conduct for talking loudly on her cellphone in the designated quiet car of an Amtrak train as she traveled last weekend from Oakland, Calif., to Portland, Ore. According to the Oregon state troopers who finally escorted her off, she had talked nonstop for 16 hours, despite repeated complaints and warnings. At first, I viewed this story as a perfect parable of modern rudeness. I began to make a list in my head of other boorish types I’d like to see taken away in handcuffs, like people who refuse to maintain eye contact during a conversation because they’re texting or those who use cellphones in restaurants.
But my joy was cut short when it occurred to me that even bothering to have a negative opinion about any of the above was casting myself as a relic from another age. I might as well be quoting quaint pieces of advice by Emily Post about ill-mannered people who crinkle the cellophane on their candies during a matinee. It’s clear that everything we once assumed about the workings of manners has shifted. Lakeysha Beard is the brave herald of an emerging renaissance of rudeness. In the old rudeness, rules were made to keep people from intruding on your privacy. In the new civility, what’s rude is asking for privacy in any place that gets a signal, because you’re interfering with someone else’s rights of expression. By entering any public space, you are signing a generic release form, agreeing to be an extra in the blogs, feeds, webcasts and status updates of whoever else happens to be around.
In this updated model, we are seven billion people, each preoccupied with our own individual broadcast. If for some reason, someone is bothering you by talking too loudly on their cellphone…well, what’s stopping you from calling someone yourself, Mr. Selfish Solitude? And if the person you call is only half listening because he is playing “Modern Warfare 3″…so? By trying to put restrictions on the behavior of others, aren’t you the one who’s being rude? What kind of an egomaniac are you to assume you’re so fascinating that everyone should just drop everything else they’re doing whenever you show up?
Hey Sunny – Thanks for reading! Please let us know if you have any suggestions!
If you were raised in a very strict environment like me, it is that much harder to adapt to this Age of the Uncivilized. I find many individuals to be ill-bred and unbearably rude! That goes for some former bosses, their spouses, co-workers, etc. In other words, people who have a duty to uphold high standards of etiquette simply don’t know any better or don’t care. It turns out that the nouveau riche are the worst! Surprisingly, money doesn’t buy manners, class or taste. On the contrary, it affords them a “get out of jail free pass” to be classless, trashy and crude!
That said, Men from the Military, of Military background and Military Families are the most well-mannered and gracious people that I have ever had the pleasure of meeting in my life!
Word to the wise: Look at a potential mate’s mother/father. That is more than likely who you will end up with down the road. Ask yourself, is he/she well-mannered, elegant/dignified and presentable?
A Question: Can anyone please tell me why young people in their early 20’s mostly, find it absolutely necessary to yell at each other in conversation when they are practically sitting right on top of one another?
Fly the Friendly Skies?
Before things got out of hand, it was a typical annoyance that happens once a flight gets airborne: A passenger hit the recline button and sent his seat intimately close to the lap of the guy sitting behind him.
What followed wasn’t typical at all: a smack to the head, peacemakers diving about the cabin to intervene and a pair of Air Force F-16 fighter jets scrambling into the night skies over Washington.
It happened late Sunday, just after a United Airlines Boeing 767 bound for Ghana with 144 passengers took off from Dulles International Airport.
Not long after the 10:44 p.m. departure for the overnight flight, the offending seat was lowered into the offended lap, and a fight ensued. A flight attendant and another passenger jumped in between, said sources familiar with the incident who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to provide details.
The pilot has complete authority over the aircraft, a United spokesman said, and he decided to return to Dulles to sort things out rather than continue the transatlantic flight to Ghana when he was unsure of the scope of the problem.
Come Fly the Friendly Skies
Best Airline Commercial – Virgin Atlantic of Course!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bon-qNCnePY&NR=1&feature=fvwp
SOURCE