Lots of stuff makes me mad. I get angry at people's rudeness, at some people's stupidity, and at our (including my own) complacency as the government legislates more and more of our lives. No, I'm not an anarchist, nor am I going to attempt to overthrow the government or join an extremist group or a militia... But sometimes, just sometimes I'd like to run away from the absurdity of it all... |
Civility... | Choice (or why my family fears I am doomed!) |
For example, there has recently been a lot of discussion about what's wrong with kids today, why they have no self-control; why they have no self-discipline. We blame TV, computer games, the film industry... Have you ever heard a parent say, in an interview on TV or in private, that the kid is just plain rotten? Never! Have you ever heard a parent take responsibility for a rotten kid, speculating that perhaps his/her parenting skills were, uh... somewhat lacking? No. We blame everything and everyone except ourselves for just about everything. My take on the whole thing? Well...
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It seems to me that I read, sometime during the course of both my formal and informal education, that the only way for human beings to live together in a reasonably civilized society is to have laws - both written and unwritten - that govern our actions, and a tacit agreement that we will abide by those laws to preserve the society of which we are a part. If our society seems to be ruder and cruder now, as so many TV commentators like to point out to us, it could be because so many of us behave as though the laws don't apply to us and manners are an old-fashioned and rather useless concept. Try going the speed limit in a 25 MPH zone, or even a school zone. These days, that's asking for trouble, if you worry about road rage. I heard too many stories, when I lived in the wild west, about drivers shooting other drivers for going so slowly. "If you can't get out of my way, I'll just have to kill you." Never mind that the 'slow' driver was already going a bit over the speed limit! Tail-gaters upset me too. I finally broke my sister of that bad habit. She used to get really upset when someone followed her too closely, which led to very colorful language and rude gestures. Then she'd get behind someone who was going too slow to suit her, and used the same language and gestures as she tail-gated that unfortunate driver. Fortunately, my sister is an intelligent person: it only took a simple observation from me to change her tail-gating habit. I pointed out to her that she was doing the same thing to someone else that made her so angry when it was done to her. That was sort of my understanding of the Golden Rule: don't do stuff to other people that you don't like having done to you. An old-fashioned concept, I admit... evidently no longer taught in the average home or school room... |