Has Out Society Reached an "Anything Goes" Level Yet?

Not very long ago, a rather stagnant new saying began to make it's way to t-shirts and especially car bumpers, with this simple message:

MEAN PEOPLE SUCK

It seemed almost like it actually meant something, in the spirit of old protests, or something. But it really meant  nothing, to be quite frank.

Still, I have to admit, that too often, many people do suck. I don't know if they are "mean", or not. But I think that it's fair to say that there has been a general decline in manners and respect towards other people and, let's be honest, of themselves, as well. In this environment, increasingly, anything goes. The more you see, the less shocked you are by it. Things that would have been unthinkable not long ago are pretty common these days, and at the core of it, always, is that same lack of respect towards others.

Here is an article that illustrates that, using the pictures that flight attendants have taken to show just how amazingly disrespectful, to say nothing of disgusting, some overly self-absorbed people can be during flights.

Admittedly, and thankfully, I have not had that particular misfortune, although I have certainly experienced some obnoxious behavior by people before.  At concerts, when people refuse to stop talking, or some drunken ass ruins it for everyone around him. Or at sporting events, when you basically have the same problem. Sometimes, you have someone who tries to look for a fight, a situation I have also been in on occasion, when two of my friends and I went to a concert at MSG back in 1996, and there were three dumb jocks in back of us who clearly were looking for trouble.

It always remained a mystery to me why, in this day and age, when ticket prices to events like this tend to be rather astronomical, people still nonetheless do not go to these things to enjoy the events themselves, but as excuses to engage in their worst possible behavior. One particular pet peeve of mine during such events is when people are either so drunk or so high that they are barely conscious (sometimes not even), and will have almost no chance of actually remembering the event that they surely could have saved their money on, given that they won't remember it.

With flights, admittedly, you are not there to have fun, but to be transported to a destination, for whatever the reason. The tickets cost a lot of money and the seats are uncomfortable. This is made even worse when the flight is long.

Still, that is no excuse for poor, indecent behavior. Our world is made much worse when people exhibit a general lack of respect towards one another, and taking your shoes off and putting your feet up on a place is one perfect example of this. There are plenty of others, such as cutting in line, and this goes for vehicular traffic, when I am always shocked that people are shocked when I resist this bad behavior and don't simply let people in like this, as if I'm the bad guy! On the flip side, it rather shocks me that so many people allow others to get away with this, time and time again, essentially encouraging this behavior in the future, rather than acting like it is the problem that it really is!

In any case, here is the link to the article about obnoxious passengers on flights that got me on this topic:


"Passenger Shaming": Pictures of the Rudest, Grossest Passengers in the Air by Sid Lipsey Sep 17, 2014

https://www.yahoo.com/travel/passenger-shaming-pictures-of-the-rudest-grossest-97733539572.html