The general decline in standards today

[LizzieMaine]

The proof of the pudding, they say, is in the eating. Or, by their fruit you will know them. Give 100 percent, produce quality work, deal squarely with others, and you've got every reason to have self regard, and no one will begrudge it to you. But assume because everyone else is screwing around and "sticking it to The Man" and not carrying their share of the load that you might as well do it too, and you're instantly part of the problem.

 

[SGT Rocket]

The proof of the pudding, they say, is in the eating. Or, by their fruit you will know them. Give 100 percent, produce quality work, deal squarely with others, and you've got every reason to have self regard, and no one will begrudge it to you. But assume because everyone else is screwing around and "sticking it to The Man" and not carrying their share of the load that you might as well do it too, and you're instantly part of the problem.

Well said!:eusa_clap

 

[AtomicEraTom]

This is a huge problem. Nobody can keep anybody in check. Someone breaks into your house, you beat them until they're paralyzed and they turn around and sue you. YOU WERE IN MY HOUSE!!!

Nobody wishes to help anyone, and people are so messed up you can't. My neighbor was taking in her groceries the other day, so I took them in for her, she thought it was a huge deal. It was just common courtesy to me. On the flip side of that coin, I was driving awhile back and saw a fella hit a turkey with his car. I wanted to stop and help, but you never know what kind of whacko you're going to meet on the side of the highway.

The lack of pride in being American makes me sad, as well. God, Country, and Family should be the most important things in one's life, at least in my opinion. America gets ragged on for being too concerned with itself. Well, we spend a lot of time helping other nations, and every country should look out for themselves to a point. That's survival.

I believe a significant number of factors are at play.New, more potent drugs are certainly an issue, and another contributing factor is the ease with which we can access information. In other words, we are made aware of incidents much more readily now. Something happens in Maine and in minutes, I am aware of it in Arizona.

My personal belief is that we started down this slippery slope with our propensity to try and legislate civility. There was a time in this country when a man could expect to pay a price for insulting a lady. I'm old enough to remember these days. It simply wasn't tolerated and any gentleman in the area would enforce this. Today, should someone insult my wife, and should I administer corrective action; he walks away smiling and I GO TO JAIL! Ridiculous! Kids are being shot in our schools because administrators are afraid to confront the troublemakers, and would rather suspend everyone involved in an altercation than root out the real problem and deal with it. Once upon a time, evil-doers were dealt with, now assailant and victim are treated the same, until something blows. We have somehow come to the conclusion that we can legislate ourselves into civility and we are paying price for our foolishness.

 

[Mojito]

And yet, many people got away with incivility "once upon a time". Uncivil to someone who was native american, black, poor...? My mother worked as an RN in a hospital in Texas in the 60s. One of the staff, an orderly, was African-American. He was generally popular - got along with everyone. One of her colleagues was a lovely lady...the quintessential Southern Belle, and very, very kind to my mother as a young girl far from her home country. Everyone knew each other by first names, but when the orderly one day made the mistake of calling the nurse by her first name, she sharply corrected him: "That's MISS XXX to YOU". He turned away, and my mother could see how upset he was. She asked her friend why she'd been so harsh with him - the friend replied "He's just a n-------".

Which is not to say everyone was like that (one reason I adore the character of Peter Wimsey is that he is a gentleman to everyone regardless of social status...unless they've proven themselves unworthy of it, in which case he is wittily cutting).

I love some of Dorothy Parker's short stories, like "Horsey", in which she contrasts the treatment of a "lady" vs that of her servant.

There have always been boors and there always will be. There have always been natural gentlemen and ladies - of all backgrounds - and there always will be.

 

[Tomasso]

Which is not to say everyone was like that.......

Thank's, I was thinking the worst.....

 

[Mojito]

Yes, that was badly worded...to begin with, obviously everyone "wasn't like that", because some would have had to have been recipients of the incivility! And I do tend to be captain obvious.

I just wanted to stress that I don't think everyone exhibited such paticularly nasty behaviour and identified entire groups of people as not worthy of civility and common decency. And, of course, not everyone is a paragon of egalitarian decency today. I only wanted to point out that good manners didn't always extend to everyone on an equal basis, as theoretically they should...even back in the good ol' days.

 

[BinkieBaumont]

[video=youtube;1wCXr_6wgns]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wCXr_6wgns[/video]

 

[LizzieMaine]

Kids, frankly, are the least of the problem today. Most of the truly barbaric behavior in modern culture is carried on by people who ought to be old enough to know better.

 

[BinkieBaumont]

You are truly one stuck up self opinionated Bitch luckily I don't read your crap because it goes on and on and on, and on, ............. you are in fact incredibly Boring

 

[LizzieMaine]

I rest my case.

 

[Mojito]

Binkie, I've always loved your colourful posts and the character that came through, but in this instance...just no. No.

Was it directed at Lizzie? (if it was directed at me, I'd chuckle and agree I do indeed go on). Yes, she has opinions. And I don't always agree...but I love the fact that she is well informed and willing to put her viewpoint out there. She always has a basis for why she feels as she does, and can explain her position articulately. I love reading her posts, because she obviously thinks about the topics under discussion before arriving at a position. Lizzie is what I admire most: an individual, and moreover one who is thoughtful, intelligent and who does her own research. I don't need to agree with her in every aspect to respect that...she is her own woman, and she's pretty fearless and forthright (qualities that often get women labelled bitches).

This strikes me as a bit uncharacteristic, as you're usually such a charming bloke, even with all your wonderful quirks.

Like Jordan said, "Let's not have one of those."

 

[LizzieMaine]

(qualities that often get women labelled bitches).

Still, it does show "how far we've come", doesn't it? I'm so relieved that sexism is a thing of the past.

(and thanx for the kind words. Personally, I think the only thing worse than not having an opinion is being afraid to state it, whether I agree or not.)

 

[SGT Rocket]

Ummm... What just happened? Lets keep it civil y'all. I'm both a Captain Obvious and Captain Oblivious. Sometimes at the same time. I'm guessing there was an inside joke in there (at least I hope so) that some others, like me, didn't get/understand/catch.:eusa_doh:

 

[scottyrocks]

I don't get it. How could something like that be up here for even this long? It violates all levels of common decency, stuff that we hold so highly here.

Especially since it looks like BB was hacked. I can't imagine a good long standing member writing something like that.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I'm sure whoever was responsible was simply hoping to provide a good illustration of the point under discussion, that's all. No harm done on my side.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Especially since it looks like BB was hacked. I can't imagine a good long standing member writing something like that.

I'm sure whoever was responsible was simply hoping to provide a good illustration of the point under discussion, that's all. No harm done on my side.

It must have been kids.

While I'm on the subject, I offer this as proof of the kind of kids we have today. Because of the extremely explicit language I won't post this clip or its link here. But if you can handle it, look for "Angry Catholic Priest vs Skateboarders" on YouTube and you can see for yourself how these little (expletive deleted) have provoked this priest to the point of profanity.

Most of the truly barbaric behavior in modern culture is carried on by people who ought to be old enough to know better.

For some time I used to frequent this one chat room which I left after it degenerated into continuous high school drama and borderline stalking. One of the worst offenders when it came to this kind of thing was a man in his late 70s, early 80s!

 

[Puzzicato]

For some time I used to frequent this one chat room which I left after it degenerated into continuous high school drama and borderline stalking. One of the worst offenders when it came to this kind of thing was a man in his late 70s, early 80s!

Not quite on that scale, but I have experienced very sophomoric behaviour from a group of women in their 50s. Nowt so queer as folks, as they say.

 

[Miss sofia]

The local antiques centre where i also work has a gossip mill entirely run by the more mature chaps who work there. All the gals are pretty quiet and generally stoical about everything surprisingly and the guys, well... it's a veritable mother's meeting most days! Nowt so queer indeed!!

 

[LizzieMaine]

About ten years ago I was being stalked/harassed online by someone who turned out to be a 70 year old man from West Virginia. He had at least a dozen aliases, and filled my email box with some of the vilest stuff you can imagine until I managed to track him down and get him thrown off his ISP. I wasn't the first woman he'd done this to -- but I'm pretty sure I was the last.

Working in the service industry, I could fill a book with horror stories about elderly, entitled spoiled brats, but suffice it to say that this is something that runs very very deep in current society. If you don't like someone, if you don't agree with someone, if someone serves you popcorn with too much salt, the default reaction nowadays for an increasing number of people seems to be to pitch the sort of fit you'd expect from a nursery-school kid. One more symptom of the encroaching darkness.

 

[Miss sofia]

I couldn't agree more, I've worked in retail on and off for over twenty years and i have noticed a steady decline in manners irrespective of gender, class etc.

Not only do some of my customers have, as Lizzie described a kind of hissy-fit default setting, but it seems to be the norm that they do not have the manners to keep any negative opinions or thoughts to themselves, which in itself i think is terribly rude and symptomatic of the general decline. I mean, as an example, and this happens daily, i get at least one or two people openly commenting on the smell in the shop. Not to my face either, i mean asking me why it might smell is another matter. Now if that were children wrinkling up their noses and what have you, well, i could take that, but grown ups who should know better, openly and loudly saying "ew it smells all musty in here", well, words fail me. (For the record it's a 15th century wine cellar with a well outside, no amount of potpourri or Glade is going to shift the musty)!

Customers also feel they have carte blanche to openly voice their distate over the merchandise loudly and in a very uncouth manner, which again really irks me, i was brought up to be polite and respectful in such situations, a subtle aside to whoever i may be shopping with if something is not to my taste is how i was brought up, not telling everyone in a five mile radius that a particular item is a 'piece of old tat', when i'm standing next to them too. (Shakes head in sadness and disbelief).

Sadly the well is boarded up, although the roof is rather unsteady and people feel the need to leap all over it, so i may have my day!