There is a trend I have noticed in society, an increasing level of rudeness.  Not your average rudeness, such as not holding a door for the next person, or forgetting to say "please" and "thank you" but a meaner and more personal rudeness.  A lack of civility of course, but something more.  

This is illustrated for me every day in everyday interactions.  It is the co-worker, who having spotted you hurrying towards the office building in order to not be late for work, still rushes to hit the "close door" button on the elevator rather than wait themselves for a few more seconds.  It is the driver who is unable to see that tailgaiting that elderly gentleman is not going to make him go faster, he is simply going to get nervous and it will cause an accident. A crowded store parking lot at Christmas shopping season will prove to you the war-like nature of man as cars circle like vultures and drivers breathe threats against other drivers who have not recognized the territorial meaning of a blinking signal of the car hovering by a soon to be open parking space. Are we never able to slow down enough in life to enjoy a moment and to help another?

Yesterday a friend of mine, a disabled friend, was attempting to go through a set of revolving doors  as she is unable to pull open the heavy doors that are provided as an alternative.  She didn't notice that there were two men hustling through from the other side.  Their  powerful push on the door sent it going around faster than she had expected and the suddenness of the door slipping away from her hands  that gripped the railing startled her, and the next panel of the door struck her, propelling her backwards onto the brick walkway.

The reaction of these two men?  They walked on.  They walked on even though she lay there on the walkway, unable to rise.  They advised her that she should use the other doors, one was observant enough to say "you were alright until you hit your head".  Neither inquired as to whether she was alright, was she able to get up, did she need help or offer to assist in any way. They kept going because they had somewhere to go and besides, one of them seemed to think it was rather funny.

Maybe it's a lack of empathy, maybe that is what I notice.  Maybe this is just the selfish generation.  Maybe people have lost the ability to function as if they are part of a whole.  It seems at times I am surrounded by a sociopathic citizenry.  The benefit or gain to them is all, nothing else matters in anything they do.

Maybe I am just feeling cranky and a little helpless, because I wasn't there and I couldn't lambaste them with my ire and I couldn't help.  Maybe someday I will get over my anger and if these guys are lucky, it will be before someone spots them and points them out  to me.

Maybe if I could just take the world by the scruff of the neck and shake them until they got some common sense and decency... well, it's probably better that I can't.   Not while I am in this mood anyway.