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/ Opinion / Editorial /

When did rudeness become acceptable?

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Before every performance at the Jubilee Auditorium, three announcements are made.

“Ladies and gentlemen, the performance will begin in 15 minutes. Please take your seats.”

It is repeated with 10 minutes to go until show time and again with five minutes to opening. There is ample warning to everyone to finish their drinks, hit the washroom and find seats. So why is it so many people can’t get to their seats on time? At last Friday’s Jim Cuddy concert people were still wandering in 30 minutes after the lights were dimmed.

That’s just plain rude to the performer.

As John Locke, British philosopher, Oxford academic and medical researcher back in the 1600s said: “There cannot be greater rudeness than to interrupt another in the current of his discourse.”

So when did rudeness become not only acceptable behaviour, but in the case of many people, the preferred behaviour? What makes rude and inconsiderate people think they are more important than others?

It used to be a running joke that you could always tell a Canadian because he or she was the one apologizing for being bumped into. Not any more. Good manners among many Canadians, especially the “me generation,” have gone the way of hula-hoops, bell-bottom pants and winning Edmonton sports teams.

Canadians routinely interrupt concerts and other performances by showing up late. Canadians routinely spit on streets and sidewalks.

How often have you been hit by a cart in a supermarket and the driver not only doesn’t say sorry but often doesn’t even acknowledge the hit?

And hats? When did it become acceptable for men to not remove their hats during the national anthem? Or to wear their baseball caps at dinner?

How rude is it for store clerks to answer a phone call instead of serving the customer standing in front of them? What’s with the clerks who think it’s acceptable to chat with their girlfriends/boyfriends, either in person or on the phone, rather than doing their job and serving customers?

Remember when people actually held doors open for other people and then the person actually said thanks instead of treating you like a doorman?

How do you like walking down the street and playing Red Rover when meeting a group walking three, four or five abreast. Would one of them step aside to let you pass? Not a chance. They stare with a look that says I dare you to bump into me and my friends.

And this doesn’t even get into cellphones and the rudeness of people who interrupt a live conversation to answer their cellphone or, even worse, to check for messages and then reply to text messages.

No wonder there’s a need for things like National Good Deed Day and Do a Good Deed Today websites.