“Arrogance and rudeness,” wrote author Laura Teresa Marquez, “are training wheels on the bicycle of life, for weak people who cannot keep their balance without them.”
Rudeness is nothing more than a display of disrespect for others and there is so much of it happening all around us it once prompted English writer and actor Lynne Truss to mutter, in total exasperation: “The utter bloody rudeness of the world today.”
The rudeness of so many people was one of the factors that led to the Random Acts of Kindness Day that was popular a couple of years back. Perhaps what is needed, instead, is a Let’s Teach People Not To Be Rude Day. Now that’s something city council could consider. Besides the anti-business perception the city has, we should also be concerned about the reputation of being a city of snobs.
Most St. Albertans are not snobs, but there certainly is a lot of unnecessary rudeness that could give outsiders the wrong impression. Think of recent incidents of rudeness you’ve run into.
Perhaps you’ve been at Fountain Park pool recently, sitting at a table watching your child or grandchild in a swimming lesson. Someone asks if they can use the empty chair at your table and you say yes. So what does that person do? She plunks it right down in front of you, blocking your view of the pool.
How utterly rude is that?
Or people take entire tables and chairs and put them right against the viewing glass so no one other than themselves can see kids in the pool. That’s rude, people – rude and inconsiderate.
How often have you been at a movie or a concert when someone’s cellphone rings and rather than decline the call, the person answers and chats away? Or there’s the group of young girls all texting with the bright lights of the phone distracting everyone around them.
What about the person who cuts in front of others, either at a line-up or at the water park on the weekend or the skateboard park that was so busy on Sunday?
What about the person who can never be on time? If you make plans with someone, have a meeting, or some other pre-set obligation, why is it that some people can’t be there on time, even for a funeral or a wedding? Others have gone out of their way to be there, on time, and being late is disrespectful to them.
There are tons of examples all around us, including here in St. Albert: the bullying; the snobbery; smokers throwing their cigarette butts everywhere; noisy, drunken neighbours; overly aggressive drivers.
Is this one of the effects of the Facebook/Twitter society where face-to-face communication is a dying activity, and cellphones and social media have eroded social skills to the point where we just don’t care about others?
Perhaps the problem is exactly as Rita Mae Brown wrote: “You can’t be truly rude until you understand good manners.”
Maybe people today just don’t understand good manners. Either that or they simply don’t care; they think their time, their lives, are more important and valuable than those of other people.
Perhaps their parents never taught them. Or maybe their parents didn’t understand that being considerate of others should be a natural instinct, a part of sharing the world. And if it isn’t then it should be taught.
There is absolutely no excuse for rudeness.
