Tuesday, December 11, 2012

How Rude!

Over the past few years I have noticed a trend that seems to be growing every day and that trend is people being rude.  Manners, tact, kindness, decency have taken a back seat to rude, unthinking, mean, and generally low class behavior and not just among the young.

Working in a high school I get to see every possible kind of behavior one can imagine on a daily basis.  It is displayed in both staff and students.  Bad manners and rude behavior are not hard to spot because in general the people doing it WANT to be seen and heard.  It is almost as if people wear their rudeness as a badge of honor.  Can they out-rude everyone else and perhaps be noticed or better still end up on YouTube because as we all know that is the pinnacle of existence anymore.

I find that people who are rude all the time do it for a wide variety of reasons.  To be seen and heard.  To mask their own insecurity.  Because they believe it shows strength over others.  Because they haven't had anyone teach them any better.  Because they mimic what they see most.  Rude people tend to hang out with other rude people and befriend other rude people because those people aren't going to look down on what they say and do and they may even applaud it.  Rude adults usually take great offense at being told they are rude because they never believe that they are.

Years ago, children were raised with manners as part of their daily training.  They were expected to behave politely, kindly and with decency.  If they did not they faced the ire of the parents on the home front and in society they were shunned for it.  Now, as rude behavior is everywhere we look, it becomes "acceptable" or easy to overlook or to just say "well that's how things are."

If we want a more peaceful, a more kind, a more tolerant society then we have to get back to believing that rude behavior is wrong in all circumstances.  It is because we have allowed rude behavior such as name calling, gossip, unkindness, no tolerance, racism and a host of others that we find ourselves in a society where rude behavior is the norm and politeness, kindness, and decency when seen are shocking to our system.

Everyone is so afraid to hold people accountable for their behavior because everybody and everything has to be accepted and not judged and no offense taken. I think if more of us were to say to someone with rude behavior that's ugly, that's mean, that's unkind, that doesn't make you a good person, then perhaps we would start to see less of it.  And if we were to say something when we see goo behavior, perhaps we would see more of that too.

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