People! Mind your manners

I haven't written in quite a number of months, mainly because I've been in an "observation" mode lately.  It's fun to watch the actions of other human beings from afar. 

The one thing that seems universal is the lack of manners/etiquette.  The past few months I've seen more than the usual lack of manners, sort of like an escalation of rudeness to others, especially in crowded situations. If there's a group of people, you're bound to see rude behavior.  I don't remember people being so nasty in past decades.  I started to wonder why there was this increase in bad behavior.  I've come up with some reasons, not scientific mind you, just probable cause.

1. The crowd mentality: You get a bunch of people at a "free" function and they get super greedy.  The more people, the greedier they all get. It's like a shark feeding frenzy.  A table may be laden with "noshes" and in one giant pod of life forces they glom to that table and like locusts devour every last smidgen and crumb.  There are arms, shoulders and legs moving in the direction of the food stuffs.  Never mind that it may be something they wouldn't eat any other time, it's free so they want it. 

2. The entitled: They are the folks who dragged themselves to an event. It wasn't what they wanted to do, but someone told them they should go.  They feel it is their duty to honor the "little people" with their presence.  When entering the event, others will observe the haughtiness of their stance.  People can see the entitled one is there due to a command performance.  It's almost like seeing a Monarch attend  nursery school celebrations.  They don't want to be there but it's for the "little people".  It's pretty entertaining to watch the supposed entitled ones try to keep themselves from being contaminated by the masses, certainly the entitled feels these others are distasteful at the least. Their behavior sparks resentment with the others. There is tension in the air.

3.The parents: Pushing their kids ahead in the lines...ever so gently.  The parents are behind the kids with their knees edging the kids forward.  The bunch of living, breathing folks ahead of the kids move a tiny bit forward reducing the "personal space' between them and those in front.  The pushed kids get restless, if not a bit squashed and there starts the whining.  The parents start to get frustrated hearing the distressed sounds emanating from their young and that's the beginning of anger.  The kids want out, the parents want out and the folks in front and behind want out.   The tension mounts and someone cracks...then all Hell breaks out. All because the parents were not patient and tried to grab more personal space from someone else.  It happens continually.

4. Lack of preparation:  This I blame on the event coordinators.  They set up these events, send out all the press releases about the event, advertising this is a free event, then don't anticipate how many will attend.  They don't have enough food, drinks, chairs, or anything else needed to make the masses happy.  The even starts and it's a free for all.  This is not good event planning. 

Those are a few of many problems that I see happening all the time.  There shouldn't be any excuse for bad behavior, but when you haven't been taught to be respectful of others, what can you expect?  Most of the time they have been taught, but opt to "forget" their manners in response to their immediate wants and desires. 

Ahh....maybe I'm just getting old......