In the 1960s we lost the right of freedom of association in public accommodations, and with that we lost the ability to impose basic rules of etiquette and other reasonable social norms on society. Yesterday, my wife and I were trying to get into a restaurant, and the one door, a revolving door, was occupied by someone's children who were busily ensuring that no one could get through. The only thing that got the mother to pull them out of there was when she heard my wife comment that I might as well wait since the kids obviously had no intent of letting anyone else use the door.
I used to think that rude behavior like this was something that I had to accept until I realized how quickly I could post a high resolution picture of someone's blatantly anti-social behavior on Facebook with my iPhone. I've done that several times already, ranging from a pickup truck driver who parked his truck on top of a store's shrubbery because he couldn't be bothered to try to park better, to a soccer mom who decided to block both lanes leading in and out of a shopping center so that no one could get her place in line. I don't do this for just anyone--I have standards. Had I not been so hungry that I forgot that I had my iPhone with me, those kids probably would have ended up getting a picture or two of them uploaded to Facebook and my blog with a snarky caption--the mother's wishes be damned since she thought it was cute until people started getting angry at her kids.
There is a certain segment of society that is pathologically forgiving and non-judgmental, that has no standards it expects of others. They will no doubt call this behavior sick, judgmental, arrogant and God knows what else. For the rest of us, I'd like to point out that this sort of ostracism is probably the last, best hope we have for making people behave. I think camera phones are a good thing, over all. I think the advent of cheap, hi-def camcorders is even better. When people start to realize that anyone around them may be recording them behaving like a jackass and posting it for the world to see, they might hold their tongues, practice a little forced grace and manners toward their fellow man, and start watching their kids' behavior.
Youtube, Facebook, Flickr and blogs might be just the thing needed for making people realize that they have to behave decently toward others.
I used to think that rude behavior like this was something that I had to accept until I realized how quickly I could post a high resolution picture of someone's blatantly anti-social behavior on Facebook with my iPhone. I've done that several times already, ranging from a pickup truck driver who parked his truck on top of a store's shrubbery because he couldn't be bothered to try to park better, to a soccer mom who decided to block both lanes leading in and out of a shopping center so that no one could get her place in line. I don't do this for just anyone--I have standards. Had I not been so hungry that I forgot that I had my iPhone with me, those kids probably would have ended up getting a picture or two of them uploaded to Facebook and my blog with a snarky caption--the mother's wishes be damned since she thought it was cute until people started getting angry at her kids.
There is a certain segment of society that is pathologically forgiving and non-judgmental, that has no standards it expects of others. They will no doubt call this behavior sick, judgmental, arrogant and God knows what else. For the rest of us, I'd like to point out that this sort of ostracism is probably the last, best hope we have for making people behave. I think camera phones are a good thing, over all. I think the advent of cheap, hi-def camcorders is even better. When people start to realize that anyone around them may be recording them behaving like a jackass and posting it for the world to see, they might hold their tongues, practice a little forced grace and manners toward their fellow man, and start watching their kids' behavior.
Youtube, Facebook, Flickr and blogs might be just the thing needed for making people realize that they have to behave decently toward others.
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