We need a new social contract, you know the agreed upon manner in which we move through public life, society and interact with each other regularly.
First, everyone must acknowledge that in public interactions no one is special, not even your precious special child who has never heard the word “no.” Income, education, ethnicity nor religion matter when you’re ordering take out or picking it up. We are all just the next customer in line.
Instead of scowling at people, we could try smiling. Instead of cutting in front of someone in line like they don’t exist, why not go to the end and wait your turn like the other developed humans? When you bump into someone’s car, you call the cops or leave a note. When you open your door into someone’s car, leave a note. That’s a $500 fix on new cars.
For those of you living in a cave the last two years, there is a major shortage of help in all sectors, but especially in the service sector such as restaurants and retail. Expect waits, be patient, be courteous to one another and your waitperson or the person running the register across from you. They tolerate so much from so many rude people.
On a further devolved scale, let’s stop producing a deadly weapon to get a pack of cigarettes, a bottle of liquor or a hard-working businessman’s cash drawer. There is no reason to pull out a knife to get $68.
In this day of federal money raining down on us like on strippers at a club full of G.I.s out of boot camp, there are hand-outs for everything imaginable. Non-profit organizations are falling over each other to hand out food. There’s help for rent, child care, education, labor training, drug and alcohol rehab, utilities. The list is long.
This is all courtesy of the children being born and raised right now. While all of us spend it and then die, they get to pay this bill in the near future.
We live in a completely different social environment than a year ago. Many people, using the noun’s definition loosely, have little to no regard for social norms, manners and ethics, much less simple consideration for others or the observance of the law.
Everyone has experienced it in some form. On the lower end of the neanderthal scale are those who have just lost their manners. They’ve given up on being civil to another human being and demand their needs be met immediately.
It is astounding how many people call 911 because their order was allegedly wrong at a fast food place. Many parents are no longer parents or grandparents. They call the police to discipline their children. Not their adult children, their minor children. Apes are doing a better job raising offspring and behaving in a more civilized manner than many people going through their daily routine.
We’ve all had a rough couple of years. Our inconveniences pale in comparison to other countries. We are far ahead of most of the world in lower infection rates, death rates and higher in vaccination rates. There are over 100 countries that are in single digit percentages of their population getting one dose! We are very fortunate and very ungrateful.
We still act like spoiled children declaring our “freedoms.” Give yourself and everyone around you a break and relax, count to 10 and wait for whatever entitled thing isn’t coming to you fast enough.