What has happened to civility? Fisticuffs erupt on airline flights. Rowdy fans are booted from sporting arenas. Road rage turns violent. Classroom scuffles are no longer rare. Office behavior ruffles workers. Online bullying spirals out of control. Americans are seemingly seething with anger.
As personal conduct has cratered, the establishment blames our political divisions. Stop and think. America's politics are a reflection of its voters. Not the other way around. American history its replete with political nastiness. What's changed is the behavior of its citizens.
Another convenient scapegoat is the pandemic. Social scientists claim Americans were cooped up so long that it was inevitable that once we emerged from our masked cocoon we would forget our manners. This theory hardly explains the rudeness that pervades our society.
While we are dismissing excuses, quit faulting the frenetic pace of everyday living. Give me a break. Americans have never earned more, acquired more, spent more, traveled more, felt more entitled and indulged themselves more. Somehow we believe that previous generations never faced a lick of stress.
So let's dispense with any justification for incivility. There is no legitimate reason for disrespectful, aggressive, harassing behavior. At this point, you might be thinking, "Oh come on, some people have always acted up." You're right. But it has become all too common and too widespread.
When a flight attendant gets two teeth knocked out by a furious passenger, that does not reflect behavior even a decade ago. The Federal Aviation Administration documents that complaints about airline passenger misbehavior is at an all time high. And it's not improving.
Just a few weeks ago, a grown man yelled and threatened flight attendants because a baby was crying. Who gets enraged by an infant that cannot be soothed to your personal expectations? An angry individual. One who feels entitled to a flight cabin devoid of humans or at least little colicky ones.
Fan behavior at indoor and outdoor sporting events is turning uglier every day. People, almost exclusively men, spit on players, throw water bottle missiles at their heads or dump a beer on an unwary player. Assault and battery charges are a part of an increasing number of games.
Even company offices have evolved into dens of incivility. A Harvard study conducted over the past 14 years has documented a steady rise in disrespect. A total of 98% of workers reported experiencing harassment, rudeness, bullying and crude interactions. The work culture is toxic.
In a strange dichotomy, a recent survey found 62.3% of workers report they are satisfied with their jobs. Go figure.
Even neighbors get into ugly fights that escalate into violence. A San Antonio man accidentally dumped tree limbs in a neighbor's yard. A argument ensued and ended with a neighbor being stabbed. Once neighborhoods were safe harbors. Now ordinary disagreements detonate conflict.
By comparison, neighborhoods are less intimidating than schools. A recent report in Education Week counted more than 200,000 assaults by students against teachers in a two-year period. In the most recent, a middle schooler cursed and attacked his teacher after she confiscated his cell phone.
These are not isolated incidences. Such outbursts have been reported in schools across America. When youngsters feel emboldened to assault their teachers, there should be unholy outrage. It is an indictment of parenting and schools.
And college age students are not much better behaved. Speakers on campuses are hectored, shouted down and cursed for expressing viewpoints they consider offensive to their tender sensibilities. What's mystifying is this behavior is tolerated by administrations, which just invites more outrage.
Some experts link these spike in incivility at schools to the sewage known as social media. Study after study has for years documented the aggressive, disrespectful behavior and harassment on Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and Instagram. Youngsters rancor toward others online feeds anger offline.
Road rage has reached epidemic proportions. The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety released data that 80% of drivers "expressed significant anger, aggression or road rage" at least once during the previous 30 days. Road rages deaths have doubled in the last four years. What's fueling the rage?
Pent up fury is unleashed daily as human beings kill other humans. The media focuses on the instruments of death, failing to consider what roils a person to end the life of another. More often than not irrational hatred, resentment and revenge motivate the slaughter of innocents, including children.
It is evil by any other name. Yet society and the media sometimes paint the killers as victims.
Why doesn't society care more about this simmering violent temperament that percolates the lives of many Americans? It is a question that goes begging for answers and analysis. We can't keep blaming mental illness for every killing. What triggers a "normal" person to murder another?
The root cause for these madness is elusive and complex. There is no simple answer. But one thing is certain, there is no longer a fear of punishment. Young people and adults appear to be oblivious to the consequences of their actions. The perpetrators act first without regard for the ramifications.
We live in an era when shared values are tearing asunder. Society preaches personal values with no norm. Individualism trumps common societal behavioral expectations. Another person's values are of no concern to an increasing number of Americans. They consider their values more righteous.
Likewise, society renounces morality as a personal compass. Our secular world rejects moral guideposts because it suggests a religion or a God controls our lives. In fact, it is considered immoral to impose any morals on anyone. We each decide for ourselves what is moral and what is not.
Whatever your view on causes, we cannot ignore the alarm bells that our society is descending into chaos. America can no longer dismiss worsening civility as some phase that will pass. We need a national conversation about the breakdown of civility. It it has to start with us.
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