Common politeness and decency

A favorite neighbor and I were chatting this morning, as friends and neighbors do.  He and his wife embody America, as they and one of their sons work at a company founded by her grandfather.  Hardworking, family oriented, lovers of our great nation.

After talking baseball (we'd been to a game together on Sunday, in which our local team lost) and the inevitable politics, our discussion switched to events in our neighborhood, small town, and nation.  Specifically, people seeming to "go off" on one another for even the slightest of reasons.  

Why, we wondered aloud, is this happening more and more?

Recently another neighbor yelled and created a scene about something that could have been dealt with quietly and politely.  Sure, the underlying matter was an aggravation, as workmen were spewing concrete dust into the air, rather than using the right systems and procedures to control the contaminants.  Instead of calmly informing the workers, our neighbor just "went off," as the saying goes.

We then recounted other similar examples, including some that have made headlines.  People condemning and demanding of others, for a full spectrum of perceived slights.  Politeness and decency are becoming lost in this age of social media insults hurled without thought.  No longer are reason and courtesy the best approaches.

The ability of people to either grin and bear it or politely state their positions appear absent in our current divisive, hyper-charged environment fueled by inflammatory rhetoric from political candidates, activists, university professors, talk show hosts, and other cretins who are provided the proverbial electronic microphone by a compliant and biased media.

We are inundated by hate filled messaging.  And if hate isn't present, there are those intent on fomenting it.  Of course, the media is right there to fan the flames in order to sell more and get better ratings.  So it is no surprise, really, when example after example of folks losing it come to the surface.

From the road rage incident in which a woman runs over and kills a motorcyclist, to an argument at a ballgame that leads to a fight leaving a man permanently disabled, to the school child who attacks the teacher, our nation seems to be woefully off track.

Common politeness and decency are now the exceptions, rather than the (expected) norms.  Can it be traced to the proliferation of near perpetual election campaigning based upon the division born of identity politics?  Can it be traced to talk shows, radio, television, and social media stirring up problems in the name of pseudo-journalism?

I don't have any answers, but these two questions may point in the right direction.