The Modern Decorum

I read an article yesterday which I found quite interesting. It was all about the new generation and how selfish we are becoming. The examples given were about the little things that I found that I too was guilty of. Like going to a hair salon when you have a cold to cheer yourself up without a thought that you might pass on the cold to someone else. Like cutting a queue in rush hour traffic. Like parking in a disabled spot. Like buying a gas guzzler because it looks good and not caring about the environment.

The article goes on to talk about how this pursuit of the material has become an epidemic amongst the new generation making it somewhat acceptable today, to be selfish and be envied for it. I am paraphrasing of course but what resonated in me was the author’s view that we have become short-sighted in our outlook. We fail to think about the consequences of our actions and how it affects others or even more sordid is those who are fully aware of the consequences but do not in any way care about it.

Ah… but like every interesting phenomenon of the bad traits of the human psyche, it is more sensational to talk about it but there is no real solution for it is there? For what it’s worth I am regurgitating it here for awareness but what then do we do about it? There is no policing selfishness and if I don’t even believe in policing religion then something as intangible as this should be even more so further down the list.

Another self-resolution for me perhaps? To be better? To think kinder of others? Because wouldn’t it be nice if people found the time to realize that a society as a whole needs to believe in an ideal for it to work. Sometimes I wish I was born in a different age. An age of top hats but frankly I don’t believe in the corsets. An age of respectability and sincerity. Because attentiveness and time are priceless attributes of any person and who wouldn’t want to be asked every single day a simple completely mundane question such as: How was your day?

Surely we are capable of at least that.