Areas of Unrest

15 June 2008 - The Decline of Western Civilization

When Mahatma Gandhi was asked what he thought of Western civilization, he is alleged to have replied, "It would be a good idea." Inreasingly, I am convinced it is not going to happen. We have peaked, at least here in the United States, and things will only go downhill.

Part of my complaint is a function of the economy. Attention to the finer things in life requires a certain amount of spare money. People who are just scraping by rarely have the time to worry about the niceties. When food, transportation, and medical costs occupy everyone's energy, there isn't much left over for the arts. But basic human decency shouldn't suffer and seems to, as poorly paid and stressed out workers cut back on customer service.

But I am thinking as much of manners. On my flight back from Dallas today, the father in the row behind me made no, zero, nada, zip, nil effort to quiet his screaming child. Yes, I understand that children have poor self-control and that it's hard on him traveling with them and all. But he didn't even seem to acknowledge the screams of "Daddy, Daddy" which went on for well over an hour.

I've seen particularly egregious behavior on trains lately, from the teenager rinsing out her belly button piercing with saline on the Long Island Railroad a month or so ago (and acknowledging to her loud friends that it was a disgusting thing to do) to the woman on Amtrak last week who was playing a music device loudly without headphones. There was also the classic selfishness of the woman who boarded at Philadelphia, complaining about the delay and saying she should have taken the bus. "I like the bus," she said. "They make everyone keep their cell phones off and play movies." She then talked loudly on her cell phone all the way to Washington.

I have a lot of other ranting I could do on the subject. But what I really wish I had were solutions. The reaction to major disasters shows that people can pull together and behave appropriately towards one another. I'd like to think we could do that without crises.