Musings about life through the eyes of an old helicopter pilot.
07 February 2011
Civility-
Aren't we all seeing a lot more ofthis sort of behavior? The comments there are worth reading and I agree with BZ... In the future we're gonna see more of it, and worse.
This happened to me in reverse yesterday. I was headed into a business and an older gentleman got there at nearly the same time. I took a couple of quick steps to get to the door before him and snatched it open. He seemed caught off guard and stopped to stare when I stood there holding the door for him instead of rushing in. It's a habit for me. I'll occasionally wait 30 or 40 seconds beside a door if an older woman is approaching just so I can open the door for her.
"For some reason, the [American] people I meet in my country are not the same as the ones I knew in the United States. A mysterious change seems to come over Americans when they go to a foreign land. They isolate themselves socially. They live pretentiously. They're loud and ostentatious." - The Ugly American by Eugene Burdick and William Lederer.
I, too agree with BZ. And I'll add that the problem with society today is not the decrease in civility...it's the increase in tolerance. We tolerate people being rude, pushing in front of us, pushing in front of others, and there are precious few of us left who are real men that are still willing to administer an ass-whipping when necessary. Everyone is too scared of going to jail.
Not me.
Not long ago I got up to give my seat to a gal and one of those "young punks" practically dove into the seat before she could accept my offer. After a momentary argument I extracted him by force. The officer who ended up at the scene later concluded his investigation by shaking my hand. Young punk was sternly lectured and nearly went to jail. The officer convinced him to drop any thought of reporting a "simple assault" offense.
Of course, being former LEO lends more than average confidence to my attitude in such circumstances, but I'd like to think I'd be just as "intolerant" if I had never been a cop.
Actually, after living among Chinese for several years now, this really doesn't surprise me at all. Their culture is nothing like ours They live in countries that are so crowded, they walk in the short shuffling steps for lack of room. Pushing the person in front all the while. To them, this isn't rude. They live with a different mindset, cold, rude, and money is more important the anything. The kids are expected to support their parents before they are even retirement age. I have some hair raising stories I have experienced while living here. Many other Asians, like the Japanese, on the average,I have found very nice, polite and very giving. They are careful to not bring shame on the family. There are other Asian people visiting here that I have also found very nice and will actually come up and talk with us to practice their English. I have talked with people from the English speaking areas of China and they just roll their eyes at the behavior. I guess it is what you are used to. Americans are given the moniker of being loud and rude while overseas on vacation, when we know, it is only a small amount of Americans that do act that way.
6 comments:
This happened to me in reverse yesterday. I was headed into a business and an older gentleman got there at nearly the same time. I took a couple of quick steps to get to the door before him and snatched it open. He seemed caught off guard and stopped to stare when I stood there holding the door for him instead of rushing in. It's a habit for me. I'll occasionally wait 30 or 40 seconds beside a door if an older woman is approaching just so I can open the door for her.
"For some reason, the [American] people I meet in my country are not the same as the ones I knew in the United States. A mysterious change seems to come over Americans when they go to a foreign land. They isolate themselves socially. They live pretentiously. They're loud and ostentatious." - The Ugly American by Eugene Burdick and William Lederer.
I think it's comes down to lousy parenting.
I, too agree with BZ. And I'll add that the problem with society today is not the decrease in civility...it's the increase in tolerance. We tolerate people being rude, pushing in front of us, pushing in front of others, and there are precious few of us left who are real men that are still willing to administer an ass-whipping when necessary. Everyone is too scared of going to jail.
Not me.
Not long ago I got up to give my seat to a gal and one of those "young punks" practically dove into the seat before she could accept my offer. After a momentary argument I extracted him by force. The officer who ended up at the scene later concluded his investigation by shaking my hand. Young punk was sternly lectured and nearly went to jail. The officer convinced him to drop any thought of reporting a "simple assault" offense.
Of course, being former LEO lends more than average confidence to my attitude in such circumstances, but I'd like to think I'd be just as "intolerant" if I had never been a cop.
Thanks for the link, and I'm GLAD there are still some good people left out there!
Actually, after living among Chinese for several years now, this really doesn't surprise me at all.
Their culture is nothing like ours
They live in countries that are so crowded, they walk in the short shuffling steps for lack of room. Pushing the person in front all the while. To them, this isn't rude.
They live with a different mindset, cold, rude, and money is more important the anything. The kids are expected to support their parents before they are even retirement age. I have some hair raising stories I have experienced while living here.
Many other Asians, like the Japanese, on the average,I have found very nice, polite and very giving. They are careful to not bring shame on the family. There are other Asian people visiting here that I have also found very nice and will actually come up and talk with us to practice their English.
I have talked with people from the English speaking areas of China and they just roll their eyes at the behavior.
I guess it is what you are used to.
Americans are given the moniker of being loud and rude while overseas on vacation, when we know, it is only a small amount of Americans that do act that way.
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