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What’s The Empowering Power of Being Polite?
It costs us dearly to be rude and nothing to be polite.
When did people become so impolite? What happened that, as a society, we accepted rudeness, inconsiderate people, and selfishness to be the norm?
Look at modern American politics if you want a truly ugly, blatant example. Where once polite discourse took place, now it’s frequently rude, uncivilized, and outright disturbing arguments. It’s become acceptable to be impolite and outright hostile towards the opposition (and anyone else who stands contrary to you).
No, I’m not naïve, I know that it’s always been this way. However, it was much subtler in the past and not so blatant. When your leaders can openly mock people, and it gets laughed at rather than taken as a sign of their childish rudeness, what have you got? But I digress.
Walking through the grocery store, I’m frequently stunned by how many people just cut me off, stop in the dead center of a busy aisle for no good reason, give me dirty looks when I say excuse me, and let their children just run about without a care. The more I think about this, the more I wonder. When did this become okay?
Realistically, that doesn’t matter. I can’t change how other people act, and I can’t make people pay attention to the world around…
