Is Common Courtesy Generational?

Recently, I found myself in the midst of a debate regarding how rude young people are today & totally disagree because I simply don't believe in making such sweeping generalizations. It seems to be more of an environmental thing, like what's polite to one person may be considered rude by another. The thing is, whenever I encounter such discussions, it's almost always some very self-centered, cranky old person bemoaning “these kids today”. I respect my elders, but also believe that people who don’t respect others don’t deserve respect in return for rudeness, regardless of age.


Sure some young folks think the world revolves around them & may be ignorant of manners but so are people of other ages. Maybe it’s just because we tend to have an older population in PA, so I encounter more senior citizens, but I find them to be generally worse than “the kids today”. While older folks are well aware of manners, many seem to believe age earns some sort of exemption from using them, as though advanced age is a pass to treat others poorly.

I have an older neighbor who constantly complains about "the kids" walking around with iPods or cells, oblivious to everything around them. This same woman will walk into the road without looking & just expects drivers to stop for her because she’s older. I’d take oblivious over selfish to the point of endangering public safety any day. One older fellow I know always has something to say about the rude youngsters who wait on you in stores & how they don’t say please or thank you. The thing is, this guy usually holds up a line for 10 minutes because he’s too busy gossiping to be prepared to do his business. Nobody’s is going to gush platitudes of thankfulness for your patronage when you make shopping interminable to the point that other customers walk out without buying anything because they’re so sick of waiting for you to shut your pie-hole & get a move on.

He insists he isn't rude because people "should respect their elders", period -- i.e., patiently waste their time simply because of his age. One neighbor in her 80’s constantly complains about the awful kids who sit on the bus, texting away. They’re too engrossed in their texting to look up & offer to give up their seat on a crowded bus. She’s always complaining about this yet the same woman will get on the bus with a bunch of packages & use 3 seats for her shopping bags. She believes that these selfish kids should stand so that she doesn’t have to put her packages on the dirty floor of the bus, under her seat. I’m a huge proponent of manners & believe we’ve really let them slide in modern society, to the detriment of us all. However, these gripes don’t seem to be reasonable in any way. They’re obvious cases of the rules are for everyone but me. We have way too much of that going on in this country. Before you condemn a stranger’s actions, please make sure that you didn’t do anything to deserve the treatment. It’s past time to bring back the golden rule & treat others the way you expect to be treated, no matter your age.