Grass Greener, People Meaner?

March 30, 2004 11:17 AM

While the world has been “getting greener” during the past 25 yrs, human courtesy and civility have been “changing for the worse.”
posted by mcgraw (8 comments total)

Here's a more legible version of that 2nd article.
posted by mcgraw at 11:23 AM on March 30, 2004

I lament the coursening of our society that the 2nd article alludes to -- on a personal level, the mother of our grandchild, in her mid-twenties, is about to get married (not to the baby's father, my stepson) - she seems to have no sense whatsover of the common courtesy of responding to her wedding showers with immediate thank you notes, and lived with us for 9 months, rent and board free, without once offering to wash the dishes without being asked. My step-son is an almost complete alcoholic loss, who seems to have no problem parasitically sponging off of anyone & blaming others for his problems/failures. Believe me it's not from lack of trying to raise them "right." Perhaps this lack of personal honor & integrity is endemic.
posted by Pressed Rat at 11:42 AM on March 30, 2004

I'll buy a general decline in civility, since we seem to have some (informal) evidence for it. I have trouble blaming it on MP3 players and cell phones, though.
posted by nickmark at 11:57 AM on March 30, 2004

KIDS THESE DAYS THEY JUST DON'T HAVE ANY RESPECT.

Whatever. People have been saying this since language existed, and they'd've said it before if they could.
posted by kavasa at 12:49 PM on March 30, 2004

kavasa--- A cogent exposition - get a job.
posted by Pressed Rat at 1:08 PM on March 30, 2004

Back in the days when people "respected their elders" their elders were respectable.
posted by pyramid termite at 1:32 PM on March 30, 2004

Hrm. The idea that the internet has led to "lack of communication" strikes me as especially specious. Personally, I blame Bush.
posted by mr_roboto at 5:05 PM on March 30, 2004

This is true even on Metafilter.
posted by Slagman at 11:03 PM on March 30, 2004