One of my pet hates is rudeness, to me it is totally unnecessary but as time goes on I am finding more and more that people just don’t care about being polite or friendly or even acknowledging the fact that you have done something for them.
I have found that recently the courtesy of flashing your lights or raising a hand in a small gesture when someone pulls in behind a parked car to let you through is on the decline. Instead, all you get is the stare ahead as you look to them for some kind of thank you. While this is annoying and frustrating it can, to a certain extent, be forgiven. I am sure I have been miles away concentrating on the road ahead or running the days events through my mind while on auto pilot home and have forgotten to tell someone that I appreciate their gesture.
What cannot be forgiven is the blatant rudeness you get from certain members of the population.
In recent months I have made a conscious decision to avoid one of the local towns for this very reason. The last time I went to Walsall I was appalled at the way people behave. To me it is unacceptable. I have always tried to be quite considerate to others and will normally hold open a door to allow someone to enter a room or store before me or if I have used the door I will look behind me to see if anyone else is following and just expect a word or two from them. In Walsall town centre these words are seemingly redundant. I held a door open for a family of about 5 people including a pushchair and not only did I not get a thank you from any of the family but I was completely ignored, they didn’t even look at me.
Just a few minutes later I was in a shop trying to get out and a small group of people had just gathered outside the door and felt that this was a great location to stand and chat. Again, my presence was not even noticed and nobody in the group said sorry or deemed to move out of the way even slightly.
A few years ago I took my cousin on a night out in Walsall and he is generally a very lively guy who talks to everyone. After a few hours out we decided that a few beers and a bit of TV at home was a better prospect than being out in a town where nobody wants to talk to you. We still class this as the worst night out we have ever had and since then I can only say that things seem to have got worse in this particular town.
I think supermarkets are by far the worst places for rudeness. Here you get a combination of the general rudeness along side the tunnel vision of people on a mission and the stupidity of people just not thinking that having your trolley pointing at the opposite shelves while looking at the baked beans is blocking the whole of the aisle or stopping right opposite another persons trolley is, again blocking the whole aisle. I have been told off by my wife on numerous occasions for speaking out loud about how rude some people are and adding comments such as “ Or you could just ignore me” after asking someone to “Excuse me please”…
Even after running the gauntlet of supermarket shopping the game is still not over. Many times I have walked out of the supermarket door to find people standing right at the top of the “Down” escalator just staring into space, oblivious to the fact that people actually need to use this to exit the store.
Ironically rudeness breeds rudeness, when people treat you like this it puts you in a bad mood and your own manners go out of the window. It is the classic case of one bad apple ruining the whole barrel.
No comments:
Post a Comment