My friend opined that people are not as civil as a few decades back. He cited political meetings and audience comments he has seen or heard about where it seemed people, often men but not always, lost their temper, verbally or otherwise attacked others and generally behaved badly. When I hear about deliberative parliamentary bodies such as legislatures in the U.S. in the 1800's having fights break out where sticks and even pistols were used, I have my doubts that we have achieved new lows. However, we may have.
It occurs to me that maybe there is a more or less new stressor working on people but that it is a general and rather diffuse one. What I have in mind relates to news, not so much media manipulation as simple basic news. Our communication systems are widespread enough, fast enough and graphic enough that mangled bodies hit by a giant tsunami, blown apart by bombs or gas explosions or burned fatally are made known to us almost as the disaster hits. I think I can hear a sort of desperation in some voices that relates to a generalized but pervasive fear of what bad event will strike tonight or tomorrow. Given that there is so much we hear of that we don't understand, so much that changes dramatically by the hour and changes in unprecedented ways, it seems quite possible to worry.
I have read repeatedly that being in pain all the time can have an effect on personality. Being worried, anxious, almost subconsciously terrorized by unnamed and unacknowledged threats and dangers seems equally potent as an eroder of good spirits, patience and civility. Of course, terrorist bombs and earthquakes can produce frightening, even haunting images. Each act, even those that don't succeed, each quake, even those that are remote or weak and don't damage, can produce scares, bad dreams.
But I suspect that other ideas and phrases can also upset people. Take "spider's silk from goat's milk" that is reportedly being worked on by geneticists and other scientists. One only has to hear about such weirdness and one can wonder and then worry about "what the world is coming to."
It is easy to forget that the 'world' is a very general term and may refer to our normal locations or our planet or solar system or galaxy or the universe. Many of our speech patterns relate to earlier times when knowledge about where we are and what is around us was much murkier. In times of lost or diminished religious or supernatural faith, it is easy to jump to the conclusion that the sky is falling or "it's all over".
I will try to be more tolerant of some outbursts since I suspect that some bad manners or worse stem from carrying an insupportable load of dread.
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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety
