Friday, July 7, 2006
disagreeable people
Driving along the other day - where I often do my best musing - I had one of those "aha!" moments. I'd realized that the disagreeable, judgmental people of oh-so-long-ago seemed to have vanished into thin air. You know who I mean? The people who criticized everyone's hairdos and clothing, who told you you'd never have real friends unless you sat up straight and kept your knees together and dressed properly, who disparaged women over 30 who wore sleeveless dresses, who disapproved of short men dating tall women, who disapproved of practically everything unique and interesting, who totally disapproved of people of different races spending time together (let along dating or marrying), who thought gay people were beyond anathema, who had rules about how to speak, when to speak, what to say, what to wear, etc., etc., etc.? I was thinking that those people were pretty pathetic and probably leftovers from the first part of the (last) century and gone with the proverbial and blessed wind of change that flower children and love-ins wrought. I was feeling happy that human beings had become nicer and more tolerant. I was wondering what had become of my parents' friend who went to mass all the time and wore a rosary around her neck but talked hatefully about absolutely everyone.
And that's when my epiphany struck.
What I realized is that the naysayers and doom-and-gloom enjoyers and attackers of all political and social kinds . . . are the direct descendants (or even the same people) as the horrible people from fifty years ago. I guess the good news is that time marches on and things do change, but the bad news is that nasty people are still here and not much improved. Perhaps one of the benefits of the population explosion is that there are so many people of so many colors and personalities and shapes and sizes that conformists and those who hate eccentricity have simply lost physical ground. Yes, Virginia, good (greater acceptance) does come out of not-so-good (over population).
And that's when my epiphany struck.
What I realized is that the naysayers and doom-and-gloom enjoyers and attackers of all political and social kinds . . . are the direct descendants (or even the same people) as the horrible people from fifty years ago. I guess the good news is that time marches on and things do change, but the bad news is that nasty people are still here and not much improved. Perhaps one of the benefits of the population explosion is that there are so many people of so many colors and personalities and shapes and sizes that conformists and those who hate eccentricity have simply lost physical ground. Yes, Virginia, good (greater acceptance) does come out of not-so-good (over population).
Labels: hypocrisy, people, reflections
It's gone, but there's something else popping up in the same place. When I was a kid, my parents and neighbors good-naturedly ribbed each other about voting for Carter vs. Ford. Gut-chuckle type stuff. Their kids, the same ages now, voting in opposite directions, don't speak to each other and say hideously vile things about each other.
Another thing is smoking. You walked into someone's house, and maybe it smelled of cigarette smoke, maybe it didn't. Who cares? It was their house, not yours. Now, people pass judgment on it. I live in Cali, so when people here travel elsewhere, and go into a restaurant and see people smoking, it's always a novelty. It's not permitted here. The people you say have disappeared entirely, cannot have disappeared altogether.
There is a residual effect in the matter of raising children, I notice. You spend eight hours on the Play Station, I have no opinion; I put in twelve hours on my X-BOX, you will have no opinion; if either one of us lets our kids play for 45 minutes or so, EVERYONE will opine and the situation will not be pleasant. Once it comes to how the next-generation is being raised, or is about to be raised, the live-and-let-live stuff goes the way of a snowman beneath napalm.
Overall, I think it's somewhat healthy. People still want everybody else to do things the way they would want to have it done, but nowadays they have a somewhat clearer idea as to why they want it that way, what skin comes off their nose if it isn't done the way they want it done, and what they can do to affect the change. On the other hand, there's something new going on where if someone thinks I should be wearing a baseball cap backwards, and I don't, that someone and I can't be friends because I'm not "cool." That's new, for the most part, and I don't think it's good.
< home >