I don’t know why, but I find myself very agitated lately. Maybe it’s due to world events. Maybe it’s just the change in the seasons. Maybe because I’m preparing for my yearly flogging, otherwise known as the Defense Language Proficiency Test. Or—and hear me out now—maybe it’s because I sometimes feel like I’m completely surrounded by idiots! Let’s go with that for a moment.
Now, I try not to judge people too harshly, I really do. I try to bear in mind that I don’t know their circumstances or what happened in their life just before I encountered them. I try so hard to be objective and think how I might have handled the situation differently. And yet, every single time I encounter a grocery cart abandoned in a parking lot, I lose a bit more of what very little faith in humanity I have left!
No, I’m serious. There aren’t really a lot of things that will make me assume you’re less worthy of society than to not return your shopping cart to where it belongs when done using it. These people—and you know who you are—essentially proclaim to the world, “My life and my time are simply more important than anything else in this world!”—apparently to include the cost of repairing any damage that loose cart might cause to the finish on someone else’s car! I . . . me . . . mine . . . this is the repetitive chant of the narcissist and, frankly, I’m sick of it. Am I really alone in this? Somehow, I doubt it.
Self-restraint and, to a certain degree, self-discipline, remain key ingredients for large numbers of people to be able to cohabitate peacefully. We have laws and rules for that very reason. And yet we also have those unwritten rules which everyone understands are necessary for society to function. People who lack awareness of—or willingness to follow—those commonsense rules, are generally looked down upon, and for a good reason. By their actions they consistently place themselves and their own petty desires above the good of their communities.
Now, before anyone reads too much into this, I’ll caveat this rant—is that a thing?—by saying that not all societal norms and rules are necessarily positive or constructive. Yet can anyone . . . ANYONE . . . tell me why, for the love of all that’s holy . . . someone can’t spare the thirty seconds or so in their super busy day to return their cart to the store or nearby corral?!? It boggles my mind and immediately causes me to think poorly of you. Truthfully, I immediately assume you’re a narcissistic, self-serving, idiot of the type that seems increasingly bold these days in asserting their imagined self-importance.
And very little that happens afterward is likely to alter that perception. After all, if you can’t be trusted with the little things, how can I ever trust you with more important ones?
That’s it . . . rant complete . . . let me get back to my studies <sigh> . . .
M. G. Haynes