Do you ever despair at the apparent lack of regard for the "social contract" by so many?
In this case, I'm referring to the notion that we all make minor sacrifices in our daily interactions in service of a "greater good" for everyone.
"Following the rules" would be a simplified version of what I'm talking about, I suppose. But also keeping an awareness/attitude about "How will my choices affect the people around me in this moment? "Common courtesy", "situational awareness", etc...
I don't know that it's a "new" phenomenon by any means, I just seem to have an increasing (subjective) awareness of it's decline of late.
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I don't know that I'd call it 'apparent'.
My interactions with people in my life are, by and large, very decent. Social media amplifies the bad actors and makes the problematic things seem more widespread than they are, but in fact, it's just an algorithm grabbing the same content you've had your eyeballs on consistently and feeding you more of it. That creates the illusion that the problem you're hearing about is worse than it may be.
I will say, though, that I've become more of a fan of massive retaliation when I do run into people who lack basic politeness. If I'm in the gym and someone's playing music on speakerphone, I will work out near them and turn on the loudest metal track in my playlist at full volume. I keep a stick of gel deodorant in my car to use on the door handles of people who park rudely, and if someone is speaking to another person rudely in my presence I always say something. I try not to answer rudeness for rudeness to a person's face, because just asking "Why would you speak to someone that way?" is usually more effective for defusing people than escalating aggression. (But you get my drift)
Wow the idea of just asking questions to prompt empathy is really appealing to me.
I've found it to be a pretty good tactic, myself. When people are angry they're not really thinking things through, and a neutral third party interrupting that off-the-rails thought process can help them consider what they're doing.
The hero we don't deserve but need. Continue your deeds.
I also like to politely remember people that they accidentally dropped something when they litter
Unfortunately getting told to have dropped something seems to cause spontaneous deafness in a lot of people... 😞
I have been known to helpfully retrieve it for them with a “here you go, you dropped this.”