What’s Wrong with People
I am not writing this to say that I am some kind of saint, nor am I a complete jerk, but I do believe that I have a pretty good judge of character. From what I have observed in my number of years on the Earth is that there has been general disrespect among the people. Last night I went to an NCAA men’s basketball game. I am not naïve as to how people behave at a sporting event, especially when someone’s mind is altered by an introduced substance. However, being a home team fan, I was embarrassed by the behaviors of my own student body. There are ways that you can be effective as a fan and yelling slurs and flipping the bird just isn’t one of them. I think that it would be far more effective to have an educated comeback or dig that requires the opposing team to think about what you said and have a deeper meaning than to just yell you, “You fuckin’ suck!”
I was 20 years old at one time and I’m am sure at some point they will return and realize how they were out of line at the time. However, I think that it’s a deeper issue that needs to be addressed. Were they taught to act out this way? Were they allowed to just run amuck and do whatever they want? What I am finding in the world today is that people aren’t being held accountable for their behaviors. We’ve become soft and perhaps lazy. When society coins the term, although old now, “I did it for the Vine” (referring to a social media platform), and now how to be social media royalty, I feel as though we’re encouraging this behavior. This only contributes the need to one-up the last person and snowballs into a perpetual cycle that gets people caught up in the “one-upmanship” and when the dust clears, the original intent of having a good time results in something serious which they need to be held accountable for. This generally leaves the person having fun in a whole heap of trouble which they had no intention of getting into and are looking to increase their legacy by knowing someone who can get them out of the sticky situation.
Now, I know that I don’t have the answers, but whatever happened to turn the cheek and treating others the way that you want to be treated? The second half of the story at the men’s basketball game was that the reaction to being yelled at by the home crowd was for the visiting player to mouth back, “shut-up, you’re fat.” Additionally, at the final buzzer, he tossed his towel towards the fan who had been heckling him, as he and his team vacated the court. Meanwhile, the coach watched this and refrained from any discipline. Who knows, maybe there was a conversation in the locker room, but that’s highly doubtful.
Maybe I’m crazy and am not as sensitive as I should be, allowing people to express their feelings. I tend to be a little old-fashioned when it comes to discipline. I am not taking sides in the situation that I witnessed at the basketball game. I feel that both parties involved acted out poorly. That is just one example of the many things that are ruining the world.
Being held accountable for your actions is what is lacking in the world. If there is no accountability, then we just developing learned behaviors that are being understood as being OK, and that is not OK.
