What Ever Happened to Civility?

My supervisor relayed a story to us in a staff meeting that just made me question - what ever happened to civility?  He stated that recently he and his wife were at WalMart (not my favorite store under any circumstance), and after filling their basket went to the self-checkout stand.  They took their place behind a line of others waiting for the next spot to open.  Next thing he knew some character came from hell, where line jumping is the norm, went in front of the others in line taking a spot behind one of the self-checkout stands.  Others in the line told him to take his place at the end of the line - that's the purpose of the line!  Even my boss who was at the front of line by this time said something to guy, the guy just grunted at him and remained.  Nevertheless, when the stand opened, my supervisor - not a small man by any stretch of the imagination - scootched his way around the line-cutter from the metropolis of hell, and took the opened stand.  The line-cutter tried to make a stink, but - to no avail. It's not like anyone in line was going to stand up for "his rights!"  So in a huff he walked out of WalMart without paying for his item.  Smooth move, jack!  (Oh, wait, that should be jerk! The only Jack I know is a pretty great person!)  Well, that wasn't the end of it.  When my supervisor and his wife walked out of WalMart with their purchase the creodont line jumper thief pulled up along side them and threw a tumbler of liquid on him.  The rest of the story is non-important.

But this point is... why did this guy think it was okay to start the chain of events that led to his being a creep?  What made him think it was okay to pull up in front of a line of people and take his place at the next opened stand?  What made him think it was okay to blow off the remarks of the other patrons - ignoring them when they tried to tell him it wasn't okay to snake his way to the front of the line?  What made him think his time was more valuable or important than the patrons who did the right thing and stood patiently in line?  And then to walk out of the store without paying for his item(s)...AND... to throw something at the person who chose to show disapproval of the crescent's behavior in the store!!!  

WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO CIVILITY???

Where and when did it become tolerable for this type of behavior to even take place??  I can hear you all saying now - it's not tolerable - but isn't it??? Why is it that we normal everyday people put up with this type of behavior?  When and why did we start to tolerate this behavior? I'm not going to say things like "why can't it be like back in the 50's when we could keep our front screen doors open, or when kids could go outside and play in the front yard", but think about it;  WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO CIVILITY?

Think about this: walk down the street and see some young kid wearing pants pulled down to his hips, his whole back end showing... Why bother wearing pants??? Like I really wanted to see your ugly underwear with your streaks up the back-end (ok, maybe not that), but REALLY???  Yet, do I say anything to him?Nope, not me for fear that he might pull out a weapon and injure or even  kill me.  Then who wins in this situation?  Why do we tolerate this type of behavior? Some clown will want to say, "it's freedom of expression".  REALLY??  I can think of better ways to express your freedoms without them being offensive to me and the general population.  My freedom of expression might be to walk up behind him and pull his pants up - giving him a major wedgie!!!

Is that it, though?  Are we afraid of pointing out wrong because we're afraid of dangerous retaliation?  My boss stated that maybe it wasn't such a smart thing to do what he did because  - what if instead of liquid the creep pulled out a gun and shot wife or him?  Wow!! So then - what? Does he never confront an injustice or a wrong for fear of retaliation from the evil-doer?  Do we all just let it happen because this isn't our issue, or whatever the reason might be, and the creeps start taking over?  When does it finally stop?  Will we ever be civil again?

I don't remember much about the movie "Total Recall", but what I do remember is that Arnold S's (I don't want to look up and see how to spell his name correctly) character lived in a closed society that was totally shut off from the uglies and deforms of the world.  The outside society suffered from pollution, never seeing the sun, just total grossness, they were the dregs, the ones that the others from the more polite society wanted nothing to do with, much less have any contact.  The movie was a huge stretch of imagination and fiction, but think about it; is it impossible to think that we might end up with walled off societies where the unwanted can never enter?  Aren't we sort of at that point now - try getting into some exclusive areas of your local towns and communities.  Yet, couldn't we become more desperate? It's really not a far stretch - Australia was once a penal colony of England several centuries ago.  The idea was to get the convicts far away from polite society.  Is it getting to the point where the opposite needs to happen?  Or is it getting to the point where we start to say, ENOUGH ALREADY!!!

WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO CIVILITY????