by Rose Spotts

Created on: September 07, 2008

Everything evolves and that evolution depends upon the environment. When you live an overcrowded world, where the daily stresses seem to get worse as time goes on, the economy is bad, jobs are hard to come by and many people can't seem to get what they need, you can't expect everyone to be happy and smiling all of the time.

What may have been seen as rude a few years ago, is now common place. Out of the frustrations of daily life, we seem to have adopted a common cynicism or anger that at times is almost normal. It's a fast paced world and people are always on the go and face it, if you're too nice, you get walked all over and pushed aside. Sometimes a level of "rudeness" is necessary to get your point across or to get the job done. This is not to say that being rude is acceptable, but simply that what we once deemed as rude, is now almost commonplace as a form of assertiveness in an intensely busy world.

Of course there is rudeness that is unacceptable. Taking your frustrations out on others is never ok. Our movies are rude, our music is rude and our tv shows are rude. The youth of today seem all the more cockier to those of who grew up being taught to say "please" and "thank you". This is another example. While we are in a busy world, there is no reason why we can't still say these words and try a little politeness every once in a while. Here is the problem with that though: when does it become fake? And is fake polite more acceptable than honest rudeness? This is tough. When we say "please" and "thank you" these days, many times we say it just because we are taught to say it and we aren't sincere. When we are rude, how often is that not honestly sincere? Think about it.

We need to face it, with the fast paced society we live in which is only getting busier and more frustrated every day, we aren't going to get any nicer. What we can do, however, is learn to recognize when we choose to be rude and when we choose to be polite. Just because we are busy and we feel pressed for time or we are angry at something in our own lives, we can think a little bit more about when we choose to act out. Just like you, those you encounter are busy and just as frustrated with their own lives...and how we choose to talk to them can make a big difference in how well someone's day goes in the end. It can also make a huge difference in our own lives.

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