Sunday, November 22, 2015

My Rant on Apathy in Today's Society

I know there are a lot of things going on in today’s world that have a great deal more significance on the world stage, but the small things here can lead to greater apathy for the other issues out there. This post will only focus on these small things, where all the apathy begins.
Have you noticed how people, in their everyday lives and routines, seem to have become apathetic to the existence of other people with whom they come into contact with?
How many times have you seen people parking on the wrong side of the street? They had to drive on the oncoming traffic side of the road to park in that space on the left side of the road. They seem to be ignorant not only to the laws that prohibit parking on the wrong side of the street (against the flow of traffic) but also the common sense of why they shouldn’t park on the wrong side of the street. When you learned to drive, you were taught to stay to the right, but for some reason you now choose to disregard that training. And for those parents who park on the wrong side of the street and then load or unload their children on the traffic side of the vehicle…what are you thinking?
When you walk down the sidewalk, hallway at work, store isle, etc., just as if you were driving, you used to stay to the right side. Now you have to dodge people who choose to stay to their left, in direct conflict with you traveling in the opposite direction. You either have to swerve to avoid them or collide with them. Especially irritating are those who cut across the walkway to turn in front of you forcing you to take evasive action or collide with them. Whatever happened to waiting for the oncoming traffic to pass before making your turn?
Is there some reason you really feel it is okay to drive a half block the wrong direction on a one way street rather than go around the block in the safe direction?
Kitchenettes in the work place are another place of great concern. How many of you have gone into the kitchenette only to see spills left on the counters and floors, food scraps left in the sink, or dirty dishes left behind. Why do these people leave their mess for others to clean up?
Bathrooms? Don’t even get me started! Okay, I’m going there anyway. First of all, flush your mess. If it is the kind of toilet that flushes automatically after you get up, turn around and make sure it flushes everything. If it doesn’t, there is usually a button on the side that you can flush it again to make sure everything gets flushed. If you leave a mess, someone else has to deal with it. Do you like it when someone leaves you a mess that you have to deal with? Of course you usually come across such a mess when you least need to have to take the time to clean up first before you can take care of business. If you are a male and you are just peeing, why do you have to show how bad your aim is with the seat down, effectively watering the seat with your urine? If you don’t want to touch a possibly dirty seat to lift it up then grab a little piece of toilet paper to touch the seat with to lift it up. And then you have the person who needs to grab multiple paper towels just to dab their hands with once or twice before throwing them away. Do you really need to use more than one? Have you thoroughly soaked the first towel before grabbing a second or third? I contest if you need to use more than one, you aren’t doing it right. Most of the water can be left in the sink before reaching that first paper towel. Once you have finished with it, ball it up in a small wad before throwing it into the trash receptacle. That way there is room for a lot more in the receptacle. When you just toss it in the general direction of the receptacle it isn’t entirely flat, causing huge air pockets in between layers of towels, causing the pile to build up faster and quickly overflow onto the floor for someone else to pick up after you.
Your lack of respect for others around you is disturbing. You are not the only person on the planet, start acting like it.