I'm seeing more signs like this in shops and drive throughs around Perth, and it makes me very sad. Why do people need a reminder to be nice and treat others with respect? What really chills me is imagining what some customer service employees have been subjected to. What events have transpired to motivate management to make and display a sign to tell (potential) customers to mind their manners?
Are we becoming angrier or less patient as a society? Is technology to blame? Are we becoming accustomed to some processes of daily life taking less time and expecting other areas to follow suit? The world is in a fair bit of turmoil at the moment, and I have no doubt that COVID-19 with its restrictions, border closures and deaths are making many feel stressed and anxious about the future. However, feeling stressed is not a license to take out your frustrations on the next person you interact with. The strife and chaos in headlines at home and around the world are enough to fill the average person with dread and anger. The sexual abuse of women in Parliament House, Aboriginal deaths in custody, people struggling to find housing, the senseless killing of George Floyd, the bungled COVID-19 vaccination roll-out in Australia, the devastation of Kalbarri by Cyclone Seroja, the rising instances of domestic violence, to name but a few. While watching the news, I think I usually let out at least one audible 'far out' during a viewing. There's an anger, and also a sense of fear, that is permeating through more and more people.
I was shocked, but not entirely surprised, with the incredibly high amount of shootings in the US recently. Over 20 separate incidents across the country in the last month or so. That's a very scary statistic. Americans must be scared to leave their house! I know I would be! It would be so hard to send your children to school.
But, on a local unarmed front, why are more people letting fly at those trying to serve them? Why was there a need for the 'No One Deserves a Serve' ads around Christmas time? Having worked in retail in the past, I know that customers can be fickle or difficult, but I don't think I ever got abused. Christmas can be a stressful time of year for many people, and getting everything sorted for the holiday period seems to bring out the worst in some. We all get frustrated when things don't go the way we hope or plan, but what makes someone throw manners and courtesy to the side and just let spray. No consideration for the other person's feelings (or in extreme cases, well-being). No care if the person they're addressing is personally responsible for the issue or not. No concern of who sees them blow their stack.
What goes through someone's brain to think it's okay to unload all their frustrations onto a complete stranger? Is it the lack of ramification? Knowing that there will be minimal consequences, while hiding behind 'the customer is always right'? Maybe my past as a retail worker makes me more empathetic towards people in customer service. I hate seeing people being rude to those that are employed to serve them. Those who feel some are beneath them. It's horrible to see that contempt. There's an old saying that you can judge a person's character by how they treat others who can't do anything for them. Or something like that.
Another disturbing trend of late is bagging out movies or TV shows that aren't exactly what fans expect. Or abusing actors online because they don't like what their character is doing in their favourite program. Sometimes the fact that the character even exists is an affront to the person with the issue. Or chewing out directors or writer or producers for 'ruining their childhood' with the latest offering of a franchise. I totally understand being disappointed by a film or an episode of something, and I have myself expressed those feelings online. However, I've never targeted a particular individual and subjected them to various outpourings of venom and vitriol.
One fairly recent example of this was what was happening to Wyatt Russell, who starred in Disney+'s recent The Falcon and the Winter Soldier streaming TV series. He portrayed the role of John Walker, the new Captain America. Rather than separate the person from the character, Russell himself received death threats and his social media accounts were being bullied. Russell is not actually on those platforms, and it was the fake accounts that were inadvertently being targeted.
Apparently, Russell has taken these barbs in his stride, enjoying the fact that people have hated Walker (or 'fake Captain America') as much as they have. That was the point. You weren't supposed to like him. Russell's so good at his craft that he made people angry at him. But it's a TV show! It's not real! What makes someone go, 'Dang, I hate this character! I'm going to abuse the actor bringing it to life'. I was horrified when I learnt what some 'fans' of Star Wars did to Kelly Marie Tran, who played Rose in Episode VIII - The Last Jedi. Such was the abuse she was subjected to, she deleted her Instagram posts and left social media entirely. Not only did they criticise the character, some felt compelled to attack the actor's performance, and others made comments of a personal nature. Who wants to be exposed to horrible racial trolling on a daily basis? No one.
In the age we live in, it's so much easier to interact with celebrities, and in some cases, that's not a good thing. For all the lovely messages of support and encouragement famous people receive on social media, there's almost certainly a percentage of nasty and toxic ones.
I don't have any solutions or answers to the questions I've posed, but I felt like expressing my feelings. We're all in this thing together, and no one is getting out of here alive. So, while we're sharing the planet with one another, let's remember our manners. Let's think of other people. I had the hypothetical idea a while ago that The Meaning Of Life was to learn to live together in harmony. It costs nothing to be polite or civil. No one really knows what is going on in someone else's life, particularly a stranger's.
Be kind. That's it.
I'll leave the final words of this post to the frontman of The Church, Mr Steve Kilbey. In a recent interview with X-Press Magazine he expressed regret at his actions as a younger musician, feeling that being aloof and difficult was the wrong way to handle success. "It was a mistake. I should have been a nicer person all along. Being a nice person is the best thing in life and I didn’t understand that."
Nuff said.
