Are we--as a society--getting ruder?

Having worked many customer service jobs in my life, I have experience common civility seemingly going by the wayside. Sometimes it's a class thing...they feel they are ABOVE you and are therefore entitled to treat you like shit. Sometimes over the phone or online, there is a degree of anonymity that gives people the opportunity to be a total asshole without fear of reprisal. It used to be that older people automatically garnered a level of respect simply because they had seem more of life and had (likely) acquired wisdom that would be valuable if they shared it with you. Snarkiness and backstabbing seems universal to every workplace. There seems to be a consistent mindset of tearing those you perceive to be more successful than yourself to being them down to your level (i.e. gossip magazines and tabloids).

A couple of "newsworthy" events have happened recently to spark this mini-rant.  The first is Kayne West interrupting an award presentation to complain about the results. Now I have never heard a Kanye West "song"--nor do I believe MTV has really had anything to do with music since the early 90's...but Kayne seems to be an extremely popular musician and is undoubtedly an influential person in the realm of pop culture. I hate to sound like an old fuddy-duddy, but this type of behavior isn't exactly the kind you want to see your kids emulate. When events don't unfold as you wish, it doesn't give you license to ruin the moment for someone else.

Now while the aforementioned story might be considered trivial in the whole scheme of things, this one is a bit more disturbing: Rep. Joe Wilson's heckling of President Obama during his House Chamber address. Regardless of whether you subscribe to their political ideology, I think most of us agree that the individual holding the office of the presidency does deserve a measure of respect--especially by a fellow elected official. There are constructive and productive ways to voice your dissent in our government; yelling at the president and calling him a liar is not one of them! Not only has Mr. Wilson embarrassed himself, his constituents and his entire state, the whole thing reflects badly on our government as a whole. I'm sure everyone has seen video of fist-fights and chair throwing brouhahas between elected representatives from other backwater countries. I believe America prides itself in having a free and civilized governmental process that is steeped in decorum and respect. These are the kinds of qualities that separate us from the animals.

And you know, Bush lied about pretty much everything during his 8 years, and I don't recall a single instance of him getting razzed like a bombing stand-up comic (not that he didn't deserve it).

I've heard the theory floated on occasion that the neocon's deep disrespect for Obama stems from racial hatred...and initially I was skeptical about this. I live in a very progressive city that is very accepting of minorities. You don't typical see outward and overt racist behavior. It's interesting seem Obama labeled everything from a fascist to a communist to a Marxist. Although these terms are all used interchangeably, they are quite contradictory to one another. It is clear they the people using these terms don't understand what they mean and are just trying to attach negative connotations to Obama's name. Perhaps because the term "nigger" is no longer socially acceptable, they are trying to find another "evil" term to attach to him to make him appear subhuman.