I want to start this post out by telling a little story. If you are heading north on interstate 75 in Michigan, just a little past mile marker 179 you will see a barn on the right hand side of the road. Up until about a week ago, that barn used to boast in large green letters "Pinni Mini Farms" or something similar to that.
Now, the barn is simply white or green (I'm really not sure), due to the business receiving a letter from the township telling them that their sign was in violation of a township ordinance. As you might imagine, social media has blown up with people outraged that the township would make them paint over the sign.
Township board members who likely weren't even around when the ordinance was established are getting personally attacked on Facebook and other similar forums. As they say, "opinions are like assholes, everybody has one". Outrage aside (warranted or not), all of this could have been easily avoided if the business had just filed the for the permit and kept their sign within the regulations.
Instead of this being a whole local scandal, it could have been a "my bad" moment where everyone moves on.
Trust me, I know there are a lot of really stupid laws out there. The fact that in New Orleans it is against the law to gargle in public is proof of that. However, what this really brings to light for me is the fact that people seem to prefer anarchy over order. At the very least they are leaning more towards hedonism these days than anything else.
Let me share another story with you...
I already mentioned that this past weekend my wife and I got up on Saturday morning and went to play a round of disc golf at a local course. We got home around 10 AM and I decided to mow the lawn. A visitor showed up to our neighbors house and pulled a cooler out of his car. As I was making a pass with the mower he offered me a beer. "Thanks, but I'm good right now (It's not even noon yet!).
The drinking in general doesn't bug me, but you know how people can get when they start drinking (been there done that). More and more people started showing up because "football", and before we knew it there was a full blown party next door from 10 AM to about 2 AM the next morning.
It wasn't a really big deal, but it did make it a bit hard to sit out on our deck with all the comotion happening next door. To be fair, the majority of the commotion was just our neighbor. He's loud. Everything he does is loud. It's like he shouts everything he says. On top of that he drops the F bomb every other word. Now, I'm personally a big fan of the F word, but I guess even I have my limits.
So football gets over with for Saturday, everyone heads to bed, no big deal. Then come Sunday morning, bright and early at 10 AM, things start back up. @mrsbozz had really been looking forward to sitting out on the deck some more on Sunday, but alas, it just wasn't possible. I can't really blame them, the weather was beautiful, and they weren't necessarily doing anything against the law, but I personally still believe there is such a thing as common courtesy.
Here's my point. I've seen instances like this countless times where people decided to share their frustration on Facebook. People usually fall into about three camps. One group will share the original posters frustration and tell them to call the cops. The problem is, if the neighbor finds out it was you, you are in for years of even more frustration.
The second group will tell the original poster to go talk to the neighbor, which on the surface seems like the most mature choice. The problem is we all know how entitled people feel these days. As I said, hedonism and anarchy seems to be the norm. It's more likely the neighbors will escalate their revelry to even higher levels.
Finally, there is the third group who call people Karens, boomers, or prudes and tell them to get a life, crack a beer, and join the party.
Trust me, twenty years ago, I might have been in a spot where I went over and joined in (no, I was antisocial back then too), but in what world is it too much to ask for a nice relaxing evening on my deck. Perhaps the problem is me and I should just go live off the grid somewhere, but I can't help but think this is indicative of a overall shift away from reason, courtesy, and general decency.
As I said, my initial thought was that people simply prefer anarchy over order, but as I think about it more, it seems the reasons are much more selfish. Has the majority of the world regressed to the mindset of a toddler where they think they should be able to do whatever they want whenever they want because it makes them happy?
For me, it seems to always come back to respect. Do you respect the rules, do you respect your neighbors right to a quiet evening on the deck, fill in the blank. The current state of the world would seem to indicate that respect is a fading concept, not even something you can earn, just an artifact of a more refined society...
My Sports Account - @bozz.sports
All pictures/screenshots taken by myself or @mrsbozz unless otherwise sourced