Older and Cynical?

glassfullIs it just something that goes hand and hand? I find, as the years go by, that I am getting more and more cynical. I used to be the “glass half full” kind of gal, but I am noticing more and more that I have become, well, crabby I guess is a good word.

It just seems that there are way too many people doing too many selfish things, ALL… DAY… LONG… Every day. I go out and am cut off. I get in line at a store and someone tries to run ahead. People are on the phone while driving, checking out, ordering food at a restaurant, or even texting while eating dinner with their families. I wasn’t raised this way. Can’t we put the phones down for a second? Traffic, ALWAYS traffic and always people doing messed up things in said traffic, making it all worse. I seem to be at my cynical worst in traffic. People really stress me out. Have they gotten more lax on the driving tests lately? It seems like they are letting a lot more people have a license that can’t really manage the whole driving thing. Oh… and parking. It seems more and more people just can’t get their car between those two little white lines anymore. Do they not teach that either? Grrr!

Then there is politics. Ya know, it NEVER was like this when I was growing up. In fact, I remember my grandmother once saying they don’t ever talk about politics with others. Politics and money were specifically off limits in her day and in part of mine it seems. Now, EVERYONE is talking about it. Not only are they talking about it, but anyone who disagrees or subscribes to a certain political party are “stupid” or the like. When did we lose our manners? When did this country become all about me, me, me. I’m first. I want. I am entitled to. You must agree with me or else. Screw the poor! Screw the rich! Screw the people that don’t look, act and think like me! And most of all, screw the people that don’t get out of MY way, because after all, I am more important than ANYONE else!

Which then brings me to religion. Again, yet another taboo, at least I was taught, to discuss. People disagree, A LOT. What I don’t understand is… why? Why can’t one person hold one religion and the next person can’t hold another? It goes back to the “me me me” society… YOU don’t THINK like me, so you MUST be stupid! You know how many wars have been fought because someone thinks or feels differently when it comes to faith? Why not let someone have their faith and leave them alone? I guess I just don’t get it. I am assuming that this is the decade of “stick your nose in everyone elses business” age. Course, social media doesn’t help. Everyone posting about the last restaurant they went to (with a map), the terrible fight they had with their boyfriend (and why, eliciting a lot of awwwwssss, poor thing!), to the last BM they took and how it felt. Sometimes, just SOMETIMES, it’s ok not to update all of us. Just sayin’, ESPECIALLY if you KNOW you will getting back together with said boyfriend in an hour. Seriously? STOP IT.

And while I have your ear, if I indeed still have your ear, STOP THE CUTTING OF YOURSELF. JUST STOP IT. First, where are these kids parents? Oh I know, probably talking on the phone at the dinner table, or trying to maneuver their car not so much inside the white lines. JUST STOP IT. It’s one of the most SELFISH acts you can do and if you do do it, please don’t post the pictures on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest or Instagram. Post it on your parents phone instead. Show them that you need help. I won’t go any further with that.

What is this? Why do so many put up with this? While I’m at it, why do people put up with some of the CRAP (yes, crap) they put on TV nowadays? I realize it’s always fun to watch a train wreck here and there (Honey Boo Boo or what not comes to mind) but does it have to be all the time, on every channel? We lose good quality programming every day lately, for what? A new dating show? There aren’t enough of those? A new housewives city? There aren’t enough of those? You realize the big networks LOVE this age. Why? Because trashy shows like this are cheap to produce and WE put up with it. Lucky them.

We live in a time of trash and entitlement. Trashy TV, trashy people… So maybe I have answered my own question. I am not getting more cynical as I age, the WORLD is getting more cynical as I age. I wish that would change, but unfortunately, every day looks to be getting worse. Sigh. Alright, rant over. That is, until I have to drive somewhere again.