Letter: Writer bugged by society's downward spiral

To the editor:

This past week, two things happened that caused me to sit down and write this letter. And I will concede up front that on the surface, the things that happened are insignificant in the big picture. Or should I say they appear to be insignificant? But I submit that although the occurrences are trivial, they reflect something much greater, much more important: the decline of our society, on the pathway toward making it virtually uncivilized.

So let me briefly get back to those two things that spurred me to write.

One of these happened when my wife and I were invited to an outdoor party, and the invitation requested that everyone bring an "hors d'oeuvre to share." Okay, a generation ago, such a request would have almost spurred a competition among the attendees, trying to outdo one another with their culinary creations. In addition, there would have been a surfeit of food, and guests would have returned home with leftovers.

Flash forward to the present day.

At the event we attended, with a few exceptions, people seemed to be in a competition as well: they were determined to do as little as possible! They brought a bucket of KFC or a supermarket plastic container with thin slices of salami and cheese. One of the better efforts was little celery pieces with Cheez Whiz! We returned home hungry.

Second thing. My eleven-year-old granddaughter was in a two-week summer drama camp. Last night, the culmination of the experience was that these fifth and sixth graders put on a play at the local high school auditorium. Okay, so it wasn't a Broadway opening, but it was a big deal to these kids- they had worked hard for two weeks.

While we stood in the lobby, the audience filed in, mainly parents/grandparents as you might expect. Frankly, almost without exception, the attire that these folks chose to wear to this event was something one might put on to load up some bags of fertilizer from the Home Depot!

Let me reemphasize. Neither of these things is the end of the world. I get that. But to me they symbolize our society's downward spiral, making choices to ignore established behaviour standards. Part of a continuing self-obsessive, narcissistic, "me" attitude- a general contempt for all rules.

We're becoming more casual and thus less disciplined. Self-control is practiced less and less. We're less civil to one another. And as goes civility, so goes society.

 Ian Saunders