“When the history of our time will be written from a long-term perspective, it is likely that the most important event historians will see is not technology, not the Internet, not e-commerce. It is an unprecedented change in the human condition. For the first time – literally – substantial and rapidly growing numbers of people have choices. And society is totally unprepared for it.” –Peter F. Drucker

It started around 1998 when technology was off to the races, cellular phones, palm PDA’s (a brand new term invented for the devices even), laptop computers, something called a Blackberry, watches that could do more than tell time, pagers that could respond after receiving, Instant Messenger, voicemail, wireless home phones, people saying to “ping me”, remote control everything — and the Internet.

I began to observe that people in the City of Angels were growing increasingly impatient and as technology was advancing at an accelerated rate we had people expecting all aspects of their lives to operate with equal efficiency.  Waiting in line for coffee, groceries, and restaurants simply wasn’t tolerated by the masses any longer.  At least not without pacing, fidgeting or rubbernecking to find the culprit causing the delay.  And if some unfortunate person dare have the audacity to pull out an archaic item such as a checkbook – all I can say is – let the buyer beware.  This would surely elicit from some impatient puke “excuse me, what is that?  I’ve never seen one of those.  Can you explain the method of payment you are attempting to employ?”

On any given day pure terror is experienced while driving LA freeways.  A mere glance in a rearview mirror results in a car nearly licking your bumper every thirty seconds with their last-second lane change.  Where are the days when you could drive the speed limit in the number three or four lanes without ending up recreating what it’s like to “drop the soap” in a prison shower.  Add to this the erratic and impulsive movements, the weaving in and out and all to shave an extra minute or two off their morning or evening drive time.

These people’s faces read of having twelve cups of coffee too many and warrant being captured for a future billboard advertisement for anti-anxiety medications Prozac/Xanax/Zoloft or Paxil.  LA has a reputation for being chalk-full of people on anti-depressant/anti-anxiety meds…so why aren’t they the ones I have to encounter on LA freeways?

Initially I pondered the notion that this was largely due to bad manners, as a result of bad rearing.  Did wolves rear these people?  Wolves that failed Drivers Ed?  While I believe this to be part of the issue, I simply cannot accept it as the whole truth.  For example, do these individuals lack all awareness of basic traffic laws?  Again, this is a factor but surely we can’t plant the entire blame here.  If I had a nickel for every time I witnessed a car nearly plucking a pedestrian while attempting to complete their right hand turn on a red light I would be one wealthy cynic.

Think of how many times people collide or barely avoid you by failing to allow you to exit the elevator prior to them entering.  Or, people that call a business and say “hi, how are you?”  Then, they immediately cut you off…”so my account number, or my issue is”.  I suppose the latter example is marginally better as at least these people have the awareness to “fake niceties” prior to addressing their selfish concerns.  In my dreams I give these people the benefit of the doubt and contribute their actions to the thoughtfulness of trying to save the company money on their toll-free phone number.

Try counting the number of times you’ve experienced an inconsiderate puke having a full-blown cell phone conversation in the middle of a nice restaurant.  On countless occasions, I’ve been forced to throw elbows in fighting people off from “climbing my back” at the ATM, office water cooler or community microwave.  These impatient pukes obviously don’t comprehend the concept of “personal space”.  I wish I had my own personal NFL referee who would jump out from the crowd, throw his flag and yell “five yard penalty for encroachment”!

So, I wonder where this society will be 10 years from now?  20 years from now?   In my humble opinion, we better start taking steps to correct this ill-mannered behavior now or this city and possibly this entire country may end up going to hell in a hand basket quicker than you can say “Jimmy cracked corn and I don’t care”.

“It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.”
–Albert Einstein

(5/7/2005)