The future of mankind

My son received the sacrament of First Holy Communion this morning. The ceremony was lovely and all of the young girls and boys looked wonderful. What made me raise my eyebrows a bit--just as I did last month when my daughter made her Confirmation--was the amount of rudeness displayed by some adults in attendance. After the priest announced that people should be respectful and remain seated (and to take their pictures from there), numerous people still stood, blocking the view of the others around them. 

One older couple continuously chatted throughout the short ceremonial mass, while the young boy with them ran (yes, I said ran) around taking pictures with an iPad. At my daughter's Confirmation, we were seated in the last row and behind us was a group of unruly children who disrupted the goings on for the surrounding audience with their bantering, kicking the backs of our seats, holding onto the top of our seats at times, and just being rude. There was plenty of room along the wall or in the entry--why did they have to stand behind a full row of people? And where were their parents or adult supervision? 

Furthermore, what has become of mankind?

Have many of us become self-centered, inconsiderate dweebs, who do not know how to behave in public? Can we not distinguish living room behavior from public behavior? I know I reside in New York and we have a reputation for either being snobby or rude, but I have witnessed a general descent of considerate people at the various places or events I've attended (from Disney in Florida to Universal Studios to dance competitions in Connecticut and New Jersey). 

I also see rudeness online when I peruse book review sites, blogs, and even social networking sites. Do we really have to resort to cursing and posting lewd photos simply to show our dislike of something or of someone? Do our attacks have to be personalized, vindictive, and plain ugly? What happened to being discrete or keeping our thoughts to ourselves?

I usually do not like to rant, but occasionally the need is so strong, I can't help not doing it. If some of us are out of control now, what will happen in five, ten or twenty years?