Reply #33: To me the underlying theme is a subtle, but profound, lack of concern for others.

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People are generally much more self-absorbed these days, and good side of that is that there generally is more tolerance now of different people than there as 50 years ago, but the bad side of that is there is no concern for others. This manifests itself in many ways, big and small. Driving habits these days are pretty bad - people make lane changes or turns without signaling first, which makes it more dangerous, people pull into traffic without any warning, I've even seen people hold up traffic just to have a conversation with someone standing on the sidewalk. In California it is illegal to use a hand-held cell phone while driving, yet I see people using them at least 10 times every day. It is dangerous yet millions of people still do it. One of my pet peeves is the misuse of the disabled placard for vehicles. In California it is illegal to use one unless the disabled person it was issued to is present. Yet all the time I see people pull up to a disabled parking space, hang the placard, and then practically waltz out of the car to wherever they are going - clearly not disabled. Thus they force me to use a regular parking space with my mother in the car, and it's not the extra distance to walk, which is usually trivial. It's the wider space between cars at the disabled spaces, which we need to for placing the wheelchair. People think that since they have a disabled placard they can use it even though nobody present is disabled. It's a violation of the law here. Also supermarkets are a hotbed of antisocial behavior... taking up a whole aisle with your cart so that nobody else can pass, letting kids run amok without supervision, getting in the 10-items-or-less checkout lane with 25 items, writing a check (and not starting to write it until you know the total) and on and on. Movie theaters another nightmare - kids behind you kicking your seat constantly without even thinking about it, talking throughout the movie about things other than the movie, etc. I could go on and on about all the antisocial behavior that is, sadly, considered acceptable public behavior these days. And it's all based on a state of mind where the person is only thinking of themselves and not even aware of anyone around them.