My wife recently asked an interesting question, why people believe they can treat everyone in such rude ways. She was specifically asking about behavior she noticed at work, explaining that in the past she couldn't imagine anyone treating a doctor or nurse the way patients and their families routinely treat staff at her hospital.

I had thought about answering it a few times, but never really came up with a satisfactory explanation until today. Today, while thinking about some unrelated bits of rudeness, as well as our horribly litigious society, it came to me. While my earlier explanations (mostly based on the increasingly juvenile society) were partly right, the real answer is even more simple, and a phenomenon I have discussed many times.

You see, it was mention of lawyers that explained it to me. Why do lawyers have so much power today? Because they are frightening. And why are they frightening? Because they can file suit against anyone and have some hope of winning, fair or not. And why do they have so much chance of winning?

That is where my answer comes in. Lawyers can win lawsuits because we have become convinced that almost everyone else is either evil or incompetent. We are so willing to believe the worst of our fellow man that it takes very little effort for a lawyer to convince a jury that anyone under the sun, either through malice or negligence, caused someone else harm.

And that helps explain many of our modern behaviors. In the past we would hire experts, such as doctors, convinced they were educated professionals, and so paid them a lot of money to get their expert opinion. Now, convinced they are money grubbing thieves, deviants and incompetent boobs, we still hire them, but feel the need to double check their every decision, trusting the opinions of total strangers on the internet more than educated professionals, feeling the need to quiz them, put them on the spot, and gloat over every apparent contradiction in their answers.

Of course, some of this does arise from other influences. For example, the gloating over "showing up" the professionals is more an attribute of our narcissistic juvenile culture, rather than our mistrustful, almost paranoid mindset, but it still has its roots in that paranoia, as we would not be quizzing the experts at all were it not for our instinctive mistrust of everyone else.

And why are we so distrustful? Why do we see everyone outside of our immediate circle as incompetent or evil?

Because life cannot be cut into compartments. Despite the claims of those who would "draw lines" or "limit" the influence of their philosophies to politics or economics or social life, what one believes in one area influences all areas of life. And, for many, many decades the dominant political philosophy has been that the majority of people are either too incompetent to make their own decisions, or else are misled by sinister forces and so need to be protected. With that vision of the world being repeated day in and day out by those who push for a more expansive government (a group often encompassing both political parties), is it any wonder that eventually we would breed generations which have chosen to see themselves as the last competent individual, and the rest of the world as filled with nitwits and villains?

Add to this philosophy the selfish, objectifying philosophy brought about by our worship of the juvenile and you have a recipe for rude behavior and nasty interactions. What else could be the result of surrounding a self-centered adolescent with those he or she considers insufferably stupid or hopelessly malevolent?

The answer is obvious. It is the world we see around us.

POSTSCRIPT

To read more about the political philosophy underlying all authoritarian schemes (that others are incompetent or evil), read "Those Other People", "Our View of Our Fellow Citizens", "Seeing People As Stupid", "Appealing to Arrogance", "The Citizen Dichotomy", "In A Nutshell", "Cognitive Dissonance Part 2", "Changing Incentives" and "Three Types of Supporters of Big Government", as well as the articles linked in the postscript to "Cognitive Dissonance Part 2". And to read more about my belief that we have done untold harm by venerating the juvenile, you can find my thoughts in the posts  "Frightened for our Future", "The Adoration of Youth", "I Blame the Romantics", "Revisiting an Old Topic", "The Sky Is Falling! Again! Really! We Mean It This Time!", "Tired and Annoying Theme", "IMDB Makes My Case", "A Thought On the Watchmen", "Graphic Novels, Comic Books and Cultural Barometers" and "An Interesting Article", as well as "In Defense of Standards" and "Addenda to "In Defense of Standards"".

POSTSCRIPT II

I do not mean to imply that in the past everyone adopted a pollyanna attitude that everyone else was kind and wonderful, nor do I suggest always assuming the best of everyone. All I am suggesting is that today's automatic assumption of not just the worst about everyone else, but the arrogant assumption that everyone else is more stupid and ignorant than you, makes for a rather unpleasant environment. Simply assuming others are not out to get you, and are more like you than different allows for quite a bit more pleasant interaction. And, despite the worries of many moderns, does not instantly set you up to be defrauded or exploited by everyone you meet.