Here’s the disclaimer – the following is a rant – if your offend-o-meter is set to anything higher than ‘medium’, you should find another page to read, right about now.  You have been warned.

So…cashier is approached by supervisor, business-related question is asked about last known sighting of another employee, supervisor gets answer & continues on merry way, making next plans as needed.  Customer starts huffing about the fact that the large item (15-20 pounds), successfully moved from it’s shelf to the cart (by customer), from the cart to the conveyor belt (by customer), and across the scanner (by clerk), was not then moved by the supervisor back to the cart.  Moving the item wasn’t the supervisor’s task, it was (quite frankly) the customer’s task, since the very capable customer had chosen to come through the Express Lane (small orders, semi-self-service).  Customer then insists that the reason the supervisor didn’t move the item to the cart was because of the customer’s demographic.  Of course, it couldn’t be because the supervisor was busy with the logistics of keeping a store’s checkout zone running smoothly.  Eich!

Driving too fast for the posted speed limit and/or road conditions?  The police pulled you over because of profiling, of course – it couldn’t be as simple as you’re breaking a reasonable law and they’re doing their jobs.

An authority suggests that you and/or your children stop playing inside the building, interrupting traffic flow, presenting a potential trip hazard to other humans in the realm, perhaps even risking your/their own safety…  How dare the authority give any corrective!  Obviously it’s because of your heritage, it couldn’t possibly have anything to do with the protocols of reasonable indoor conduct.  Puh-leeze!

I’ve long been tiring of the petty whining of people who refuse to accept responsibility for their own decisions and behaviors.  It’s easier for them to conclude that they have no say in the matter and the world is simply picking on them because they are members of a recognizeable, sortable group of humans.  Persecution happens, all over the world, for a variety of reasons, most equally inexcusable.  But c’mon, people, not every little inconvenience is worthy to be called persecution.  Sometimes it’s just an appropriate response to inappropriate behavior.

Once upon a time, parents taught children personal responsibility, actions & reactions in the physical and social worlds, and basic manners such as keeping voices and limbs under polite control in the company of others, and treating people and objects with a reasonable level of respect.  For several generations now, such teachings have fallen by the wayside, and we now have an entitlement society where the inmates are running the asylum.  Parents are now reprimanded for trying to train these little creatures not to be so self-absorbed….  so they grow up self absorbed and blame everyone else for not bowing down and serving their little highnesses.  They turn into miserable customers who can’t see the reality of the situation and walk out of a business highly insulted because they were being treated equal to everyone else.

Rant mode off.  Please reset your offend-o-meters and read at will.