Hate

This has nothing to do with writing- or any specific person, though such will be mentioned. It is more about attitude.

The president of our country made a speech, the other day. Ostensibly to congratulate members of the US Coast Guard, but... a lot of the speech was about his feelings of persecution.  President Trump believes that he has been greatly wronged by the press, and that he is the most abused president, in all ways, in history.

Having read a fair amount of history, I tend to disagree. I think Lincoln, Garfield and Kennedy might have a case for being somewhat more abused, off the top of my head.  Or Mr. Obama and family.

I think that the true issue, for Mr. Trump, is that he has lived in a bubble of protection, for his entire life, and it's been pricked. As a child of privilege, and then later a business owner, he's been surrounded by people who have a vested interest in agreeing with him. From nannies and minders to underlings and hirelings.  He's never really worked for anyone, or worked under anyone, his entire life.  Even when his father ran the business, and Mr. Trump technically worked under him- he was being mentored by his father to be in charge.  And public office- it's as far removed from that as you can imagine, at all levels.

People blame you, personally, for everything. The press and your associates pick at everything you do.

And as president- he's at the top of the pile. The pomp and circumstance, the high on the hog aspects of presidential life... for Trump, this is probably only what he is used to. Parties, meetings with the influential, etc.  But the negatives. this is new.

And I am not without empathy here. Because, regardless of my own feelings regarding Mr. Trump, there is a point to be made here. Which is that... shit has gotten too rough, here in the good old US of A.

In virtually all aspects of life, I see examples of a new harshness. People don't agree to disagree anymore, in general. People don't credit that other person with being basically a decent human being with a different value system or beliefs.

That person is wrong. Not just wrong, but actionably wrong, deserving to be run through with our half witticisms and scorn. Disagree and let it go? NOT HARDLY!!!

I have had a lot of friends with whom I hold pretty basic disagreements. I have supported political candidates from the opposite side of the aisle, when I thought- regardless of party philosophy- that they had good ideas.  I have been a supporter of various religions, though I am as free from religious thought as I can manage, because of the good work done. And I grew up thinking that this sort of compromisability, this common good attitude, was a common thing.

It was what I was taught by my parents, by my kindergarten teacher,  the lovely Romper Room hostess, and Goofus and Gallant, in pediatric waiting rooms.

And it was what a lot of us were taught.  What a lot of us seemed to live by.  I'm sorry, excuse me, of course, not at all, why thank you, you're certainly welcome.  Common courtesy was- with obvious exceptions, such as turning hoses and dogs on people and shooting presidents or starting wars- actually common.

And while I admit to a middle to upper class bubble of protection for the earliest parts of my life, that deflated in the early seventies, and I pushed myself out of it- a second birth, of sorts, in the mid eighties.

Now- from Washington to the work place, compromise, live and let live, it's fallen out of fashion.

Attack! Overwhelm, overcome.

There are certainly times when this attitude is appropriate. When there are things, to mangle a quote, up with which one should not put.

But... should that be everything? Some driver gets confused and makes a bad lane change, or is talking to their passenger at a light, and doesn't move out, right when it changes.  Does that call for multiple long horn blasts and screamed profanity?

We have people getting into arguments in line for something and pulling guns. What. The. Hell.

Gun control isn't the issue- it's how we no longer seem to want to see the other person's view point, or excuse them for random rudeness or bullshit- you never know what's driving them to it.  Instead we go into a rage state and blast away. Whether we shoot or not, it's that same urge.

And I am very curious as to how we got here.  And how we might get back.

Curious and looking for input.