I ain't great but I could be considered somewhat above average.

I am extremely jaded because I work in a field where we only deal with dregs of society. I have to constantly remind myself that 97% of people are halfway to fully decent and only 3% are crooks.

I would say that in general, there is a total lack of personal responsibility in our society. People have been fed a steady diet of a sense of entitlement and they have gobbled it up. People just don't seem to feel that they should answer for their actions and there is always someone or something to blame for their misdeeds and/or lot in life. There are countless examples. I won't even get into things like blaming KFC for failing to warn consumers that deep fried chicken will make them fat. Take the theft of your gasoline as an example. I'm sure the person(s) who stole it thought they were entitled to because gas costs so much now and you can better afford it than they can. The people who do things like that are the ones who have little to no regard for the rights, property, and dignity of others. That's stating the obvious but it all comes back to the fact that we live in a "gimme society".

Here's a real life example: A guy I work with gets a call from his alarm company that his home alarm went off. He goes home and as he walks in the front door, he discovers a scumbag burglar standing in the hallway, pockets stuffed with his wife's jewelry. The lowlife runs and luckily, some coppers had just arrived and caught him after a short foot pursuit. When asked, the degenerate tells the homeowner that he did it because he didn't have much and just got out of prison (of course!) and that the homeowner has more stuff than he does. Personally, I think that dude got off easy. If it was my house I would have gone in with my pistol in hand.

Having said all that, there are definitely some good people out there who still live by the golden rule and do try to always do the decent thing. Ishniknork gave one good example. Unfortunately these people seem to be the vast exception. I honestly believe that these people still exist though. The personal challenge I face it to not think that everyone I come across is out to scam/steal/kill people while being realistic about how many people are out to do those things. The best we can do is to try to live our lives doing the best we can, trying to do the right thing in all circumstances, and teaching our children the difference between right and wrong and instill in them a sense of social and moral responsibility. Then we cross our fingers.

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