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In an old Michael Leunig cartoon, he depicts a bemused modern family touring the “Museum of Manners”. The front-row exhibit, preserved in its glass case, is “Giving up the Seat for the Lady”.
One young man on social media could do with being dragged around the Museum of Manners.
A man has gone viral for his way-too-honest rant about a pregnant woman expecting to be able to sit down on a bus.
The more he tries to justify himself, the worse it gets.
“So last night I’m on the bus, and a very heavily pregnant lady gets on,” he continued.
“She looks around for a seat, only to find there are no available ones left. I’m the closest to her, so she starts giving me the imploring eyes. I had my headphones on and tried to pretend I couldn’t see her, but once she started talking to me it became inevitable.”
“I wasn’t rude or anything, I just told her no, I’ve had a long day and my feet are sore. I don’t want to give up my seat.”
Uh, yes, you were rude. Very rude.
Thankfully, other – older – passengers were able to remember a dim, dark age when manners were taken for granted.
Thankfully an old man stepped in to the woman’s aid calling the man a “worthless punk” and gave up his own seat. The old man was ranting about “damn millennials” and as the pair were switching places, the bus driver had to brake suddenly sending them both flying.
He wrote: “They started yelling at me, calling me all sorts of nasty names, but I just looked the other way and ignored it.”
His family also yelled at him when he later told them about it, but he still maintained he was in the right.
But, as some readers were quick to point out, there were at least a dozen other people at fault.
“Everyone who didn’t offer their seat is an a**hole. Jebuz, I offered my seat to an older lady who was unsteady on her feet when no one else would when I was heavily pregnant. Imagine it is your mom or sister in the same situation… what would you want a stranger to do? Be thankful that people still breed or you wouldn’t be on here complaining.”
I still remember, as a very young child, riding a bus with my older brother. When an old man got on, my brother immediately hopped out of his seat for him. Such basic manners were a matter of course. Not any more, it seems. A generation who’ve been raised to endlessly reassure themselves that “I am special” from kindergarten apparently see no reason why should inconvenience themselves in the least for others.
Unfortunately, Leunig’s cartoon was more prescient than he might have thought.
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