They Want, They Vaunt, I Vent.

"Hi, may I please have .............., thank you" Now, that wasn't so hard- was it? Did our emerging affluent society lose it's manners in the drive through?
It was only a matter of time before it got to me. I should of known better, I should of known better than to keep listening in but, like when someone tells you you have a spot on your shirt, suddenly thats all you can see. It's been a re-occruing itch over the past few months and today whilst taking another step toward gluttony it happened again, the words "please" or "thank you" were not used in the line ahead of me.
I was always getting told how impatient I was growing up, naturally I dismissed this life lesson as a cover for how long the person was taking at the time. I think your manners must be kept somewhere between the back of your head and your ear, as that seems to be where they are beaten into you as a child. Maybe to be a keeper of manners comes the responsibility of advocating them. "Patience is a virtue", right? Maybe it's a virtue too old fashioned for this day and age, maybe the new virtues for instant 'street cred' include: wearing your sun glasses inside, chewing with your mouth open and not saying 'please' and 'thank you'? Nope, Nup and No- Patience and good manner's are still an important part of your responsibility as a person, like showering, cleaning up your dog's poop in the park and making fun of Nickelback.
Today I visited a burger chain (my own fault I know but it's Sunday and I've been good all week). With each customer before me I never heard those easy to pronounce words once, not once! Now I don't think these words are that hard to say. When given a service or even a stranger favour like when someone keeps a door open for you, a polite verbal gesture of appreciation should be as physically engrained as putting a seat belt on- It's amazing how much of a difference it can make to one's day. So where did society's manners go? Have they slipped in to an alternate universe with the 'The Timekeeper's' socks? (Reference to book by Emily Rodda (Book: a written or printed work of fiction or nonfiction, usually on sheets of paper fastened or bound together with covers))
Modern society has come to expect things fast, not even fast anymore, just 'now'. Making phone calls, internet in your hand and food service at a drive through have sped up our expectation of what's reasonable. Through a financial boom and consequent self analysis of class (a blog for another time) have our manners been lost to expectation of privileges? I believe now more than ever 'privileges' are being perceived as 'rights'. Greater society is starting to forget that service and kind gestures are not a right but a privilege for all of us to enjoy and appreciate.
With that said there's only one man who can sum it up and give us a swift back-hand to the manner's area of our heads. This man share's the same religion as Charles Manson and starred in cinema classic's 'Cocktail', 'Mission Impossible 2' and 'Vanilla Sky', please let the Maverick Tom Cruise remind us all to "Put your manner's back in!"