The danger of oblivion

Have you noticed how much more oblivious people are these days, even when their own survival may be at stake? I am not talking mountain climbing. I am talking parking lots, door ways, sidewalks, or other public spaces.

Parking lots are great places to see this. Not too long ago, I was driving through the parking lot of a shopping center and could easily have driven right over a woman talking to another woman--I was within inches of these women and they never once turned their heads. They never once noticed. They never once cared. So I sat there, observing their complete oblivion to a busy parking lot, fascinated but worried.

The other day, I was leaving a restaurant and a young kid slammed into me, bounced off, then went inside while his mother practically stepped on my foot. Why? Because I was not there.

My friend calls these people oblivoids and I argue we are becoming a nation of oblivoids.

What is this incredible oblivion linked to? Self-absoprtion? That there are just too many of us and we have grown tired with civility? We are pressed for time? We just don't care anymore? Bad parenting? Stupidity? The white trashization of our culture? (Just watch ABC and NBC for one night and this is confirmed). A loss of compassion for one another?

I don't know but it scares me and off I go into a "when I was a kid" diatribe but WHEN I WAS A KID, my mother would have made me say "excuse me" to every transgression. Would have taught me to apologize for slamming into anyone or stepping on their foot. She even made me write out thank you cards by hand no less(!) whenever I received a gift from anyone. In other words, I was raised to be aware of other people: their presence, their generousity, their speech, their needs...
My parents were attuned to their surroundings enough to create a space of civility around our existence. Maybe this was just the Middle Class way.

Now you have to anticipate the oblivoids because they are definitely not anticipating you. Can we be expected to compensate for these people in our society?
TO be the ones that say "I'm sorry" when we did absolutely nothing wrong but they
slammed into you in the grocery store line? Do we become like them and say nothing eventually? Being aware of one another and the space we take up is critical to a
civilized society. One thing is for sure, we are heading in the opposite direction.