No Mo' Attitude (Please)
by: Jon Crane

Saturday Ramblins, Vol. 2, No. 15 (July 31, 1999)

Where did "attitude" come from? You know what I mean. The canker sore that has become more and more evident on the face of society in recent times: attitude (or more correctly, Attitude).

Who started this in-your-face business anyway? Who decided responding to someone with Attitude was better than civility? It wasn't me. I don't think it was my generation, either.

At one time when someone cut you off in traffic causing you to slam on your brakes and nearly end up in the ditch trying to avoid him you blew your horn. Perhaps you mumbled something questioning whether or not his parents were married. The other driver would ignore you, or in the rarest of cases, shrug his shoulders and mouth "sorry" in your direction.

Recently I was cut off by a pickup truck causing me to swerve and narrowly miss a light pole on the median. I began blowing my horn the moment I detected him moving into my lane.

What was his reaction? This driver who had a bumper sticker on the back window of his cab that read, "How's My Driving? Call 1-800-Bite Me" gave me the single finger salute and slammed his gas pedal to the floor. If you're going to kill me, don't give me Attitude along with it. Please.

Each generation has said the generation that followed it was going to hell in a hand basket. On the other side of the coin, every new generation has always found music with which to scare it parents to death. My generation found Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis. My children had Prince (or whatever symbol he goes by now), Bon Jovi, Duran Duran, White Snake, Poison and U2, to name a few. That generation began to define Attitude. At least they liked it in their musicians.

Now, Attitude is required attire. We've gone from "I'm Okay, You're Okay," to "I Okay and Don't Give a Hoot About You." Attitude.

Okay, okay! I'm not so old that I can't say let young people "do their thing," act as they wish and even have fun doing it. Heaven knows we did in the 50s. "Cool," was the thing then. We worked hard at it in the way we dressed, walked and talked. Cookie lend me your comb and let me comb my duck tails! But I don't remember a lack of civility and politeness being a required aspect of "Cool."

It would be easy to dismiss "Attitude" and this aging child of the 50s ranting and raving on the subject if it were not for the fact that at its extreme it manifests it self in such actions as those witnessed in New York at the end of the Woodstock 99 Festival last weekend. It is not the fact that these incidents exist that's alarming. Even we cool cats of the 50s and early 60s did some stupid and destructive things (for which we paid dearly, believe me). The alarming trend is that it now seems expected.

Go to a public event only to find that tickets are sold out and what is your course of action? Destroy something. Your team wins the World Series-Super Bowl-Basketball Championship? Tear your city apart. It's your right. This is Attitude at its worst.

If we need to assess blame or find cause for the Attitude of the 90s, where do we start? The movies? Rock music? I'm not sure that these agents do much more then reinforce the fact that Attitude is okay. Familes? Perhaps. At least in my family, I learned basic respect for other people and their things and that there were consequences to my actions. At school and in church I got the same message.

What it comes down to is respect and responsibility. In their place is in-your-face "Attitude." No thank you. Give me civility and respect any day. Please.

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