"Of course it's all about me!"

This general attitude had me spending most of yesterday alternately lecturing myself on the importance of positivity and wanting to scream not-so-nice things at anyone who crossed my path.

It was one of those days when every cyclist on the trail zoomed past three inches from my elbow with nary a "Left!" to be heard, I got knocked around by people on the Metro twice my size whose mothers certainly taught them better and, about the time I was trying to eat lunch, half a dozen things suddenly appeared in my inbox that had to be done five minutes ago. (At least this time my case of the Mondays fell on the right day of the week.) Some passive-aggressive tendencies and blind-siding rounded out the day, and I arrived home frustrated and cranky. I reminded myself that it was just Monday, and that if I relaxed and got a good night's sleep, things would look better in the morning.

And they did! I ran with great weather and a beautiful sunrise glinting off the Potomac this morning, regardless of the Mercedes turning left that wanted to play chicken with me while I was obeying the little green man in the crosswalk signal at a major intersection. I even got to work a little early, despite exiting the Metro being its usual exercise in being jostled by briefcases on all sides. And I had time before work to respond to a friend's email about her frustration with the total lack of consideration she's been getting during the last few months, from companies of which she's a customer, colleagues and her state government.

Our frustrations, I think, have the same root: people just don't care about people anymore. (Which has the secondary effect of making me want to, in turn, elbow my way to the front of the line and shout at the top of my lungs until I get what I want. So far I'm well-behaved enough not to give in to temptation. Barely.)

Sure, most people still have a small inner circle of family members and friends for whom they would do just about anything, although we probably spend less time with, talking to or thinking about one another than we used to. Outside of that circle, the general public seems to care not one iota about anyone else they may come into contact with beyond the minimum it takes to get what they need for either personal or professional reasons. Everyone wants to feed starving children in India, prevent malaria in Africa and help educate women and children worldwide, but they couldn't care less about the next 30 seconds in the life of the person waiting in line next to them.

As I put it to my beleaguered friend this morning, "Yay, good, let's make sure people around the world aren't starving or dying of preventable/curable diseases, but for crying out loud, let's not step on everyone we walk past on the street while we're doing it!"

Not everyone acts this way - some of my colleagues and many of my friends are drop-everything-and-help-anyone-in-need types. I try to be one too, but I know I'm sometimes guilty of tuning out the people around me. We're all a little narcissistic; it's human nature to be at least slightly more concerned with yourself and your immediate family and/or friends than with individual people you don't know.

My concern (/rant...) is that it seems to have become not only acceptable but, in some places, standard operating procedure in society to run roughshod over everyone you've decided you don't have to care about. And that's not a good lifestyle choice for society, in general, to make. I've always been of the "do unto others as you would have them do unto you" school (thanks, Mom!), but it seems like it just doesn't work anymore, as far as having any noticeable effect on society goes.

What do you think, is this actually a trend, or am I crazy? If it is a trend, is it a bad one (...and if I'm just crazy, do you know any good therapists?), or is it just the new normal and not an issue? My opinion on this one is obvious, but I'd like to hear yours.