The fall of the human race.

I'm fairly certain that in three weeks or so, when martians come down and study our ashy remains they will quickly conclude that the cause of our demise can be traced back to a lack of what I laughingly refer to as "basic humanity." Things like holding a door for someone. Making an attempt to grasp the situation before jumping to a conclusion. Allowing them to finish speaking before blurting in with a half-baked, I-Am-Sam level question that was already being answered when the attention center of your brain sensed a lack of stimulus and told your mouth to say whatever sentence fragment you could muster, lest you look like someone who could actually pay attention.

(deep breath)

These are the kinds of things that are slowly crushing my soul. What is it that compels a person to refuse to return phone calls in a business setting for weeks, or months on end? What is it that makes others who grace the unwashed masses by answering their phones cut us off before we've even explained the reason we've called? Is everyone really that busy? If so, are you hiring? The country could use a few more jobs.

This must all boil down to the fact that we're all rushing around trying our damnedest to acquire as much stuff as we can before the day a lump of plaque falls off our arterial wall and gets lodged in our stress-narrowed left ventricle. I guess the part I don't get is, what strategic advantage is there in the cosmic rat race to proactively ignoring the rest of "humanity"? And also, why do you still have a job when I've been leaving you messages for the past three months and you've refused to return even one call? Have you been rightfully fired and your boss just forgot to check your voice mail? If so, why does he still have a job? Or was he on his way when your ineptitude finally dislodged that plaque of his?