Which came first, the cell phone or the moron?

A good number of surprises fall into most peoples' lives, some good, some bad, some in between. Often, these surprises seem to occur in certain areas (finance, love, etc.) over and over to certain people, usually because they are ignorant or weak in these areas. My big area of surprise due to ignorance happens to be in technology. At one point in my life, at least 20 years ago, I was fairly up on the latest inventions/gadgets in the marketplace; that is no longer true.

Take, for instance, something I just became aware of: cell phone jammers. Until I heard a blurb on the radio about them just minutes ago, I knew nothing about them. After a quick check on the 'Net, I now know that they work, but that they are illegal to use in the U.S. Okay, fine, I doubt that I ever would have bought one anyway, but the fact that there is even a need for this type of device brings me to the point of this piece (of course there's one!).

Simply put, these devices exist because there are so GD many self-centered, ignorant, and oblivious people who haven't a clue about common courtesy and how to act in public. If these clueless cacklers were ever exposed to lessons in civility, they quickly forgot them. The cell phone jammer must have been invented as a defense against the virus that has infected much of the population of this country--moronism. I've learned from listening to umpteen one-sided cell phone conversations, most of them in inappropriate settings (restaurants, stores, break rooms, workplaces, etc.), that people rarely have anything to say that couldn't have waited for a more apropos time/place, and that they speak as if they are sure all around them want to hear every detail.

We truly are, as Jeff Cooper once said, in the age of the common (low-class) man. Those few folks who do seem to have a modicum of decorum are no longer looked at as examples to emulate, but as objects to ridicule. More's the pity.

Take care.
DAL357