etiquette, manners and profits

Have you noticed how people look askance when you open a door for someone, male or female; say 'please' and 'thank you' to strangers or even pause and hesitate in consideration of how one's actions might affect another? Do you stand, chatting, with a couple of friends, in the middle of a footpath?
How many times, in a busy working day, do you wish footpaths had traffic lanes, that there were slow lanes for tourists and day trippers and right and left lanes for oncoming pedestrians?

Your thoughts are on your purpose, its important and essential nature and you seethe at the apparent disregard of others.
I remember a time when people left their front door keys in the lock, milk was left in glass bottles on your doorstep and church doors weren't padlocked.
Nowadays, it is common practice to 'demand', without 'asking' and some people will even click their fingers or whistle to get attention.
When did we lose respect for ourselves and each other? Why do we get angry at beggars for begging? Most of the time, they are misfortunates who have fallen through the cracks through illness or by their own misdeeds, so what harm or injury can they do us?
We had a little book of etiquette, we studied in school. It showed us how to behave, socially; which fork or spoon to use at the dinner table and how to address people of importance and standing.
It didn't teach us respect. We learned that from our parents and other figures of authority in our lives.
So what went wrong? The answer could be very difficult and complex. It could also be very simple. Greed and the all prevailing imperative of profit is what has brought us to this sorry state.
When we've abdicated our respect for our own environment, the air we breathe, the land we farm, the waters we fish, then we've lost respect for ourselves.
Take a bit of time, soon. Go to a farmers' market with no preconceived notions of hippies in wellies chewing rubbery tofu. Everyone talks to each other. They remember you. They discuss the quality of their radishes. It will give you hope.