Why is it always the rudest people you meet who complain that everyone is so rude?

While waiting for a bus a couple of days ago I was in a small crowd at a bus stop. I was trying to pay attention to everything going on in the street and on the sidewalk – more for personal safety than anything else – and I was staying back from people who were walking down the sidewalk as a common-sense courtesy to give them room to move.

A man who was walking down the sidewalk had to push his way a little bit through the crowd a few steps up from where I was because there was no room for him to get by on the sidewalk. One of the people who was in his way and needed a bit of a shove got really annoyed and started saying “That was rude!” and remarking to anyone who looked even remotely like they were listening to her that society was getting really rude – but she waited until he was a block away before starting her speech.

There were about 3 people with canes, and 2 older people waiting to get on the bus. The complaining woman was not one of them, but she got on first.

There are signs on buses saying the seats up front are for handicapped and elderly people. She sat in one of these seats. She was middle aged and had no visible physical handicap.

There were some obviously mentally challenged people getting on the bus. One of them showed the bus driver the wrong pass, and had to dig for the proper bus pass, blocking the way for everyone else getting on. The annoyed woman was telling him that there were people behind him that he was holding up. This did not help his already flustered search for the bus pass, which he showed when he found it – he wasn't trying to fool the bus driver, he just had the wrong card at first – an easy mistake anyone could make.

As the bus trundled down its route almost everyone who got on or off the bus was disdained by the woman who felt the world was getting very rude. It was almost amusing to watch, but it wasn't doing her any good, and she may actually have not been middle-aged, but maybe just old before her time, due to the negative aura that she kept feeding with spite for any other human she saw.

Is it a secret that you can't control other people, you can only control yourself? And that includes your reactions to others and your own outlook on life. If you truly want to be miserable, no one will stop you, but do you really want to take the actions of strangers personally? Did that woman really think it was everyone else who was being rude, and not mostly just her?