So I'm a pretty optimistic and generally happy person. I have my down times and I have my good times. But right now I'm really starting to lose hope in humanity. This is a commentary on something I've noticed in the world that I think everyone should be concerned with: the growing impoliteness of society.
As a scientist and a creative writer, I've seen a lot of reviews of various reports or stories that I've written: some good and some bad. I always welcome criticism because I would like to improve and do better and fix where I'm making mistakes. However, I do believe there is a way to criticize someone and be polite about it. Being in a position to review someone and give them criticism does not give one the right to “rip others apart” to make sure a point is made. And this is not something that exclusive to our college. This is something that is happening in the whole world.
Let's say you send in an article to be published in a journal or a novel to a publisher, you stand a chance of being ripped apart by a reviewer. I've had professors that have mentioned such things to me and mentioned that it's made them very hesitant to send something in again because of the response. My thought is that the reviewer could have gotten the same point across without being rude about it.
The same goes for when you hand a paper or a report to a professor or a fellow student as a peer review. The one reviewing can tell you that you need to fix things and that things are wrong without being rude.
Now I'm not saying coat the criticism with sugar and sunshine. I'm saying, make it polite. Think about how you would like your work to be treated. If you don't want it ripped apart and would like polite constructive criticism, then accord others the same politeness.
It's a simple law of karma. Do to others and treat them as you would like to be treated. Try it, be polite, show others kindness and you'll get the same (with the occasional bad attitude by others every now and then). But I guarantee that you'll be treated a lot better if you treat others kindly too. If you don't, then how you are treated will reflect that. And karma can be rather ruthless in giving you what you deserve based on how you treated others. What goes around, comes around sooner or later.
Basic politeness is on a decline in more ways than just something like this and the only way to stop the impoliteness is to be polite yourself. We all have the ability to bring kindness back. Open a door for someone, think about what you say to others first, help someone carry something heavy, help someone with homework that they're having trouble with or simply smile at others when you walk by them. A smile can change someone's day.
I'm not sure what I really expect this letter to cause if others read it. It would be nice to see a change in how we treat each others. It would be nice to see others have hope and kindness. If this letter makes just one person think twice about how they treat someone else, then I would call this a big step for bring back hope and kindness.
With hope and love,
SM Dawn
P.S. If you're up to the challenge, perform a random act of kindness for someone who needs it.
