Sometimes I feel that we no longer live in a society where people try to become better.
We live in a society where many people try to appear more important.
You see it everywhere. In traffic, where someone believes the rules do not apply to them. At the supermarket, where people cut in line as though no one else exists.
At service counters, where courtesy is treated as an unnecessary effort. In offices, where a title becomes more important to some than the person in front of them.
In politics, where arrogance often goes unpunished and is sometimes even rewarded.
What frightens me most, however, is not arrogance itself. It is that we have begun to accept it.
As if we have resigned ourselves to believing that shouting, insulting, humiliating, pushing past others and thinking only of ourselves are normal.
But they are not. They never will be.
There is something revealing about arrogant people. They almost always want to project power. But someone who is truly powerful has no need to prove to others that they are above them.
They do not speak louder just to be heard. They do not humiliate others to appear greater. They do not use their position to display force.
That is what people do when, deep down, they fear they do not matter enough without it.
Perhaps the greatest problem of our time is not inflation. Nor is it artificial intelligence. It is not even the political crisis.
Perhaps the greatest problem is that we are slowly losing the culture of mutual respect.
And when a society loses respect, it loses much more than good manners. It loses trust.
Without trust, there are no healthy families. No good companies. No institutions. No state.
So the next time you think kindness is outdated and arrogance a sign of strength, remember one thing.
Arrogance has never been proof of power. It is merely the loudest way to conceal a lack of character.
Reshid Dervishi