The common good

What ever happened to the common good?

Exhibit A. My department is moving into a new building this fall, along with another department. This is not just some ordinary academic building, it is a showpiece, a phenomenon, a fantastic place to work. It will be the nicest place that any of us have ever worked or will ever work. Yet I find out from a friend in the office that the administrators are having a squabble over who gets what office. Now ordinarily this might make sense, but in this building, every office is a nice office. Everyone will have a nice office and be happy. Why can't a few people just be generous and say "Hey it doesn't matter to me what office I get, they are all nice." Then the squabble would be over and everyone would be one iota happier.

Exhibit B. I work in a lab and we have a dishwasher who prepares our media and sterile stocks. Sometimes he falls a bit behind. Would you think in those times that people would step up and fill in for him? They don't. Of the nine people in the lab, only myself and one other person ever do these tasks when it is needed. This is not particular to this lab, it characterizes every lab I have worked in. People just think they are too important to do menial tasks, even though doing these menial tasks is essential to keeping everyone's work going. One guy even admitted to me that he thought it was beneath him. Well guess what, I have much more seniority in the lab and I do it. Grrrr.

And it spills on to everyday life, people running red lights are really saying "I don't care if it is dangerous, my needs are more important than yours." No one wants to pay taxes anymore for public services. It seems that little by little our ability to be generous is fading away. It makes me just want to stay home and not interact with anyone, since I just feel the need to prepare myself for their rudeness. Is that rude of me?