20-40-60 Etiquette---Airplane Etiquette?
QUESTION: On a recent airline trip, my seat was in the back of the airplane. The man behind me sprinted up the aisle when the plane stopped. He about knocked over everyone in his way. I heard someone ask him if he had a plane to catch and he answered “no, I just wanted off the airplane.”
My question: should everyone have blocked his way so that he could have politely taken his turn in getting off of the airplane?
(Readers: Has this happened to you? What did you do?)
CALLIE’S ANSWER: HA!! Some people are just impatient, or have other places to go. Who knows? Let this slide, laugh at it! Who cares!
LILLIE-BETH’S ANSWER: I don’t think you can manage “everyone” else when it comes to rude people, so all I can do is commiserate with you. It’s frustrating to see people get their way by pushing others aside, but we have always seen that. And actions like that are disheartening because they make the world feel less like a community and more like one where it’s “every man for himself.” Groupthink, or in this case, group action where people blocked the aisles, can happen spontaneously to put limits on a person who is out of control, but it doesn’t make the person any less rude. It might make him angrier.
Since you were at the back, his sprinting probably didn’t affect the timing of your departure from the aircraft, so I think you have to let it go. I don’t think you can fight rudeness with rudeness, and the less time you spend fretting about it, the better off you’re going to be.
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