Am I suffering from getting older syndrome?

I had lunch out today with Sarah and Brad and it was dispppointing in some ways, but not because of the company. The waiter made the experience rather disappointing and exasperating. The guy was dumber than dirt with no common sense and bad manners to boot! I am certainly not a genius by any stretch of the imagination and I don't think I'm an intelligence snob either. The guy was just plain dumb and he didn't listen or pay attention or something, and I think that contributed to my low opinion of him. What really scares me though is that quite often a good portion of the waitstaff are college students. So if he's a college student, then I'm gonna be right there with the other hordes who complain about our educational system in this country. If my waiter is representative of what our educational system produces, we're doomed!

Let me clarify that when I say dumb, I mean uneducated dumb. No that's not right either because I've known plenty of really smart and bright people who weren't college educated. Maybe I just mean incompetent when I say dumb.

And it isn't just my waiter. I've been noticing too many people out there who seem to lack some basic skills and seem just plain dumb. And it's scary to me. I'm not sure though if I just notice it more in the younger generation or if the younger generation is dumber overall than my generation. I can tell you right now that my waiter today wouldn't have been able to make change if he had to!

So is there something to my observations or am I suffering from gettting older syndrome? You know, we've all heard older folks and most especially senior citizens complain about how everything was better in their day! Life was better, prices were cheaper, folks were smarter, folks had better manners, and just everything was better. Am I beginning to suffer from this dreaded syndrome already? But I'm only 43...that can't be. Plus I don't think everything was better when I was younger. Yep, prices were cheaper. But we have lots of cool technology and other things now. I like life today. I'm not nostalgic for the past. But I do think people should be getting smarter and not dumber. I watch old 1940s movies and see that people had a much better command of the language. People could speak coherently too when interviewed if you watch those newsreels from the 1960s. So what's going on? I see too many people nowadays who seem dumb. They have a limited grasp of language and barely any math skills. And forget about current events! Is it our educational system or is it too much MTV or is it some combination? I vote for the combination problem.

It just seems that being kinda dumb is becoming the norm and that scares me. Well let me tell you, in my day being competent and fairly well educated were the norm. Me thinks it's time to raise our standards!!!!