Acting With Impunity

Last weekend I had a big dinner party with lots of wine and I was talking to a friend from Italy. He was commenting on the idea that humans, post-pandemic, have been acting with “impunity.” He loved that word. Impunity.

I argued that humans have always sucked but he wanted to bring up a few small and seemingly silly points - road rage seems to be on the rise, people are acting boorishly on public transit, and the old norms have broken down. No one is worried about being seen as a scofflaw because everyone is scoffing at the law. If you’ve been on a subway or even a plane recently you’ll have noticed the change. People play their music loudly without headphones. Cars race up and down suburban streets. Shoppers are super focused and refuse to yield in grocery stores and kids walk down the street with their noses in their phones.

Basically, everyone is out for themselves.