Nobody knows how to behave

So last week I went to a performance by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. I don't go very often - a couple of times a year at best - it depends on what they're playing, which often is not something I'll consider worth paying for and travelling to. I have to admit that the recent performances I've heard seemed pretty reasonable (Messiaen's Turangalila Symphonie, Mahler's 3rd), so I probably should go more often. A live orchestra is a wonderful auditory experience.

A less wonderful experience is that of one's fellow audients. Throughout the last show, there was an old (older, at least) couple behind us (us being the only people who read this blog, so not sure why I'm even bothering to go over this) who constantly made noise. Rustling, rubbing, blurted comments aplenty, krinkling (my God, the krinkling drove everyone nuts). Perhaps senility is a viable excuse for this, but aren't older people supposed to have manners? I thought it was only thoughtless youth, abandoned by their self-absorbed parents at birth and raised by cell phones, who were supposed to behave like they're watching TV at home at intimate public events. There is a manners crisis in the world today, and its causes are not what conventional wisdom would have you think. I actually can't imagine what the cause is - I hate blanket declarations about causality - but it's probably the case that people have never had any manners throughout history.