A video has gone “viral” of an American Airlines pilot’s pre-flight speech telling passengers to behave ethically, with over 5 million views on Instagram and other platforms. He said in part (the videos miss the very beginning of the speech, apparently):

Welcome on board our flight. Remember: The flight attendants are primarily here for your safety.  After that, they’re here to make your flight more enjoyable. They’re going to take care of you guys, but you will listen to what they have to say because they represent my will in the cockpit or in the cabin, and my will is what matters. Be nice to each other. Be respectful to each other. I shouldn’t have to say that. You people should treat each other the way you want to be treated. But I have to say it every single flight because people don’t, and they’re selfish and rude, and we won’t have it, okay? Stow your stuff. Get it out of everybody else’s way. Put your junk where it belongs. Everybody here paid for a space. Don’t lean on other people. Don’t fall asleep on other people. Don’t pass out on other people or drool on ‘em unless you’ve talked about it and they have a weather-assisted jacket. All right. A little bit of fatherhood here, the other thing. The social experiment on listening to videos on speaker mode and talking on a cellphone on speaker mode…that is over, over and done in this country. Nobody wants to hear your video. I know you think it’s super sweet, and it probably is, but it’s your business, right? Keep it to yourself. Use your airbuds, your headphones, whatever it is. That’s your business, okay? It’s just part of being in a respectful society. Middle seaters: I know it stinks to be in the middle. Raise ‘em up. Anybody in the middle? Like five people. Yeah, right. That’s full. All right. Nobody’s listening. Fine. You own both armrests. That is my gift to you.

You can hear the speech here.

Observations:

1. This is, of course, one more symptom that the U.S. is devolving into a society of assholes, as I so sagely foresaw.

2. The airlines, however, do not have the moral or ethical authority to presume to lecture anyone. They have made flying a stressful hellscape, and their own policies and confusing handling of the Wuhan freakout didn’t help.

3. The likely truth is that the people who need to heed this message won’t, and those who continue to fly using good manners and observing the Golden Rule shouldn’t be lectured like they are six years old.

4. I found the tone of the pilot’s speech obnoxious, arrogant and offensive. Being rude while telling people not to be rude is not a productive approach to improving societal interaction. The pilot invokes reciprocity, then addresses people in a manner he would not tolerate himself. He’s a hypocrite.

5. I don’t pay exorbitant prices to be insulted and dictated to by someone who presumes that I’m an asshole. American has so far refused to comment on the pilot’s tin god outburst. I suspect he has been told to cool it. I hope so. He should be.

6. As for his “gift” regarding those in the center seat, my message would be “bite me.” He can’t impose that rule by fiat when people purchased their seats with no notice of it whatsoever. If a middle seat occupant isn’t using an armrest, then another passenger next to him or her can. It isn’t “owned.”