What We Have Here Is...

...Failure to Communicate.

Let's spend a few minutes to converse with our kids, parents, neighbors, and peers. You don't even have to be sincere, just friendly. Make that person feel good and do the same for yourself. People are afraid to talk to each other.
Women on my exercise trail never make eye contact with men. Now, she doesn't know who I am and if I am a potential thug, but this happens even in public places like retail stores. On the other hand, men take too kindly to a woman's friendly hello. People either don't want to be bothered to be courteous or they don't trust the person next to them. I'll be the first to admit that I don't like having to talk to my neighbors every time I see them, but I at least wave and acknowledge them. It's respectful.
We used to live in a society that taught those values. Maybe people were more comfortable back then. Yes, some neighborhoods never locked their doors or worried about serious crimes. Today's world is a different place. No, society isn't at its worst. There are many locations of geography and history that life was a dreadful, trechorous environment. We have not reached those levels again. The only reason we're more aware of it is because of a few factors: there are more people in the world; thus, crime statistics go up (yet we never look at percentages based on population), the news/media coverage only describes the negatives of society, and last, there are more ways for people to commit crimes making it sound like everyone, everywhere is committing a crime.
The worst news people get is "You could be a victim, too!" Okay, yes...we are prone to events and circumstances of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Not being educated about certain things also makes people vulnerable. I think e-mail/internet scams are the worst because so many people use these services and never learn anything about them to begin with. It's like getting in a car for the first and driving 500 miles to someplace you have no idea where it's at. You're going to have an accident or get lost - something wrong will happen.
People are afraid to ask questions or learn anything new. They feel stupid if they have to ask. Work retail and see how many men refuse to ask where something is; on the flip side, see how many women never know where things are.