Kamahl - Why are people so unkind?

I have a rant and a rave on here from time to time and I've always considered myself fairly cynical, but bloody hell - some of the people around here (the suburb in which I live) make me feel like Mr Positive.

Just lately I have had the misfortune to have close dealings with a couple of locals who seem to spend all their time 'dissing' everyone else, and anything new which may come up has some reason why it can't be done, rather than embracing change which is generally for the better - these people want everything to be the same as it's always been.

These are the same people that you may know - their sentences usually start with something like "I've lived here for 20 years and...." or "in 20 years I've never seen (insert subject here)"

The inference is that having lived locally for a number of years makes you more or less entitled to an opinion or right to have your say - whereas someone who hasn't lived locally for so long should automatically have less of a say, or no say at all.

These are also the loudest shouting people in the neighbourhood who consider that everyone shares their opinions (or should share their opinions) and they therefore are the hard done by majority (in their view).

So - to the header - Kamahls famous quote "Why are people so unkind?"

Going by the people I am referring to here it's down to:

a) stupidity (in more than one case) with  a blinkered narrow view, and
b) pure nastiness because setting people against each other, spreading rumours and gossip around the neighbourhood, and creating an unpleasant environment to destroy good works where others have worked hard to build good relationships and a strong community must help their self esteem in some way.

Go figure, because I can't.

I have taken steps to not engage with these people any more, and it seems to have a good effect on me, as I feel a little happier in myself, but it's sad that a community can be ruined by a few toxic and unpleasant people.

Shame.