They walk in the Exit door. They walk out the Enter door.

Forget politics and any other number of much-discussed social ills that reportedly indicate the downfall of the nation and mankind.

If you want clear proof that things ain’t what they used to be, watch the doors of any large store.

A store doorway is literally the site of an impending collision between cultures: Those who follow and understand the societal rules of in and out, and those who do not.

For some reason, a growing number of people ignore the directional advice clearly emblazoned above each door: Enter | Exit. People walk the wrong way through both doors.

They seem to do so with pride: Look at me, I’m a rule breaker. Or, Look at me, I don’t care who I run into. Or, Look at me, I can’t read.

For example, say a person enters through the Exit door and you point to the sign above your heads, the wrong-way door user is liable to show you a different finger.

Point out the wrong use of entrances and exits to your own peril. There’s no reasoning with such folks.

And these folks represent what appears to be all ages, all races, men and women, rich, poor and in-between.

They all seem to not care.

They push through the Exit door not caring that they impede people with hands full of groceries using the proper door. They all seem offended or put out by people going the opposite direction even when the people going the opposite direction are using the proper door.

If this were an old comedy, these folks would be a Stooge repeatedly using the wrong door at a restaurant causing other waiters using the proper doors to crash large trays of food and plates everywhere.

What’s the solution? Maybe if the doors had words less complicated than Enter and Exit. Maybe the simpler In and Out? One syllable for the monosyllabic mind? Don’t bet on it.

Maybe it’s too late for doors. Perhaps, instead, we should take precautions that these folks don’t decide they can drive down whatever side of the street they want.

There’ll be more crashes then, but unlike a Stooge at a restaurant, there won’t be anything funny about it.

Dean Poling is an editor with The Valdosta Daily Times and editor of The Tifton Gazette.