This book is an important one for anyone interested in politics, in my opinion. This quote, though, is important right now. RIGHT now.
Politeness is dying. And it’s considerably more significant than a riot, though we’ve plenty of those, as well, despite their “mostly peaceful” monikers. While I’ve no desire to go back to a time where I would be forced to wear a corset every day and was bound to cook, clean, and bear children for my husband simply because I’m female… I do want to live in a time where doing so is not maligned or looked down upon. Or bad-mouthed.
I’m so very tired of many things right now, but the impoliteness is really getting to me right now. You can disagree with someone and be polite. It’s why the South invented the term, “Bless your heart!” Everyone knows if a Southern person says that to you, it’s the equivalent of saying to fuck off… but it’s not the SAME. It’s polite.
Why does it matter if we’re using polite language? I mean, if everyone knows that the polite language means the same thing as the brutal language, why bother to use the polite version? Because it’s social lubricant, that’s why.
Right now, the level of impoliteness is so damn bad. There’s sand in the gears, and no social lubricant at all. Important parts that really require lubrication are not getting it, and instead are being actively fed with things that gum up the works. That thin veil of politeness that was used until sometime in the 80s? That kept the machinery running. And now it isn’t. The machinery, the social machinery, is breaking down.
I will say that I noticed it first on the Right. That doesn’t mean it appeared there first, mind you… it’s just where I saw it. I ran into a couple of pundits (Ann Coulter immediately comes to mind, and Ben Shapiro from 10 years ago but NOT today) who really bothered me, and it put me off anything to do with the Right for a long time. Chris will tell you that anytime he tried to talk to me about something positive, I’d pull out, “Well, that Ann woman was just swearing and being a shit.” It was not good.
At the time, say 10 years ago, I didn’t see it on the Left. I see it daily on the Left, now. That could be entirely my perception, or it could be that the Left has gotten worse, or a combination of that and other factors, but the bottom line is that it doesn’t matter. Whether the Left learned it from the Right, or vice versa, or it all just happened at the same time, we’re here now. People are being so rude on a daily basis that it’s become endemic.
What scares me the most about all of it? America is (in my very strong opinion) the best country at the moment. We’re the most free, the most responsible (other than fiscally), the most helpful. We’re also the cheapest for our citizenry. And our people spend a good portion of their day complaining about how awful it all is. They have no idea what it’s like in other countries. Gas is $5.30 per gallon right now in Canada. In Britain it ranges from $7.50 to $8.10 per gallon. And those are the “free” countries. Housing is more expensive in Canada and Britain. Health care is, too, even if the cost is hidden. Food is ridiculously more expensive in both of those countries. Our citizens have no idea how they are faring in the world. They really don’t.
Our society is dying. If we don’t fix this soon… and by soon I mean in the next year or two at the outside… we’re not going to have a country anymore.