badgenome said:
When was this golden age of good manners, exactly? I don't think it ever really existed. But even if you buy into the idyllic view of the '50s or whenever was supposed to be the glory days of etiquette, how much courtesy do you think you'd have been shown if you espoused the wrong beliefs? About as much as you'd be shown if you were the wrong color, I'd guess. Probably not even that much. Naturally, if you live in a more homogeneous and conformist time and place, there will be less strife because what's there to fight over? |
1950's were polite... in that they were formal when they shut your ass ou of beign able to earn a living for no reason because someones cousin's uncles girlfriend said you were a communist.
You know... just for being accused of having that point of view... let alone actually having it or expressing it. The word's may be more coarse now, but i'd say we've grown quite a bit in accepting different ideals. (Let alone being gay or black or a woman in the "good old polite" days"
