Welcome to the Wednesday Coffee Hour here on Street Prophets. This is an open thread where we can hang out and talk about what’s going on in our worlds. I thought it might be interesting to talk about good manners and civility today.
Lynn Truss, in her book Talk to the Hand, writes:
“Manners never were enforceable, in any case. Indeed, for many philosophers, this is regarded as their chief value: that they are voluntary. In 1912, the jurist John Fletcher Moulton claimed in a landmark speech that the greatness of a nation resided not in its obedience to laws, but in its abiding by conventions that were not obligatory.”
“Manners are based on an ideal of empathy, of imagining the impact of one’s own actions on others. They involve doing something for the sake of other people that is not obligatory and attracts not reward. In the current climate of unrestrained solipsistic and aggressive self-interest, you can equate good manners not only with virtue but with positive heroism.”
So what’s your opinion of good manners? Does any of this apply to life here on the Daily Kos?
This is an open thread so feel free to talk about what’s happening in your life.