Comments on: “The Death of Decency”

By: Stilgherrian

Stilgherrian — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 07:14:27 +0000

Well said, Raven. And I’ll spend a little while reading your blog during the week — it looks fascinating!

By: Raven

Raven — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 04:33:46 +0000

Emilio’s statement reflects the view of many people I have met since moving to San Francisco. The sooner that Australia stops trying to be the inbred cousin of the US the better. The watering hole is drying up and fast. When people are more aware of the latest sexually explicit photographs of a compromised American Idol contestant than they are about things that matter, require thought and then action … we need to question ourselves.

By: Stilgherrian

Stilgherrian — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 03:01:42 +0000

Ta for the comment, Andrew.

I’ve also read that the ongoing War on Things to Be Afraid Of has, as a side-effect of ramping up fear generally, caused people to be more suspicious of strangers — and therefore less likely to be polite or helpful.

I’ll post a link if I ever stumble across it again…

By: The Other Andrew

The Other Andrew — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 02:33:24 +0000

Yeah, I saw this too and was blown away by it. Sing it Emilio! Some of that applies here too I think, maybe it’s a change in perspective on my behalf but I’ve been noticing so much rudeness and lack of basic civility lately.

I can’t remember where I read it but I read an interesting point of view about manners and civility recently. That they function to keep the wheels of societies oiled by giving us a level of comfort in what to expect. With manners you have some sense of what strangers are likely to do. Without it things become unpredictable. Interesting point of view I thought.