The Death of Civility
Friday, October 12th, 2007Dear Reader,
When did we become a rude nation? I mean we are not France rude, but none-the-less, we are rude. I’ve give you 2 examples.
Language
I’m on my way back from a great time in California. I love the weather there (except today because it’s got me socked in at SFO) I’ve truly had a great time. But it struck me while I was out here that people out here cannot express a thought without punctuating it with a “fuck” or a “goddamn”. It’s like an epidemic out here. Casual conversation out here is R-rated and it doesn’t seem to bother anyone. I can remember when foul language was relegated to movies and late-night TV. I had lunch one day with a couple of colleagues. One of the members of our party could not find a way to talk in a conversational tone or complete a sentence without a profane punctuation. Even in California, people were starting to turn and stare.
People like to make fun of southerns but at least we still hold to the concept of “polite company” and temper our language when it may offend others.
Respect
In the past 2 jobs I’ve had in California, I’ve been the “Red State” on the org chart. it’s not quite that bad where I work but I am the vocal minority. However, there is one that, Democrat, Republican, or thinking voter, all used to agree on. When refering to a president, past or present, we use the honorific, “President”. I was listening to a conversation the other day between two people who were not not native Americans. One said something about conferences not being in America and the other immediately said “yeah, because of Bush”. (IMHO, ROW does not dislike America…Europe does. For some reason they feel they can speak for ROW.) To the point though, it’s “President Bush” not “Bush”. The Democratic party has produced the two most embarrassing presidents in my life time and I still have the civility to refer to them as President Carter and President Clinton. It’s not a sign of respect for the man, it’s a sign of respect to the office.
Anyhow, just felt the need to rant. If you think you recognize the people in this post, I can guarantee you that you don’t. Quit trying to guess and just flame me for having the audacity to have an opinion.
Until next time,
(l)(k)(bunny)
=C=
