Where have all our manners gone?

http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=manners&year_start=1790&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=

by mvleming • 14 years ago

2 2 14 years ago

books.google.com

noinput• 14 years ago

Then: The etiquette of card-leaving is a privilege which society places in the hands of ladies to govern and determine their acquaintanceships and intimacies, to regulate and decide whom they will, and whom they will not visit, whom they will admit into their friendship, and whom they will keep on the most distant footing, whose acquaintance they wish further to cultivate and whose to discontinue. [1]

Now: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2tMV96xULk#t=20s

I agree. Somewhere, somehow, society really took a turn for the worst.

[1] http://books.google.com/books?pg=PA19&dq=%22manners%22&#...

mvleming• 14 years ago

Whoa. I don't think society has taken a turn for the worst at all. I just found this really amusing.

I think there's definitely an aspect that the social norm or the way people were expected to behave was more classy or formal, however you want to define those words, in the Victorian era. But I think a new evolution of culture is just simply a new ice cream flavour: it's neither inherently good or bad, it's just the way it is. I know some people who take Jersey Shore as evidence that the world is going to hell. But in the grand scheme of things, on the bigger timeline, I feel everything's okay. I've spent 5 minutes trying to find another way to put it but I can't.

By the way I upvoted you.

Where have all our manners gone?

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