Courtesy and manners: setting an example

In a previous post in this blog I commented on the difficulties we face as a society from the gradual erosion of courtesy and consideration. We live in a society in which rudeness, aggression and discourtesy are accepted all too easily.

I developed this theme in one of the graduation addresses I gave this week, and this in turn was picked up by some of the media. In a radio interview this morning on this matter, one of the questions raised was what influences might be playing a part in all this. I answered that people were often given a bad example by those in positions of prominence – the example of the prank telephone calls by Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand came to mind. But I also suggested that the nature and quality of parliamentary debates could give rise to the conclusion that rudeness and aggression were acceptable.

Below is an extract from the Dail Debates of today, November 12. It is a very typical extract. And I cannot help feeling that the cause of greater courtesy and consideration is not assisted by such exchanges.

Deputy Joan Burton:   After taking the medical card from our pensioners the Government has nothing to boast about.

Deputy Denis Naughten:   We are being provoked. I seek the protection of the Chair.

Deputy Joan Burton:   The Deputy will go down in history with former Minister Earnán de Blaghd.

Deputy Denis Naughten:   We are being provoked.

An Ceann Comhairle:   Deputy Naughten is easily provoked.

Deputy Michael Kennedy:   Deputy Burton’s Government is on record as giving £1.50.

Deputy Joan Burton:   Deputy Michael Kennedy is Earnán de Blaghd’s true successor.

An Ceann Comhairle:   Never mind Mr. Blaghd; he is dead and gone.

Deputy Joan Burton:   He is the Deputy’s great great grandfather. Does Deputy Michael Kennedy know who he is?

I cannot help feeling that, as a society, we need to start a debate on how we should relate to and interact with each other. Unless we become better at showing mutual respect, we cannot be surprised if others, including young people, conclude that discourtesy is an appropriate form of conduct.

Common courtesies

I confess you may find this to be another of those posts on this blog that show me to be some ghastly middle-aged traditionalist. But here I go anyway.

This morning, as I was about to leave a shop, I saw an elderly man with a walking stick who was about to enter; so I stood back and held the door open for him. He walked past and grunted something, perhaps to me and perhaps not; and a couple of teenage girls who were watching had a fit of giggles.

And these days, almost every day of the week at some point I will see a group of youths, usually young men, standing around verbally molesting passers by.

Of course none of these phenomena are unique to our age, and as I have pointed out in other contexts, those who believe that there was once a golden age (whatever that may have been) are deluding themselves. But for all that, I do wonder whether the concept of ‘manners’ has peculiarly disappeared from our social environment at this point in history. As a young boy I went to a boarding school, and every menu for our meals had the words at the foot of the page, ‘manners maketh man’ (sorry, that was not yet an inclusive age in terms of gender). And then, some years later when I was studying for my driving test, the state-published booklet setting out driving theory began with the statement that at the heart of all good driving were the three ‘C’s: ‘care’, ‘courtesy’ and ‘consideration’.

If I bemoan the fact (if it is a fact) that we have lost a sense of manners, it is not because I am yearning to be treated with the respect due to my great age, or that I have some sort of old-fashioned desire for Victorian primness – though there is an interesting analysis of Victorian manners in Gertrude Himmelfarb’s book, The De-moralization Of Society: From Victorian Virtues to Modern Values (1996). Rather, it is because I believe that manners and courtesy are part of the glue that allows us to have communities with a sense of community spirit. The basic premise of the idea of a community is that we feel concern for and solidarity with others; and it is hard to generate that condition if on the whole our attitude and behaviour towards others is one of contempt or even just disregard.

On the other hand, manners and courtesy will seem counter-intuitive to people if we do not provide them with the social infrastructures into which these concepts can fit easily. If we maintain local communities without social spaces and supports and without opportunities for young people in particular to make social contributions we cannot be surprised if people discover a sense of fun experienced on the back of other people’s discomfort. Society needs to get people’s respect, but it also needs to earn it. And if someone of my generation wants to be shown respect by today’s youth, we also need to show them respect.

My fear at the moment is that we treat ‘manners’ as some sort of outdated practice that we should now regard as vaguely embarrassing. We need to find a way back from that position, but perhaps we also need to foster a better understanding of what society – and community – really is.