We Don’t Talk Merely to Persuade: a response to Rod Dreher
hugoschwyzer.substack.com
Manners were important in my family. I have written about this often. I was taught how to shake hands properly, how to navigate complex table settings, and how to pull a chair out for a woman at dinner. The goal of all these lessons was, as I was told by everyone, “to make other people feel comfortable.” I griped in my adolescence that all these lessons were just antiquated rituals designed to reinforce class distinctions; later in life, after I’d been humbled a time or two, I came to find that these “antiquated rituals” were, in fact, extraordinarily precious. I could throw away marriages, careers, money, and reputation; I could even behave so badly that my freedom was taken from me. The one thing that could not be taken was manners.
We Don’t Talk Merely to Persuade: a response to Rod Dreher
We Don’t Talk Merely to Persuade: a response…
We Don’t Talk Merely to Persuade: a response to Rod Dreher
Manners were important in my family. I have written about this often. I was taught how to shake hands properly, how to navigate complex table settings, and how to pull a chair out for a woman at dinner. The goal of all these lessons was, as I was told by everyone, “to make other people feel comfortable.” I griped in my adolescence that all these lessons were just antiquated rituals designed to reinforce class distinctions; later in life, after I’d been humbled a time or two, I came to find that these “antiquated rituals” were, in fact, extraordinarily precious. I could throw away marriages, careers, money, and reputation; I could even behave so badly that my freedom was taken from me. The one thing that could not be taken was manners.