Manners

This is not an age of good manners in the U.S.. Our culture has been corrupted by the criminality of popular media propaganda. Exploiters of criminal subcultures have infected fashion and the arts with antisocial signatures. Graffiti, sagger clothes, tattoo mania ... all symptoms which are visible everywhere in the urban landscape. Withdrawal into an iPod screen or smart phone display is an understandable defense. What rational person wants to acknowledge being surrounded by people who give signals of criminality in their dress and behavior?

I recently heard an educated African-American professor defend gangster mannerisms and clothing in young Black males as a needed subcultural outlet. Her argument was irrational and based in ancient paradigms of American slavery, an institution which was abolished 150 years ago. Her portrayal of the origins of sagger pants was homophobically laundered to support her point. 

She maintained that sagger clothes originated from the oversized prison clothes given to slender, young African-American prisoners, who, she maintained, were all simply victims of the system, as opposed to convicted criminals. Actually, the dropping of the seat of prison pants over the buttocks by a young inmate is a signal that the inmate wishes to become the "bitch" of a stronger, protective inmate. It is part of a prison mating ritual. 

A society which uses aggression and bravado as currencies will inevitably be violent. No amount of legislation about guns will change the violence ingrained in culture, even if it is a good start. Young parents who accept this culture of aggression will pass this along to their children. This is very evident in some communities of all colors and ethnicities where generational poverty and drug abuse foster high mortality rates for adolescents. It is not the fault of "the man" that these communities are a mess. That is a tired old myth, a hangover from immigrant exploitation, slavery and Southern apartheid. "The man" is not responsible for teenage pregnancies and the devaluing of education and morals by immature single parents. 

Manners cost nothing. They will not raise taxes. They will not increase the National Debt or the deficit. However, manners may not sell cheesy reality TV shows either. I question whether there is any going back to a time of good manners. Perhaps this deterioration of public civility is just another symptom of overpopulation and environmental degradation. I persist in my own practice of good manners, but I often feel I am an anachronism.