Dissident Veteran For Peace

The following is from a message I sent recently in response to a dispute over the appropriateness of politely leafleting at an upcoming cultural event:

P., E., and F. have all invoked propriety. Now, I care about kindness, generosity, treating people respectfully--when they deserve it--and I care about thinking and acting strategically and tactically but I don't give a rat's patootey about propriety, etiquette, civility, etc. at least not in the way it is typically used to disempower and silence people. I've been thinking about this subject for some time and I want to share below some quotes on the matter (all emphasis added).

The high degree of self-consciously controlled behaviour that comprised Victorian etiquette was a strategem of power through inclusion and exclusion.

--Linda Young. Middle-Class Culture in the Nineteenth Century: America, Australia and Britain. (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003) p. 84. From the chapter titled "The Civilizing Process: the Morphology of Gentility" and the section titled "The well-mannered society."

Many nineteenth-century middle-class people found such a demanding level of restraint was impossible. Anger was the topic most addressed by the advisory literature, which recommended avoiding contentious topics as the safest technique to avoid argument. This may have been viable advice within social situations where people gathered to perform the genteel rituals of their status. In everyday life with its complement of frustrations caused by circumstances beyond the individual's control, the need to express anger could find a domestic outlet in rage towards inferiors such as servants, children or women.

--Young. p. 118. From the chapter titled "Under Control: the Genteel Body." Elsewhere Young describes how middle-class people were, overwhelmingly, the main consumers of the "advisory literature."

Etiquette was a dynamic, evolving, yet prescriptive, discourse manipulated by the fluent to identify their like and exclude outsiders.

--Young. p. 124. From the chapter titled "Best Behaviour: Public Relationships."

Etiquette derived from the courtly practice of seventeenth-century France, where the Bourbon kings controlled the nobility with a centripetal network of highly ritualized ceremonies in which the monarch's favour transferred power to successful subordinates.

--Young. p. 127.

The three excerpts below are from the article "Tyranny of the Few" by Dr. Doug Magann. Magann was the superintendent of the Mobile (AL) County Public School System until he was fired for seriously trying to change the abysmal school system and challenging the power elite that made the school system rotten and kept it that way. The first part of the article, especially, is well worth reading for Magann's insights on education, power, and wealth. Again all emphasis is mine. Read the full article here.

One would think that the School Board would be taking whatever actions needed to attain reasonably adequate and equitable funding for the schools (including, but not limited to, educating the general public about how things really work and how to change the rules). One would also think that the Teacher Union might be involved in such an endeavor, but both have been acculturated into the beggar mentality.

No one wants to offend the rulers. Never mind that the people cannot help themselves or that, given the existing rules, the Legislators are the only ones in a position to help the children. If they become offended, there will be retribution. This is the plantation, and such retribution could, and probably would, affect certain offending individuals personally.

What should we call the invocation of politeness, gentility, and civility as weapons to obscure the truth and effectively preclude the victims from influencing their destinies or those of their children? When people have been taught to accept the premise that open confrontation with authority figures is 'rude' and to be avoided at all cost, regardless of the circumstances or how they are being treated, it is more than sufficient to establish bondage to those that make the rules. And how should we describe those in the community who see these things, recognize them for what they are, and turn away in self-serving complacency?

See also: When Dialogue is NOT our Hope

Last revised: 10/31/2006