The Age of Rudeness

> It strikes me that good manners would be the thing to aim for in the current situation. I have made a resolution, which is to be more polite. I don’t know what good it will do: This might be a dangerous time for politeness. It might involve sacrifices. It might involve turning the other cheek.

Important counter-point: http://gawker.com/on-smarm-1476594977

The idea that politeness is what divides the do-gooders from the bad ones is, I think, part of what got us into this mess in the first place.

Excuse the slight deviation from the principle of the linked article. I am compelled to speak out about one egregious paragraph.

> Meanwhile, in the Essex town of Harlow, a Polish man is murdered in the street by a gang of white youths who apparently heard him speaking his native language.

I spent the first nineteen years of my life in Harlow, living in the area of the murder referenced in the quote above. Most reports suggest the attack happened after a prolonged confrontation[0], not on sight of sound of a Polish voice.

While this act was desperately sad, Harlow remains a home to relatively large Polish and Lithuanian populations. It is, however, also afflicted by high youth unemployment and drug-related crime. The Stow in particular has seen some horrible crimes over the last 10-20 years, including the brutal murder of my childhood friend's aunt, mere feet away from the scene of the 2016 murder[1]. Indeed, violent crime is a real problem[2].

I found it distasteful at the time when sections of the press pounced upon this story in a reckless frenzy of angry, vindictive narrative building in the immediate aftermath of the EU exit referendum vote. I find it to be utterly disgraceful now.

[0] https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/dec/01/boy-15-charg... [1] http://www.harlowstar.co.uk/anniversary-appeal-killer-mother... [2] http://www.harlowstar.co.uk/harlow-council-leader-jon-clempn...

Maybe these people appear rude to the writer because people like her see them as invisible, low class types who are supposed to be run over by the pettiness of each self-aggrandizing, set-absorbing and condescending request from people like the writer. Maybe the writer claims superiority over these poor people simply because their uniforms are cheap-looking (her words), or her face is not what she expected (her words) or her salary doing their jobs is lower than what she gets paid writing this selfish nonsense. It's typical of the liberal elites like her that think that the world is wrong, only because the world is less privileged than they are.

I agree with the rude man that accusations of rudeness are themselves rude! (Even where they are true).

This reflexive property is interesting, for example:

Hatred is harmful. Accusation of hatred is a form of hatred. Racism is harmful. Accusation of racism is also harmful. Rape is harmful. Accusation of rape is harmful. Pedophilia is harmful. Accusation of pedophilia is harmful. Blasphemy is harmful. Accusation of blasphemy is harmful.

Obviously the harm isn't generally equal. Does the disparity say something about how honest a society is?