More Than Nice

Etiquette reveals the personality of a society. A standard of etiquette, yours or mine, reveals what we’re attached to and what we personally feel to be repelling. And we want others to respect our personal feelings about these things. So much so, we may make it a moral issue (Fundamentalists take the next step by claiming it as God’s will. Then it’s only a matter of time before their followers record it and canonize it).

And this is when etiquette merely feeds on morality’s reputation rather than its substance.

[via daydreamer]