Bumper Sticker Stone Age Part 2: Etiquette
Down by the stream of cyber-consciousness, the Bumper Sticker Stone Age has clubbed etiquette over the head and dragged it back to a cave of obsolescence.
This bodes ill for a nation founded as a revolutionary experiment in liberty and self-government.
A healthy society requires self-governing citizens capable of restraining their passions and maintaining public decorum, so they might pacifically and industriously build an enduring civilization. This is impossible in a self-absorbed society of roués perpetually pursuing physical gratification at the expense of the public good.
Yes, people have always been people, and it is a mistake to nostalgically wax over the humanity’s enduring interest in affairs of the heart or other parts. But our Bumper Sticker Stone Age’s avalanche of constant and often very public posts, texts, tweets and e-mails has buried etiquette, most notoriously in the realm of romance.
Once upon a time, courtships were intricate, elaborate rituals; public displays of affection were disdained; lovers endeavored to keep their intimate communications private; and the “discovery” of private love letters by public officials could cost someone their throne and head.
Now the chance to immediately go looking for love in all the wrong cyberspaces means that what passes for romance must be lost or found on the fly. The “sweet sorrow” of parting is substituted with a saccharin “status” change on facebook or an unappetizing “unfollow” on twitter. Time intensive courtship rituals have hastened into “speed dating” and “on-line hook ups.” Writhing on the tide, public officials have “progressed” from the tender, heart-rending private letters of Abelard and Heloise to twit pics and Craig’s List. While this did cost the public officials in question their careers, how long will this be the case in a culture that has devolved from lines of Shakespearean sonnets to links to One Night in Paris?
Indeed, how long can our free republic withstand this Bumper Sticker Stone Age’s debasement of etiquette? As American citizens, we know liberty includes our God-given right to free speech; and self-government entails our responsibility to keep personal matters private for the public good. This is not a call for self-censorship, but for self-restraint – a plea for those who extol the right to privacy to use it. And it is a reminder that liberty without self-government is anarchy; and that anarchy is a recipe for tyranny.
Pardon me, my tweeps - “TMI”?
Agreed, IMHO.
Thaddeus G. McCotter, U.S. Representative (MI-11)
- Comment (10)
- · Quote
- · UnfollowFollow (1)
Comments :
Dec '10
Re: Bumper Sticker Stone Age Part 2: Etiquette
Self government only works with people willing to govern themselves individually. Sadly, society cannot teach people the benefits of self regulation (thanks, liberals!) and families seem to have forgotten how to teach it. The solution? I got none, but it's still fun to commiserate.
In keeping with the inappropriate expressions theme of the post: your star spangled Tele, I haz a lust for it.
Jun '10
Re: Bumper Sticker Stone Age Part 2: Etiquette
I'm sure you make a good point about something, but my attention span is so short. Is there a tweet you can send me to?
Jan '11
Re: Bumper Sticker Stone Age Part 2: Etiquette
That reminds me of the 2 rules of propriety:
Apr '11
Re: Bumper Sticker Stone Age Part 2: Etiquette
I wonder if reality TV has some effect on our loss of etiquette and lack of shame. Night after night the trivial is glorified while millions tune in to pass judgement in their respective living rooms, along with some living vicariously through the characters and events as we are all want to do through a good book or movie.
Without a hope and trust in God or any faith in a creator we have no anchor for the soul so we must fashion a man made one out of our expressed thoughts pasted on our cars, laptops and phones.
P.S. President McCotter, it has a nice ring to it.
Aug '10
Re: Bumper Sticker Stone Age Part 2: Etiquette
k
Jan '11
Re: Bumper Sticker Stone Age Part 2: Etiquette
You have now implanted in my brain the image of Heloise and Abelard exchanging tweets.
Abelard@Cathedral.edu: Uncle Fulbert just cut me off in mid-manhood.
Heloise@Fulbert.com: OMG! Might as well enter a convent.
Edited on Oct 11, 2011 at 8:32amAug '10
Re: Bumper Sticker Stone Age Part 2: Etiquette
Margaret Ball: You have now implanted in my brain the image of Heloise and Abelard exchanging tweets.
Abelard@Cathedral.edu: Uncle Fulbert just cut me off in mid-manhood.
Heloise@Fulbert.com: OMG! Might as well enter a convent. · Oct 11 at 8:31am
Edited on Oct 11 at 08:32 am
Bt,sft ! wht lt thru yndr wndw brks ?
Dec '10
Re: Bumper Sticker Stone Age Part 2: Etiquette
The important question is, "Do you believe Rastafarianism s a cult"?
Apr '11
Re: Bumper Sticker Stone Age Part 2: Etiquette
When it comes to discovering what romance used to be like, I think there's a bit of a selection bias here. We know about Heloise and Abelard because of their letters, but we'd never know about anyone illiterate who had a brief and fleeting romance with a wench he found down in a tavern somewhere. I think it's erroneous to conclude that romance used to be long-burning and more heavily documented in the past.
Jan '11
Re: Bumper Sticker Stone Age Part 2: Etiquette
dude your totes #bumminmeout
Edited on Oct 11, 2011 at 9:29pm