I so much like this word and what it entails. It is very often mentioned in Elizabethan time and Victoriana, period dramas and books. 1) Has social behaviour slipped through the ages or was there never such thing but just a notion that exist in books and literature? and 2) do you agree with the following saying by Lord Chesterfield who was seeking understanding trying to define les moeurs: ''manners are too little and morals are too much''
1) of course there is and always has been 'social behavior'... how can you think it's only a notion or fiction when you see it being practiced all around you every day?... as for it having 'slipped' you need to explain what you mean by that... the 'accepted norms' of social behavior change over time, as society itself changes and it differs from one societal group to another... so i don't know what you mean by 'slipped'... 2) no, i don't agree with it... i see nothing 'too much' about having moral standards, though i might agree that simple 'manners' are too little, when assumed merely for appearances sake and not backed up by moral standards...
... what I meant is writing about social beahviour/etiquettes and manners is only something you preach better in books. Yes people in general do not lack social behaviour but I was wondering wether ever since people started writing about it in books/stories and bibles that it only seems attainable in moral story and not in little snippets of realitites. we live in a vast world and no one really knows what goes on behind closed doors when manners and social etiquettes are most propably dropped at a drop of a hat. There is behaviour and behaviour as you know.
Manners are all well and good but I think a lot of the stuff from Victorian times was all about keeping status, who could act the most gentlemanly and ladylike in public, etc. I don't care for that. Give me a tawdry night drinking beer around the campfire over an intensely scruitinised 'occasion' any day.
I agree with you for the most part - it would be nice if people thought a little more about their public behavior, though. Or at least, subjecting innocent bystanders to their idiocies.
Oh yeah. I consider that more common sense in dealing with others than actual manners, though I guess the two overlap.
