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Kudos, Miss Manners

Friday, November 29th, 2002

Also from Time (and also not online) is a quick interview with Miss Manners Judith Martin. I like her answer to this question:

You suggest people are more aware of bad manners these days. Any examples of people going too far to modify rude behavior?

People are more and more using the law to outlaw behavior that is merely annoying or disgusting. Cities are legislating against cell phones and smoking. To use the law to control that kind of behavior gives us a lot less freedom. Etiquette is voluntary. Its enforcement arm is disapproval.

Well said.

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This entry was posted on Friday, November 29th, 2002 at 10:49 am by Radley Balko and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

5 Responses to “Kudos, Miss Manners”

  1. #1 |  Evan McElravy |  November 29th, 2002 at 12:00 pm

    And water is more addictive than both (how about those withdrawl symptoms?), so what’s his point?

  2. #2 |  Evan McElravy |  November 29th, 2002 at 12:01 pm

    Oops…I’m a dolt…should be on previous message.

  3. #3 |  Jeff |  November 29th, 2002 at 3:37 pm

    Using a cell phone while driving has nothing to do with etiquette…and everything to do with public safety, but one won’t come to that conclusion until one is almost clobbered by a cell phone user who is so engrossed in their conversation that they don’t realize the light is red…good thing I was paying attention, as otherwise I might not be typing this comment.

  4. #4 |  Mike Main |  November 29th, 2002 at 7:48 pm

    Note: law and safety are outside the scope of this email.

    Judith Martin is a good writer with an excellent sense of humor.

  5. #5 |  Derek Murrow |  November 29th, 2002 at 9:54 pm

    I think Radley is on to something here. People are more and more using law to outlaw behavior that is merely annoying or disgusting (or at least should be dealt with at a level closer to the incidence than some federal court/law/?) Now maybe law and safety are outside the scope of this email, or at least my typing abilities, but somehow common sense and wisdom have been completely abandoned by our culture/society.
    Now there are alot of things done and said by others that I refuse to get within miles of, but I cannot see getting others, Locally let alone Federally, to make rules or laws against these offensive incidents. I am sure there are things that I say and do that I offend somebody (though I cannot imagine who/what or how) and I surely do not want any more laws restricting my pursuit of life liberty and happiness.