Date: Thu, 23 Oct 1997 13:58:59 -0400 From: Ron Butters Subject: the world is going to the currs On Wed, 22 Oct 1997 20:17:33 -0400 MELISSA S. SMITH said: >Can you honestly say that you haven't noticed a decrease in politeness in >the last 20, 10, even 5 years? Yes, I can honestly say that. I can also honestly say that throughout the entire history of western culture folks have continued to mourn that the world was going to the dogs and that culture in general was in decline. Generally speaking, the older we get the more it seems that the world is going downhill, when really all we are observing is change. The evidence that I have from reading literature causes me to believe that impoliteness has always had a strong role to play (read Pope's "Essay on Man," for example).