Our elites today assume that we want to see them naked: their politics, their passions, their hatreds, their obsessions, their stuff, etc. No thanks.

American etiquette, she maintains, is the ultimate liberating social tool, because it requires that everyone be treated with a certain baseline of civility, and then proposes a merit-based (or sometimes age-based, but not money-based or title-based except as title comes via merit) hierarchy for distinguishing between individuals in an etiquette sense. The business of forks is so secondary as to be almost (but not quite) quaint. (I LOVE Miss Manners.)

But because “courtesies” are often elaborate and artificial – the word “curtsy” comes from it – only those who were wealthy enough to have leisure time could afford to invest the time in these arcane arts. They thus became associated with the wealthy, who had an interest in making them as difficult as possible for the lower classes to imitate.

That is funny as hell.

Interesting that Sergey mentions “net etiquette” . I find it very amusing (in a disturbing sort of way) that the same people who will chastise you over the internet for using all caps (or some MINOR infraction) are probably out there Bogarting (hey that tells my age) parking spaces, shoving in line, and letting their kids run amok (thanks Dr. Spock).