Noblesse Oblige: Where Have All Our Manners Gone?
By Marion Edwyn Harrison, Esq.
February 24, 2006

From aircraft to automobile, beach to bus, cellular to crosswalk, sidewalk to street, stop light to stop sign, train to trolley, website to walkway, wherever alliteration and observation ubiquitously take us, the scene increasingly is that of varying manifestations of rudeness.

Perhaps we expect a bit more rudeness, or at least less social grace, among whatever group of people (whether from observation, prejudice or both) we might consider socially inferior. However, the common man, however "common" he may be, may have more dignity than some among the more privileged. Further, that common man if vulgar well may have a more exculpatory genesis for his vulgarity.

Can you imagine a liberal Democratic Member of the House of Representatives of the United States (from California) inviting as her guest to the House Gallery for the State of the Union Address by the President of the United States a well-known full-time anti-military rabble-rouser who at a propitious moment unveils upon her attire a political slogan? The "lady" then is "escorted" from the Gallery, neither charged with a crime nor sent to a school for common decency.

Perhaps, given the record of that particular Representative in Congress, you could imagine it.

Try again. Can you imagine the wife of a reasonably conservative Republican Member of the House of Representatives (from Florida), same time, same place, who unveils upon her attire a different political slogan? Again, no criminal charge, no dispatch to a school for common decency.

Perhaps, given the public persona of that particular Representative in Congress, you would have more trouble in imagining it.

Try again, with a far smaller live audience but still a TV audience. A guest in a public hearing of a United States Senate committee stands up in the audience and disrupts the hearing by commencing to heckle the Secretary of Homeland Security, who is the invited witness attempting to testify. He also is "escorted" out; again, no criminal charge, no dispatch to a school for common decency.

Hardly serious but dubious manners and an exemplar of commonality, guests invited to the White House East Room for the swearing in of the 116th Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States bring cameras, snap pictures of themselves with the Justice, then display the pictures on the Internet. The snapping is permissible (although decorum and dignity might suggest otherwise). Yet imagine the example of rudeness and self-aggrandizement to post the pictures on the Internet!

The maxim Noblesse oblige, expressed in different forms and languages, appearing through history, strongly suggests, if it does not command, the more privileged to set the example for the lesser privileged. For certain, those who flout its grace and wisdom not only denigrate themselves but set a perverse example.

It is not surprising that judges, police, school teachers, referees, umpires, coaches, hospital and other institutional personnel and all those people who must attempt to maintain order and orderliness find their tasks more difficult. None would gainsay that a more compelling effort toward basic courtesy and that degree of formality necessary to facilitate courtesy must begin at home. However, the more privileged few - yes, to include Democratic and Republican Members of Congress - must set the example. Mob rule awaits its opportunity.

The Free Congress Foundation will continue, as it has for more than a quarter century, to promote a culture of civility, courtesy, dignity and manners.

Noblesse oblige.

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Marion Edwyn Harrison is President of, and Counsel to, the Free Congress Foundation.

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Note -- The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, views, and/or philosophy of GOPUSA.