

Where have all our manners gone? - mvleming
http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=manners&year_start=1790&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=

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noinput
Then: The etiquette of card-leaving is a privilege which society places in the
hands of ladies to govern and determine their acquaintanceships and
intimacies, to regulate and decide whom they will, and whom they will not
visit, whom they will admit into their friendship, and whom they will keep on
the most distant footing, whose acquaintance they wish further to cultivate
and whose to discontinue. [1]

Now: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2tMV96xULk#t=20s>

I agree. Somewhere, somehow, society really took a turn for the worst.

[1] [http://books.google.com/books?pg=PA19&dq=%22manners%22&#...</a>

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mvleming
Whoa. I don't think society has taken a turn for the worst at all. I just
found this really amusing.

I think there's definitely an aspect that the social norm or the way people
were expected to behave was more classy or formal, however you want to define
those words, in the Victorian era. But I think a new evolution of culture is
just simply a new ice cream flavour: it's neither inherently good or bad, it's
just the way it is. I know some people who take Jersey Shore as evidence that
the world is going to hell. But in the grand scheme of things, on the bigger
timeline, I feel everything's okay. I've spent 5 minutes trying to find
another way to put it but I can't.

By the way I upvoted you.

