The Village Square

Dignity obliterated. Uh oh.

July 8th, 2009

Any op-ed that starts out quoting George Washington’s 110 Rules of Civility and Decent Behaviour in Company and Conversation like this one by David Brooks gets a run in this blog.

Brooks writes:

Washington absorbed, and later came to personify what you might call the dignity code. The code was based on the same premise as the nation’s Constitution — that human beings are flawed creatures who live in constant peril of falling into disasters caused by their own passions. Artificial systems have to be created to balance and restrain their desires.

The dignity code commanded its followers to be disinterested — to endeavor to put national interests above personal interests. It commanded its followers to be reticent — to never degrade intimate emotions by parading them in public. It also commanded its followers to be dispassionate — to distrust rashness, zealotry, fury and political enthusiasm.

Remnants of the dignity code lasted for decades. For most of American history, politicians did not publicly campaign for president. It was thought that the act of publicly promoting oneself was ruinously corrupting. For most of American history, memoirists passed over the intimacies of private life. Even in the 19th century, people were appalled that journalists might pollute a wedding by covering it in the press…

But the dignity code itself has been completely obliterated. The rules that guided Washington and generations of people after him are simply gone.

You think?

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