Survival, Manners, Honor And Being Polite Is There A Connection?

Survival, Manners, Honor and being Polite is there a connection?



I have watched over the years as our American...Western culture has slowly degraded to the point that I honestly believe that a cultural collapse either caused by natural or man-made origins is about the only hope left. People are, in my opinion, degenerating and are heading towards things that will actually effect the ability of us to survive in the west.

NOW, WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH YOU AND SURVIVAL? One of the things that I see all over the place these days is that people are getting ruder and in general less civilized. Our kids now idolize people that think that Mother***** is an appropriate noun for use in almost every occasion. Keeping your word is a joke...contracts don't even count anymore. Honor is a forgotten concept and if mentioned is treated as if it is somehow racist. Even the simple things like please and thank you are to often now seen as signs of weakness.

The fact is that the concept of manners and honor were established by people over thousands of years for the purpose of allowing the most effective killer ever evolved to live together without killing each other. As those things have gone aside the beast that is called man returns to his true nature.

Now, what does this have to do with you individually. In the event of a TEOTWAWKI these now mostly useless old school concepts will again become very important. When there is no law of the land people will do as they wish. For many that is going to be a very ugly thing.

I notice online all the time how some people seem to think that being rude a$$e$ is acceptable and somehow tough. They get away with it because they can't be touched. Most of these people are probably mice in the real world but those that aren't only survive because they are protected by the cops. If you look back in time you will see that people like this didn't live long happy lives. There is a reason why Billy the Kids was called a kid. He didn't live long enough to hardly become Billy the Man much less Billy the old man.

In a place where your continued existance is totally based on whether or not somebody wants you dead it will pay to be nice and not screw with or over people. I have a neighbor down the road that it has already been discussed that he isn't going to last long if things get ugly. He is a mean spirited, trouble making old drunk and has a survival rating of ZERO if there are no laws to protect him.

If you scare people with an abrasive aggressive and rude manner you will have an accident. Saddly this is just the way people are. We talk like serial killers are something odd and rare but the fact is that this is just what is there just under the skin of our civilized layer of morals, manners and customs. A killer that kills our enemies is a hero and a killer that kills our friends is a monster. When you look at these people closely you often find that they are very similar in lots of ways.

After things go down the poop shoot there will be a short period where the totally lost will go crazy and get killed. These are the criminal elements and the people that will suddenly be unable to master their beast without the rigid rules of law and civilization in effect. Chaos will rule for a time but then there will be the scilence of the battle field after the battle is done. At this point you had better either remember your manners or learn some and do it quick. The Sheeple have been killed by the crazy and evil and then they have been mostly killed in turn. What is left are not going to be people that you want to piss off.

Some people will adapt easily and some have just never been taught how to act. What you have to understand though is that all the fancy weapons in the world will make no difference if you make too many people unhappy with you. That quiet little guy that has lived down the street. If you scare him he will shoot you in the head from ambush. If you attack someone then everyone around is going to look at you as a danger and someone is going to decide that you aren't needed.

What will replace law and order will be honor, manners and polite speech. When EVERY man you meet is a killer you had better be nice. Being quick draw Macgraw won't do you any good because they won't warn you or challenge you they will just kill you. If I see a rabid dog in my yard I don't go down and challenge him to personal combat. I grab a rifle and shoot him on SIGHT!

Those that think that it makes them look tough to be rude are just pitiful people that won't survive. Their only hope for any survival will be to either zip their lips and learn mannefs or go someplace far from ANY other people and try to stay hidden. It is like I've said over and over. The one sure way to win a fight is to NOT get in one. If you make people nervous, scared or angry and there isn't a cop around to protect you, YOU ARE A DEADMAN WALKING!

 

I absolutely agree with you on this Texdanm. More than that though, some more manners would make the world a nicer place.

 

When you don't have cops to protect you then you need to try real hard not to insult, anger, scare or rip people off because the only thing between you and the grave may be their good will towards you. If you go around waving a guns around telling folks how bad you are, calling people names and ripping them off you are just a dead man walking because someone is going to treat you like a rabid skunk and put a bullet in you.

 

"I have watched over the years as our American...Western culture has slowly degraded to the point that I honestly believe that a cultural collapse either caused by natural or man-made origins is about the only hope left. People are, in my opinion, degenerating and are heading towards things that will actually effect the ability of us to survive in the west."

Spot on.

 

Lonewolf I suspect that is a regional thing. I look people in the face and smile every day and most return that courtesy. Texas is a strange place. While we are a friendly people we are also the type that you don't insult but once. Even in my old age I will bow up on you if you disrespect me. The younger folks are not as regular in this as the older but our kids mostly still say yes sir and yes ma'am and will look you in the eye. This is as true for black kiddos as it is for white kiddos. Hispanic kids don't but that is because in the hispanic culture a kid looking an adult in the eye is seen as disrespectful so they get a free ride on that.

What I see on the idiot box though tells me that this isn' true in other parts of the US and I have seen it myself on the West Coast. It also isn't so true in Houston. The people that live in the ant piles are just different. If you look at a map of the places that voted for liberal crooked Clinton in the last election and the places that voted for conservative if a little crazy Trump you will see that the split is not north south or east west or any really regional thing is is the huge big city people voting liberal and pretty much everyone else voting conservative and this is as true in Texas and California as anywhere. The urban people want MORE government goodies and the more rural people want the government to leave them alone.

I suspect that the rude and less than honorable people also tend to clump up in the bigger cities where there is more and bigger government.

 

I see things after a major collapse as ending up being a lot like the real, not TV or Movie version, old west in the US. Without the cops to protect the bad guys they got tended to pretty quick. A lot more people were killed by shop owners with double barrels shotguns or farmers rifles than ever were killed in stand up gun fights. In a world where violence and physical danger are common anywhere outside of the more civilized towns bad people or rude people had a lot of accidents or just sort of vanished. This was called bushwhacking.

In the old west friends and family were close and if you messed with one you had the entire clan hunting for you. There is a lot of truth in safety in numbers. Honor was based on the belief that by agreement if you had a problem your brothers would come to your aid. An honorable man had a lot of friends and was dangerous to mess with. If you failed to act honorable you were exposed and had nobody that would help you. This more often than not meant that you needed to leave the area or you had an accident. In general you want to make as few enemies as possible. You don't want to have an accident. That doesn't mean that you have to put up with much crap but it does mean that you don't cause other people problems without a very good reason.

In places where people tend to be maybe a little more violent in general manners become more important. In some places two people can get nose to nose screaming and cussing at each other and other than noise not much happens. In other places if you call someone and ugly name you might get your face broke before you even knew that the fight had started. Actually there is a difference between a fight and getting your butt kicked. A fight infers that you are going to get to hit your opponent a butt kicking doesn't include that opportunity for you. Being polite costs you nothing. Being rude may get you hurt.

I knew an old one legged man that got shoved in a line for a movie that he was taking his grandkids to by three young punks. He ended up in jail and the three punks in the hospital. Charges were dropped and the cops treated him very nicely so no harm. They shoved him out of line and failed to keep an ey on him. His walking cane was heavy and he had two out and down before they even knew a fight had started. They actually came out the best. The other took a hell of a beating before he went down.

I watched a woman teach a man manners one time. He acted like an ass and pushed her around. She grabbed him by the balls and then proceeded to bitch slap him until his eyes rolled up in his head and he was just screeching and begging for her to let him go. She finally did and he went down. She kicked him a couple of times and then left him laying there holding his nuts.

Where I live old people, and women are just as likely to get you as a man. Manners count and you don't really want to hit a lady in public unless she hits you several times first. If you do several men may beat the crap out of you. Different rules for different places but if our existing culture collapses people without manners are going to have a hard time and possibly a very short life.

 

+1 TexDanm.
If you look at cultures where there are a lot of people crammed in together in a small space it becomes even more important to show consideration, to be polite and treat others right. If someone offends the morals of the majority in parts of Asia it isn't the police that come knocking on the door, it's a mob.
Getting on with people is a skill to be nurtured, it isn't difficult but to do it well takes a little extra thought...then maybe, just maybe you may find that someone has your back when you need it.

 

I like to read history. One facet of history which comes out if you read certain books and certain authors...it that manners and a certain decorum/respect separate civilized people from two legged wildlife.

These people seemed to know who they were and from whence they came. They knew much more than the next product to come down the pipeline...or be advertised.

So many today seem not to know any history ..even their family history.....lineage....people.

I admire a culture which still respects its' elders. This is rapidly disappearing in America to what I call rampant and rabid consumerism. A people who define themselves by what they consume or know about said consumption ...including consuming each other.


Great posts Texdanm. Thank for making it and pointing out to us thusly.


Watcherchris,
Not an Ishmaelite

 

I'm from the American South. There are wagon loads of rules as to how one is to behave. Why? Because it's best not to get folk ticked off in the first place.

Once the anger starts to build, uh-oh, things gonna go sideways. Therefore keep the peace from the get-go.

"Why, I'm so sorry. Do forgive my getting in your way!"

"Could I get that for your grandmother, I can reach right up there."

"Go ahead and take that. I think you were here first."

These words my sound sickeningly sweet or downright sycophantic, however such prevent blood-lettings. People where I'm from will go from seemingly passive to bat-sh## crazy chainsaw wielding "kill'm'all let God sort'm out" demons in no time flat. No one and I mean no one wants to trigger that. I've heard city folk yell curses at each other, yet no fight occurred. Uhhhh, that will get you killed where I'm from. People may believe in the New Testament down South, however they have a tendency to go Old Testament in the twinkling of a eye.

So everyone does their best to be polite. Anyone who isn't polite is stupid and short-lived.

 

Lonewolf,

I am much the same Lonewolf. A small circle of friends...and by choice.

I am however in a city...here in Olde Virginia.


But.......


There are counties not far from here precisely as Olde Geezer and others describe. You go into these counties you mind your manners. The stories about some of these people are legend and these families go way back..some of these folks and names back to the American Revolution and Civil War.

These people have a hard bark and are very Salty. They also know all the ways into and out of these counties including the back roads and trails.

There are also a number of people in this area....Watermen...and their families....crabbers, clammers...oystermen..fishermen....going back generations. Guineamen.

They too are as nice and civil as you ever want to meet....but don't cross them...or their women too.
They are often called Guineamen...and they speak with a Cockney English type accent ...with an American touch.
It is eerie when first you hear it...as if time stood still...and you are stuck in a time warp.
And their families go back generations on the waterfront....here on the Chesapeake Bay.

But working and making a living on the waterfront is hard hard business.

You don't go back in these areas and get stupid or mess with these people.

And they are all big 2nd Amendment people..from way way back.


Olde Parley told me a story about his Uncle killing a young man coming in his daughters window...12 gauge point blank...

When the police and ambulance people got ready to take him out of the house on the gurney....Parley's Uncle said.."What are you people doing??"

"We are taking him out."

"No your not ...your taking him out the G...D... window ..the same way he came in!!"

That's how hard these people are back there.


Another fellow I know shot a guy breaking into his trailer while he was there.

He heard him and got two beers from the refrigerator and put them on the table with his .38 caliber revolver....waiting...

When the fellow finally broke in he told him to sit down and have a beer while he called the police. The fellow turned and ran and he shot him in the backside while the fellow was running down his sidewalk.

He got in trouble for that one..but not too much. Told me he would do it again.


Thanks
Watcherchris

Not an Ishmaelite

 

Killing a boy coming in a window would have gotten you into trouble in any century in the South. However, if the girl didn't know the boy, or the boy "wasn't right in the head" well ... .

My pap shot a fellow, but he had a danged good reason to do so. So the judge let him go.

Boys broke into the back-yard electronics shop of a fellow out in the county. Tried to light off with a TV. Owner lays into them with a load of birdshot. TV recovered. Boys get lead dug out their butts. Owner is not charged.

You gotta have a REALLY good reason to use a firearm or a crow-bar against another human being. That said, thieves and assassins have a tendency to develop health problems related to heavy metal "poisoning".

Oh, and have a really good purchase on whose land it is you are traipsing! I scout rural roads to see if they match published maps; "How do I get through that mountain gap? Is there a way through there?" Well well well, I SERIOUSLY watch what I'm doing up in there. You gotta wave and smile when you see someone.

"Why, I'm just a'seein' if they iz any land got marked as bein' fer sale."

"They ain't no land up in here fer sale! Most iz guvment. Git finished, git out!"

"Yes, sir!"

 

I had to laugh when I read this. You know a lot of what comes out of your mouth is basically programed autonomic responses that your parents sort of programmed into you when you were a kid...or at least they used to do this. Yes sir, No sir, yes Ma'am and no ma'am roll off my tongue without thought. I always hold the door to a store open for ladies and if I get there first I will usually hold it for a guy that is right behinds me.

I actually do spend a lot of time reaching things off high shelves in stores for ladies and old people. If I have a basket full of stuff at the checkout I will usually let someone with just one or two things go ahead of me. I say excuse me if I have to press pass someone and conversely I will say excuse me a little louder if I need them to move over.

These are just things that I was taught and how my Mother expected a Southern Gentleman to act. I don't think about most of it except when I am someplace else and people comment on it as being strange. I don't see being polite by my standards as acting in a weak or submissive manner.

I try hard when dealing with people from other places to understand that they may have different rules and can't be judged by or with my rules. I also try to conform to their rules if I can. Some things I just can't NOT do. Sir and Ma'am are just a part of the way I deal with people.

 

Classic story: Southern fellow goes up north. Goes to the grocery. Holds the door open for a lady who has her hands full of shopping bags. Lady runs away screaming. She tells her friends that she almost got robbed at the grocery.

In bars and pool halls, manners stop fights. My dad ran gambling machines. I know about such places. Having manners burned into you when you were a kid can be a really good thing for you throughout your entire life ... especially when you are in places where alcohol is being imbibed.

Could it be that the evolution of manners allowed cave-people to not slaughter each other when crammed together in a cave?! "Og sorry."

 

I did a little bouncing. I learned it from a master. The secret to being a highly sought and well paid bouncer is not because you are big and bad. The people that own and run the bars want you to be able to politely escort trouble out of the bar BEFORE and without a fight breaking out. It is amazing how a few polite phrases can change you from the asshat that is trying to ruin thetr fun into a sort of friend that is looking out for you. Plan B was a stun gun that would drop them but I was fast and it just looked like I was helping a passed out drunk to his car.

 

Texdanm,

Amen on that...Amen....Amen.....Amen!!


I dred the day that being a Southern Gentleman is lost to rampant, rabid, runaway consumerism. Or a Southern Lady with genteel manners...lost to the fast food lane of life.


Watcerchris

Not an Ishmaelite.

 

Back when women's lib was going strong I opened the door for a woman and she refused to walk through. She proceeded to inform me that she didn't need a man to help her. I told her that I opened the door for ladies because my Mama raised me to be a gentleman. I apologised to her for mistaking her for a lady and walked through the door closing it in her face.

 

I visit the southern USA every winter, and i must say that your southern manners are impeccable. too bad i can not transplant them up north .