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Thursday Jun 15, 2006
I want some manners now!
A great little example of how the instinct of certain sections of the UK media is still to blame young people for society's ills, graced the pages of the Telegraph today (15th June). Lovingly entitled, "Why are the youth of today so rude?", it was cobbled together by a guy called Thomas Blaikie (who just happened to be peddling his book, "Blaikie's Guide to Modern Manners").The article's so delightfully patronising and so splendidly pompous, that it wonderfully demonstrates the truely self-serving cry of those who tap their glass and shriek, "I want manners!"
"...if you were to go as far as suggesting to a young person that, in order to participate in conversation generally, he or she really ought to know who the Prime Minister is or what is meant by ''the Establishment'', you will be greeted by purple-faced outrage worthy of a pre-war colonel, albeit with a rather different vocabulary".
I rest my case. As is so often the subtext with this courteous diatribes, it sounds like Blaikie's gripe is more about lack of deference. And without getting all sociological on this blog, deference rests on the concept of hierarchy- a world in which people relate to you based on your status or position rather than who you are. Actually the rules are changing. With deference in retreat, for better or worse, people today have to think a lot more about how they relate to each other as real people- and not with titles bestowed from above.
The irony about Blaikie's whole article is that it is supposedly based on a report by Demos, 'Working Progress: How to reconnect young people and organisations'. Demos publicised it as 'Employers lack the skills that young people need' in their press release- which kind of tells you where they think the burden of responsibility lies.
Certainly there is an interesting debate to be had about changing cultural values and creating a productive working environment for all. But slagging off one particular group, in this case 'young people', has, shockingly enough, never been the best approach- begging your pardon Mr Blaikie.
Posted by Patrick Daniels ( 12:01 PM ) Link to this post Comments[0]
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