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Message: <blockquote data-quote="nonamazing" data-source="post: 2541816" data-attributes="member: 12118">Human beings are weird animals, man.See, the thing is, human beings literally need one another to survive--we can't make it on our own.  Weeell, okay, I'll grant you that a well-prepared and well-trained human might be able to live "off the land", generating all the resources he needs to survive without help from anyone else.  But not only is that a very rare scenario, where did he get that training and preperation from in the first place?  Other human beings, I'd wager.We need each other in order to survive--it's that simple.  I didn't make the food I'm eating, and I didn't generate the electricity that powers the computer that lets me communicate with you.  I'm part of a web of interdependance that connects me, however periphally, to hundreds of thousand of other human beings.In an interdependant society, politeness (true politeness, that is: intention, and not just words) is very important; it's an echo of the connection that we share that is vital to our survival.  It is a way of acknowledging that you and I work together, that I respect you because you are important to my life, even if only in a very, very minor way.  In an interdependant society, we all more or less agree to grant one another the same level of respect, and as long as we do, things work quite well.But as you've all noted, things don't always go as smoothly as my theory would suggest.  Why?  Because although we need other human beings in order to survive, mutual interdependance is not the only way to ensure that survival.  Another way is to prey on other humans, acting as predator or parasite.  Usually this involves taking what you want by force (ie, robbery) but it can also take a variety of different forms.  For an example, after many recent major disasters (September 11 in particular) some predators would head to supermarkets, malls, and other areas where large crowds could be found and begin collecting money 'to aid in disaster relief'--but in actuality keeping all such funds gained.One thing that I feel has helped contribute to the decline in politeness is the huge growth in predators and parasites within our society.  Not only have many of these people corrupted and twisted tradtional forms of politness in order to suit their needs (telemarketers, in my opinion, have done much of this because of their incessant use of polite words without any true intention of politeness or respect), but because as people feel preyed upon, they become more defensive, more removed from their web of interdependance and thus less likely to feel the need to be polite or respectful to others.  This can become evident in large cities, where predators are numerous and self-isolation is surprisingly easy, even surrounded by thouands of people.  (It might even be theorized that people who become severely self-isolated might in turn become more inclined toward predatory or parasitical behavior.)So to summarize, politeness is important when human beings are living together in an agreeable state of interdependance.  But when even a few humans take it upon themselves to take advantage of this system, their actions diminish us all.</blockquote>

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