From the libertarian-minded Nolan Chart:
Robert Heinlein wrote in his novel, Friday (Ballantine Books, New York, 1982, p.242), “Sick cultures show a complex of symptoms…but a dying culture invariably exhibits personal rudeness. Bad manners. Lack of consideration for others in minor matters. A loss of politeness, of gentle manners, is more significant than a riot.”
I strongly agree with Heinlein, although I think he made one small mistake in his comment. Rudeness is not just a symptom of a dying culture when it involves a “lack of consideration for others in minor matters”. It also involves a lack of consideration for others in major matters.
Take, for instance, the case of South Carolina Congressman Joe Wilson who so famously shouted out, “You lie!”, in the middle of President Obama’s address to Congress a little more than a week ago. Wilson wanted to dramatically make the point that Obama’s proposed policies encourage providing public health care for illegal aliens, contrary to what the President himself said. Unfortunately for Wilson, his point has been completely lost as a result of his outburst. Scan Google News or nearly any major newspaper or magazine’s article on the subject, and you’ll see scathing reviews about the comment itself, about his censure before Congress, about how the comment was racially motivated, and about a score of other points.
