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Was there really an “Age of Chivalry” and if so when
did it die, for die it certainly did. It never occurs to most men to open a
door for a woman nowadays. A smile and a thank you go a long way to making
someone’s day more pleasant.
The following is one of Edmund Burke’s quotes in his
“Reflections on the Revolution in France” written many years ago.
“The Age of Chivalry is gone. That of sophisters,
economists, and calculators has succeeded; and the glory of Europe is
extinguished forever. Never, never more, shall we behold the generous loyalty
to rank and sex, that proud submission, that dignified obedience, that
subordination of the heart, which kept alive, even in servitude itself, the
spirit of an exalted freedom. The unbought grace of life, the cheap defence of
nations, the nurse of manly sentiment and heroic enterprize is gone!”
More of his amazing quotes can be found here:
I learnt about Sir Walter Raleigh at the primary school
I went to in London many years ago, but mainly I remember that he was a
favourite of Queen Elizabeth the first and was well-known to have laid his
cloak down over a puddle so she would not get her dainty feet muddy. I didn’t
know in fact that he was beheaded for treason. To me, as a child, I thought
what he did for his Queen was very polite and chivalrous. You can learn more of
him here:
I am of an age when I am entitled to grumble about
the poor manners of the young people of today. In fact, to meet someone under
30 with perfect manners is such a rarity that it is a pleasure when you come up
against one. We were taught as children that we did not interrupt adults when
they were talking, but every day I come upon a child who thinks nothing of
tapping his mother on the arm constantly while she is in conversation, and she
does not reprimand him/her.
My list of bad manners in today’s society is very
long, and shared by all my contemporaries.
I love my mobile phone and would not be without it
in case of emergencies, but one thing I would never do is answer it while
waiting in a queue, while sitting in my Doctor’s waiting room, while on
transport—the list goes on. Why do some people have the notion we wish to be a
part of their conversation? Why do you need to tell your boy/girlfriend, husband/wife
that you have just arrived in the supermarket or just got onto the train home,
or worse still tell them all about your problems that should be discussed in
the privacy of your home.
In the process of relocating last year, I had to sit
in the waiting room of a Government office where out of work people go to sign
on to collect dole money, etc. In my instance the government needed me to go in
person, as for some reason it proved too difficult to change certain details
over the phone (Insert big sigh here). Anyway, for the entire hour I had to wait
for the interviewer, I was forced to listen to a young girl’s endless chatter
on her phone to first one friend then another about her problems with her car.
Unfortunately, if I had complained to the person about her bad manners I would
doubtlessly have been confronted with a bad-mouthed response about minding my
own business.
I am tired of hearing about people being booked by
the police for using their phones while driving, this is not only against the
law, it is downright dangerous and another case of senseless rudeness and
inconsideration for others—in fact bad manners. Turn your phones off or to mute
while driving why don’t you?
Don’t get me started on drivers these days. One day
while in my hairdressers a young girl was bragging about the thousands of
dollars in speeding fines that she had accumulated. When someone told her she
could end up doing jail time she thought that hilarious. Let’s hope she is now
sitting in a cell somewhere meditating on her stupidity.
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| Tricia McGill web page |
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