DOES ETIQUETTE HAVE A PRACTICAL PURPOSE?

Whenever someone mentions etiquette I get the image of a long opulently appointed banquet table where gentle folk are deliciously seated equally elegant in both appearance and demeanor enjoying the wittiest conversation.  But there is much more to this fairy tale than mere elegance and eloquence; there is a wonderfully practical side to all this “ haute reverie”; people of diverse backgrounds, using the dining table as a political folly, are coming together in order to execute one of the most important features of human civilisation… “Communication”!

The true purpose of etiquette is to facilitate interpersonal relations.  Every echelon of culture has some form of etiquette from the roughest ghetto to the most affluent communities including specific types of institutional communities such as religions, professions and social organizations.  The most practical purpose of etiquette is aimed at getting everyone on the same page so that the simplest of rituals such as entering and exiting a room, or greeting and receiving familiar and unfamiliar guests, clients etc., does not become burdensome.  One must admit that some of the strange customs that have become adopted as standards of etiquette were doubtless invented by the idle rich who had no other thing to do but squander time.  It is my sincere opinion that these practices will not endure the test of time but that the most basic and essential rules of etiquette designed around facilitating a seamless flow of human interaction will ultimately be the ones that survive. 

Finally etiquette serves the purpose of crystallizing social standards which have evolved over millennia of human evolution such as the rituals of respect youths show to their elders; as such etiquette is a codex of human social superlatives.  During the twentieth century, with the advent of the Sexual and Cultural revolutions established traditions such as etiquette were rightfully challenged.  Etiquette was wrongfully passed off as obsolete but as the tide of anarchy begins to sweep the globe we now begin to recognize that some of its most basic tenets must be preserved if humans are to survive as a species.  For those who have grandiose ideas of reverting to a socioeconomic world that no longer exists etiquette is a bad elitist tool meant to divide rather than unify but for those who understand the necessity for humans to develop universal norms for proper social interaction with no racial, sexual or ethnic, economic or other barriers, etiquette is a useful tool with a practical purpose.

Written by David Vollin

Administrator: FOR THE BROTHAS CULTURAL, INTELLECTUAL SALON

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GETTING OUR INTELLIGENCE BACK: A Candid Look At The Role Evolution Could Play In Human Memory Capacity And Intelligence

EXPLORE THIS REVOLUTIONARY THEORY ON THE HISTORY OF HUMAN INTELLIGENCE COINED BY MR. DAVID VOLLIN...

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ON MANAGING THREATS TO OUR BELOVED COUNTRY…

ON MANAGING THREATS TO OUR BELOVED COUNTRY…

Every time there is a treat to our beloved United States of America it serves to engender a greater sense it solidarity within its diverse peoples who love and cherish this land.  Not that we do not  cherish these great United States of America already, it is just that we are so seldom challenged to evaluate how truly blessed we are as a country that sordid and cowardly acts like the recent Boston Bombing literally force us to come face to face with what we stand to lose if we allow ourselves to become degraded to the type of government, (or lack thereof), that those who hate our beloved America would ultimately reduce us to, should they ever rise to power; we would live in a state of perpetual fear!

I was sitting at home relaxed, sitting back with a cigar and  cognac when I wondered, what can the average American do to prevent such random violence?  Almost as soon as the question entered my mind so did its answer, “Virtually Nothing”.  A determined sociopath hell bent on injuring dozens, hundreds or even thousands of innocent people is more than likely way off the average person’s radar if only because while these crazed criminals  are dreaming of unbridled chaos we and those like us are striving to make a better world for ourselves and others.  It’s just the twisted way of the world these days it seems.  

Americans have to come down from their ivory towers, their manicured lawns, gated communities and ghetto fabulous realities so they can begin to see with the eyes that were given them.  Yes America has played a role in some unsettling and even unfair global events in its otherwise glorious past but that does not mean that we are now going to just lay down and allow any garden variety dissident to blow our lives to bits.  Nor does it mean we are going to organize our own anti-terrorist militia aimed at every man woman and child that our vivid imagination conceives to be plotting against our beloved country.  We are bigger than that, we are bigger than the angry coward who loses hope on humanity and chooses to punish it rather than to help it grow...

It simply means that we are going to take greater care to ensure that America adopts responsible and humane foreign policies in the future; we cannot undo what has already been done!  The tangible aspect of this recent bombing is that it could have easily affected each and every one of us personally; our mother, father, sister, brother, colleague, best friend could have been injured or killed on that day.  So in order to prevent this from happening we have to soul search to discover what acceptable role we can play in preventing bombings like this from ever getting off the ground in the future. 

Of course this is some pretty bold and adventurous language coming from a comfortable man sipping cognac and smoking a cigar on his balcony in  the heart of Washington, D.C.  Behind the scenes our armed forces, secret service and hosts of other unnamed U.S. Government Agencies are doing the tough, dangerous work of really preventing and managing terrorist threats.  One night whilst biking on the U.S. Mall in my backyard I happened upon the WWII Memorial just after it had been consecrated and read one of the most powerful things I have read in quite some time, the inscription above a fountain emblazoned with stars representing all of the men who had died in WWII  said simply, “FREEDOM IS NOT FREE”!

Written by David Vollin

PATENT PENDING...

Mark Dean Invented the 1 Gigahertz Chip patented for IBM

America’s ability to ride the economic tides of the twenty-first century are largely dependent on our ability to create new products that generate an international demand.  By products I do not just mean record sales or the next great American novel, I mean new technology!  Right now there are several wide open markets just waiting for new innovative products to be designed, patented, marketed and distributed across the globe, one of them is the new realm of green products another is innovative means of generating energy. 

George Crum Invented the Potato Chip in 1853

But in order for someone to be able to brainstorm and market a new technology they would have to have several skill sets under their belt and a large amount of capital as well as lots of free time to research, experiment and refine their concept design.  Another unavoidable dynamic of this scenario is that they will have to team up with other people with specialized technical expertise in order to pull the dream off.  Pulling together a unified team is one thing but maintaining quality control and focus is another, nevertheless these are challenges that other inventors have successfully overcome for many thousands of years of human history.  Pulling it off is not only highly, “Doable” but it is also highly desirable in order to gain some measure of economic and occupational freedom in a world that is still largely driven by megabusinesses.

Jan Ernst Maltzaliger Invented the Shoe Lasting Machine in  1882

The best teams might be formed by persons who are already working full time jobs but are able to devote a certain predetermined hours of work daily as part of a working product development plan.  Breaking these tasks up into smaller teams of two or more would even ensure a greater level of productivity.  I envisage these design teams as “Think Tanks” initially organised to develop research teams which focus on diverse and perhaps unrelated areas identified as potentially untapped or substantially open markets for innovation.  Eventually the teams would either produce substantive data leading to the exploration of a product design or digress to other areas driven by their research.  All information would be valuable and perhaps might end up leading to some unforeseen breakthrough further down the line.  The purpose of the teams is to prove that two, three, four or more heads are always better than one. 

In 1912 Garrett Morgan Invented and patented a  Gas Mask

Technology is what ultimately drives civilisation, it creates culture and the lack of technological advances stagnates and eventually kills human civilisation. 

Garrett Morgan

Creating new and innovative technologies should be on the front burner of all American businesses.  Due to the evolution of American culture one individual may no longer have sufficient time, money and resources to conceptualize, research, experiment, develop and market a new product alone so a team of like-minded persons working as a think tank is the next best alternative.

Elijiah McCoy

 Those who make the quantum leap to experiment with this method of product development might find themselves on the cusp of one of the greatest innovations of the twenty-first century, they might though hard work and cooperation find one day that something they imagined has come to fruition and has a new patent pending.

In 1872 Elijiah McCoy invented the Self-Dripping  Oil Cup for  Trains,  hence the origin
of the saying "The Real McCoy".

Written by David Vollin