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Courtesy & Honor The 12th Trust: “I will live my life with courtesy and honor from this day forward.” Courtesy and honor provide the mainstay of trust within any civilization. We express them in how we act and how we talk. It is telling how contrary this is to the direction of society and politics that we see today. More and more we hear coarse, insulting language being used at the expense of respectful communication. Although it attracts attention, it elevates no one, and only pulls people down. Could that be the actual objective? Defenders proudly tell us: “He (or she) is just telling it like it is.” Really? Then why is it so often accompanied by lies, exaggerations and the blatant lunacy of closed minds? Why pull the possibility of positive discourse down to the gutter? To make it impossible, of course. It is sometimes presented as an attack on “political correctness,” which they claim is far worse. Really? Are there only two alternatives? If political correctness is rejected as too misleading or constraining, one can still speak with courtesy and honor. More likely, its goal is to be destructive of meaningful discourse to keep people destructively divided. Those who do it enjoy feeling clever and smug—and looking tough—while defending the unconscionable. In contrast, Chivalry-Now tells us to speak the truth at all times, while living in a state of courtesy and honor. Is that not what we want from others? Can any society thrive without it?
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