Politeness

In our everyday life almost everything seems to be about politeness. But I never was truly polite and I never will be. Some of you may think now that I’m kind of arrogant but this is not the case (or at least I hope so :)). Personally, I think politeness implies lying. And I really hate lies...

You don’t believe me? Have you never told one of your friends how much you like the new haircut although you don’t like it? Have you never told anyone that he/she is a great cook when he/she looks full of expectation at you? And I could give you more examples... ;)

Quite often I can’t differentiate between mere politeness and things that are really true. This makes most encounters rather difficult. So I either take something too seriously or I don’t believe it at all. I know that I’m somehow different - “special” - here but are all of you always certain whether someone really says the truth or if it’s simply politeness?

So if I will be too direct to some of you and you consider it rudeness I apologise in advance... But I beg you to be always honest with me. Politeness sometimes hurts me more than the truth...

Why do we have to be polite almost all the time? And why are people that are not always polite automatically called rude, tactless and so on? I suppose most people would reply that we’re polite in order not to hurt another one’s feelings. But I’d say that this is not always true. In most cases, we’re simply polite to be respectful. This means that there is one instance when even I try to be polite although it’s so difficult for me... It has nothing to do with sycophancy but I believe that most of us will talk politely to their boss or other superiors. This seems to be a means of keeping peace...

Why I wrote about this? Just thinking about it... And I still hope that one day there will be more people thinking like this... ;)

30/11/2011