As an American, I guess I'm supposed to feel flattered by this essay, but instead I think maybe this is a case of the "grass is greener on the other side of the fence".

An American writer could write the same article (without reference to Religious Right) regarding the relative politeness of the British. At least in my limited travels.

Neither country has much to be proud of. For what it's worth, Mexicans and Japanese seem more polite to me than Brits or Americans, but that could be due to the fact that they speak a different language.

Doesn't seem to jibe with what I've heard about NYC. Or Philadelphia, where I'm told the city motto is "We don't like you either."

Is this the Aunt Jemima with whom Condi is being compared?

It was those same p.c. liberals who complained about Clarence Thomas that are now complaining about prudish Christians.

Britain has a large, extremely loutish lower class that makes everyone else's lives miserable. When you see them in their native habitat or in the beaches and train stations of the Cote d'Azur, lying in their own vomit at 6AM in the morning, it makes British hauteur even more intolerable.

Just be glad you are not living in the Netherlands! :)

Good article, thanks!

If the author thinks New Yorkers are the rudest people on earth, she's never been to France. -- and I say that as a native born New Yorker and a frequent, if reluctant, visitor to France. My granddaughter lives there or I'd never set foot in the place again.

New Yorkers, like most people, except the French, generally give back what they get. Smile at them and say hello, chances are you'll get a smile and a nod back.

As for her slur about the religious Right. What an insult. Neither the right nor the left nor the religious nor the atheist is intrinsically courteous.

Most older people are polite because we've been taught manners, if not at home, at school or in movies and other media. Younger people haven't been taught proper behavior, so they don't know how to be polite.

The teenagers who lets the door go in my face, isn't trying to make a statement about being rude. He or she doesn't know any better.

"Hearing about" a city and its people does not translate into knowledge. Far from it. People "hear about" plenty they know absolutely nothing about.

Bart:

Republicans used such people to reclaim the majority.

The author makes the irratating mistaken claim that profanities and sexual acts constitute freedom of speech (this is in the body of her article not quoted here). She'd have a better arguement that the British know a thing or two about freedom of speech if she brought it up in the context of McCain-Feingold and not the smut heard and seen in British society.

Also, I just went to New York City right before the election. They were very polite and I saw less elect Kerry stuff than at home in Florida. The "in your face" New Yorker may be more legend than fact.

Ali:

Visit us, you'll never go back.

erp,

My experiences in France echo yours to some degree but as a Francophone, perhaps there are some differences. The French expect you upon entering a wine store or a greengrocer to say 'Bonjour' and 'Merci' and all manner of small pleasantries which make the day go easier. Most rudeness in France comes from the fact that most Americans who go there don't speak French and thus fail to remember from which language the word 'chauvinism' is derived.

Even in Paris, where people really are rude, I've had more than a few pleasant surprises.

As a native Brooklynite, from America's red-hot center of ill-manneredness, I endeavor to be unfailingly polite to strangers I meet in the City, giving up my seat on the subway, offering to hold a door, offering directions to lost-looking tourists, etc. It's just common courtesy and I'm not unusual in NYC. (at least among Whites and Asians)

oj,

In America, the lumpier sections of the Lumpenproletariat do not vote and never will. They need a dictionary to listen to Howard Stern or read Dr. Seuss.

you underestimate the size of the lump

"This moral insouciance has its virtues - it certainly makes for a much more entertaining press, and gives rise to less troublesome hypocrisy"

Ah, the scourge of hypocrisy! That uncouth disease of the backwoods provincial bourgeoise. How refreshing it must be to hear people vent their true feelings on you with no concern for your feelings. We all find these polite people so irritating. What do they really think about us? The suspense is terrible, I worry all the time that these people may not really like me!

I also worry that people in elevators who have gas hold it in just for my benefit. I wish that we could get over these cumbersome taboos, the world would be such a better place!

Robert:

Well said, although don't you agree it would be a little disconcerting to run up against the "unfailingly polite" Bart, whose exquisite courtesy hid his conviction that the world would be a much better place if you were dead?

This woman's name just cannot be Jemima, can it?

Peter,
My philosophy is that if people want to badmouth me, they should at least have the integrity to do so behind my back.

"Britain has a large, extremely loutish lower class that makes everyone else's lives miserable. When you see them in their native habitat or in the beaches and train stations of the Cote d'Azur, lying in their own vomit at 6AM in the morning, it makes British hauteur even more intolerable."

Getting drunk aboard and puking all over foreigner's countries is our substitute for fun since we stopped conquering them.

Ali,

While for perfidious Albion, it may be fun and games, we foreigners don't quite share the same opinion.

I think it is well understood that the "upper-working class" in America carry the torch (as well
as possible) for traditional bourgeois values.

When I first went to college I was continually
amazed at just how scruffy and rude upper-middle
class kids were in relation to the average
upper-working class kid.