Communal Living Behaviour, Societal Etiquette and Politically Correct Disciplinary Actions
January 6th, 2008I hate to complain but I must voice something that just continues rubbing me raw when dealing with some people’s behavior in communal living.
When there’s a serious discussion on the table and everyone else is addressing the issue at hand with an appropriate level of attention and maturity, it becomes increasingly frustrating and even a personal insult to me, when one member disregards that level of seriousness through constant joking, sometimes outright ridicule and just an all around blatant disregard for order, respect and maturity.
Relationships thrive on communication and intentional communities require nothing less than that in a clear and respectable manner.
So when one “bad seed” if you will, starts to impede on that and is constantly disrupting the natural understanding of such things in that time and space, what do you do? Do you call that person down outright? Or do you take them aside after the fact?
I can see, perhaps, where sometimes in older times tribal societies and the like (even not that long ago in American society) that the elders might have disciplined these types of trouble-makers on the spot, perhaps humiliating them, to drive the lesson home so that respect and what not may be instilled. But now in today’s modern societies, this type of instructional discipline is way out of style, and probably in every case, rightfully so.
That doesn’t make the impulse to slap some fool upside the head when they’ve overstepped their boundaries more times than is tolerable, any less desirable. But, society dictates we reprimand in other ways.
Anyway, the next time you see someone acting out of line, perhaps you can speak up and let ‘em have it, otherwise they’ll just continue running all around uninhibited, pissing a slew of other people off.