What Is The Significance of Politeness

We usually say that a man should be polite, but what is the significance of politeness. The answer is concerned with the people who we show our politeness to and how far the politeness can get to.

Two man with no body else around, politeness or not influences directly the impression left on each other. However, indirect influence is not restricted to the contracted two men for every one has a social relationship net no matter how big it is, so the impoliteness between two men can spread to a group of people just like a kind of disease. When it comes to social occasion, with many people around, the influence of the impoliteness can even be greater.

Politeness has nothing to do with judgement. A man ought not to be impolite only because he is right in a quarrel. On the other hand, even though you are not right, with a polite attitude, the damage which may be caused by a quarrel can be greatly reduced.

A quarrel is usually aroused by impoliteness. Let's suppose, at a party, with many people around, a visitor arrived at the party a bit later. He tried to make up by giving his apology, while at the same time he sent his little gift to all the people present. Unfortunately, a guest is missed with the little gift. If the man is very mean, he must feel losing face in public. Therefore, a quarrel is probably coming later on. But if the missed guest has a wide mind, he might let it go with a handsome laugh. Besides, if the occasion is very normal and important, then such a mistake may not be forgiven easily. In history, wars caused be mistakes like it can be listed with many examples.

Our Chinese ancestors like confucius, founder of Taoism, etc realized the truth long ago. They wrote their ideas in the books and passed it to their descendants. Therefore, I definitely stand by the idea that we modern people should learn from the past for sometimes they could see much clearly and point the way for us. Because the same situation may puzzle them, too. We can learn from history.

Politeness has the meaning of being modest, it is not necessary to be humble in order to show your politeness. The point is that other people have dignity just as you do. You can only defend your own dignity by respecting other people.