I've been spending a lot of time at National Parks lately. A lot of people have, actually. Among other reasons, they're free to very cheap to visit. The nice folks in the ranger hats are government employees and they treat everyone equally. (Some are extra nice to kids working on Junior Ranger badges) Everybody is polite to them too - why not?
Outside the Park Service, things are not so smooth. Plenty of people put on suits, get all puffed up, and think they're a lordly overclass. Worse, they're enabled by unctuous servitors.
Not to get all Hank Jr about it, but this is just messed up. The notion that we're all equal, that a Senator should be as respectful of the town drunk as a tailor should be of a Hilton, always struck me as a fundamental plank of being American.
Shaw liked to claim that climate was character. His version of ancient Britons had blue body paint as stuffy as suits & spats.
Ancient Americans seem to have been just the opposite. A lot of attitude comes from trickster tails When you see
"Eh-ha!" grunted Coyote sarcastically. He answered his wife, "I am no common person to be spoken to in that fashion by a mere woman. Do you know that I am going to be a great Chief at daybreak tomorrow? I shall be Grizzly Bear. I will devour my enemies with ease. I will take other men's wives. I will need you no longer. You are growing too old, too ugly to be the wife of a great warrior, of a big Chief as I will be."
you know Coyote is in for a massive takedown. He's also going to be our common ancestor.
So why are we strutting around more concerned with rank and dignity than ever? Most of us eventually learn the lessons of politeness. Where do some get the feeling they're entitled to deference?
Damnfino. Spit on the floor & call the cat a bastard.