Latest / The Junto Podcast / E63: Manners Matter

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E63: Manners Matter · The Junto Podcast

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Hello America, welcome to the Juneto podcast where we promote the practical
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applications of critical thinking and bold creativity.
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I'm your host Edgar Mills. Thank you for,
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Hello, America. Welcome to episode 63. Yep, 63, going strong.
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Appreciate all of you for listening. I really do. So what are we talking about today?
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Today, we're talking about basic politeness and good manners.
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Those two things once were the lubricant of our daily interactions.
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So it kept things going smooth, eased the friction with the other humans,
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good manners, basic politeness.
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And it seems, and I could be wrong, this could just be my observations,
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and probably social media has a lot to do with it, but it seems that these things
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are, excuse me, in short supply these days,
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especially like formal manners. Never mind just basic manners.
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And it also almost, this is definitely because of social media,
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but it almost seems like people are looking for friction these days.
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So, yeah. And look, I'm not mourning the loss of some bygone golden era where
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everybody was kind and polite and all that.
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I mean, a little bit, but I don't think it's lost completely.
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What we're going to try to do today, what I'm trying to do today,
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is kind of diagnose where these manners begin to slip away and how we can sort
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of get it back across all the generations that are still walking the earth today,
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how we can get it back.
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Just a little anecdotal thing. I can tell you now, every now and again,
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I'll have the opportunity to hold the door open for like an elderly person.
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And elderly people seem to be very appreciative of outward display of good manners
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as compared to young people.
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You hold a door open for a young person, they don't give you a glance,
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they don't look at you and say anything. They go in as though that was the way
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it was supposed to be. So, I don't know, kind of weird.
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So, yeah, hopefully today we can come to some sort of, I don't know,
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understanding, some kind of practical path back to some semblance of basic human
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dignity and basic humankind that's with each other.
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And I'm not outwardly a really happy-go-lucky guy, which may seem like I don't
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have good manners, but I do.
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And I always say the cursory thank you or please or you're welcome.
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Or literally, if I'm dealing with someone older than me, yes,
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sir, no, sir. I always do that. Whether I'm smiling about it or not, it's irrelevant.
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All right. I target these people a lot, but here we go. And the baby boomers,
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they absorbed a lot of their good manners through, well, at the kitchen table, right?
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Back in those days, everyone still had dinner at the dinner table.
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And then they had a lot of overly formal type jobs.
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But I don't know if it was the type of job or if it was just the time that they were in.
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But in that post-World War II prosperity, that was, you know,
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the firm handshake kind of had a little meaning to it.
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Or yes, sir, no, sir. Or, you know, everybody kind of still back in those days
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would give their neighbor a wave.
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And in some neighborhoods, in rural areas, I guess it's sort of like that.
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Maybe some suburban areas. But there's – I suspect, and from what I see around
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the metro Atlanta, like –,
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You might be living next door to someone in a cookie-cutter neighborhood,
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never interact with them whatsoever, never know their name, never know anything
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about them. It could be that way.
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So the baby boomers, they come up with the manners, right? And they grew up
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with the manners. But what happened?
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Where did it start to go south? Well,
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the baby boom also gave us all these leftist activists and protesters and agitators,
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the anti-war hippies, which weren't hippies at all.
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Well, I think there was more of a fashion statement there.
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And the anti-war thing was just generated. Look, the Vietnam War was bad. We know it was bad.
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And we knew it was bad then. But I think the anti-war protesters was sort of
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a symptom of something else.
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Because what did those baby boomers also, those specific, that group,
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they weren't just protesting Vietnam War.
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They were protesting their, the system, their easy upbringing.
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And this is, I think, the first glimpse we get to see of this white guilt or
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this privilege that they feel embarrassed or ashamed of.
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So I think we started to see it there. So good manners to these protesters became like a conformity.
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So I believe that's the beginning of it. And I blame a lot of today's problems
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on the baby boomer generation because they're the ones who are in Congress right now, by the way.
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So and then came Generation X, my generation.
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And we were raised on independence or depending on your perspective, neglect and MTV.
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Yeah, and those of you who've known me for a while, you know that I also say
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MTV was the downfall of modern society.
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And to a degree it is. But so in this generation, Generation X,
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this emerging sort of culture of self-reliance or just do it yourself or I'll
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figure it out on my own type.
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We kind of.
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Well, I don't know. we like literally
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literally shrugged off sort of
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traditional and formal good manners and that
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that whatever shrug is what it's
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become known as that kind of stuck man
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and that kind of yeah that kind of stuck it became the default and also called
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the whatever shrug also call that the 10th group salute then came to millennials
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yeah the millennials so they are the first,
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true like well their world was shaped by the smartphone gen x was not the smartphone
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came later and we were like oh well that's crazy yeah the the millennials their
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world was shaped by the smartphone.
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They weren't yet all completely 100% digital, but they very much were heading that way.
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And then the jobs, right, they started doing non-traditional.
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That's when tech jobs started coming along. And they started doing these weird
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sort of gig jobs where you may not have had to sit in front of a table full
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of humans or go sell a product.
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So good manners weren't a default at work necessarily.
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You want to be a quiet, isolated genius. Go ahead. Do your thing. Nobody cared.
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So their default, well, the interactions, right?
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The more digital interactions there are and the less human, real human interactions.
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Nobody cares about calling Mike Tyson a chump online, right?
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But in face-to-face, would you ever call Mike Tyson a chump? No, you wouldn't.
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Because you'd catch a gigantic fist to the face, right?
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So now, normal daily interactions to these millennials starts to look like,
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it starts to seem a little, well, I don't want to say risky,
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but like, it's safe just not to interact.
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It's uncomfortable to interact with other people. So they just don't.
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So their default became neutral.
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No manners at all. Not good, not bad, not otherwise. Just blank stare.
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And that's how we got the millennial stare.
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Yeah, have you ever gone into a coffee shop with a millennial working behind
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and you walk up and you stand there and they look at you and you look at them
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waiting for the cursory, hey, how's it going? Can I help you?
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What can I get for you today? Instead, they just go.
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The millennial stare. They don't know how to interact with human beings.
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I'm saying everybody and this is not obviously everyone in every generation,
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right? Just some examples.
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The millennial stare, it's pretty funny. My son talked about that a little bit.
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Gen Z, though, was the first generation fully, fully formed by algorithms and digits. Yep.
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100% fully formed by algorithms and digits
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everything born on
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the screen and what they learned is
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the controversy or outrage or snarky little
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quips gets more clicks than goodwill than good manners do and that's all it
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matters now is how many clicks and how many whatever influencers everybody's
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an influencer so it's all about the clicks no manners necessary They didn't,
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good manners don't get clicks. Yeah.
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So screens have become our primary interaction. I'm interacting with a screen right now.
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And then you guys are going to hear me on some speakers through your computer or your smartphone.
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So there's no real need for good manners. I suppose if I'm an asshole though,
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you'll, you won't listen to me anymore.
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Maybe I don't know how that affects in the podcast business.
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So now all these things we have, now we can interact. We can almost exclusively
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interact without any need to contact another human being physically, to be in the same space.
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And that, along with, you know, still there's economic pressure going on.
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Gas right now is, you know, nearly four bucks a gallon around here. It's insane.
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So there's some economic pressure still going on. And then we got all this cultural
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noise, whether it's artificial or natural, we have all the division going on.
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And division is madness, immigrants this and racial that and left versus right
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this and that and Epstein files.
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And I don't know if you guys have noticed going around Twitter in the past day
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or two is Hunter Biden sex tapes with him and his big old schlong all over the damn Twitter.
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So that's pervasive in our world, right?
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So all of that noise has sort of taught us to preserve ourselves and conserve energy.
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And so real interactions with real people starts to look like some energy that
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we can't spare, right? Right.
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I can't I can't bring myself to to muster up enough energy to go and interact
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with this person in person.
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But just this right here will do the trick just over the digits.
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Easy enough. It's crazy.
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So so outward efforts of courtesy, outward efforts of good manners start to
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look like a waste of energy that we don't have it.
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That's what it looks like But we do though It doesn't take any energy In fact
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it probably takes less energy To give a person a kind word in person Than it
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does on the digits Does all this sound amorous?
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I mean maybe I'm not meaning to be.
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And then on top of all that, we have all this modern theater and political theater
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and all this artificial wokeness and all this virtue signaling and political
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extremisms and all this shit.
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Well, it inhibits our willingness just to show good manners to someone.
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Because now, a simple interaction, simple decency with another person,
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there's always got to be some ideological purity test.
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If you hold a door some for someone hey if it's if i hold a door for a professional woman,
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she might see it as being condescending yeah and that's not a controversial
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thing it's like hold the door i hold the door for anyone if i approach a door
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at the same time as anyone i don't care if it's a young boy a grown man my age
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or younger big small woman elderly literally.
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I'm going to hold the door. That's just it. It's a courtesy.
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But now it might be looked at as being kind of sinning.
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If I, heaven forbid, I compliment someone, well, let's say a female again,
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because I'm a male, right?
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If I compliment a female and say, wow, you look really nice today,
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or just you look really nice.
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Maybe I've never seen. So is it out of the way to Compliment someone you've never seen before,
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I don't know maybe There's probably a A good way to do it and then a bad way
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to do it But what if it's a woman you work with every day And you come in Wow
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Kelly you look really nice today Oh thank you Or this motherfucker you know.
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Now it looks like there's some kind of, I don't know, ulterior motives,
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perhaps, or maybe it just seemed offensive. I don't know.
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So and then and then today, what's pervasive out there politically is the identity politics.
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So now with the identity politics, we do everywhere.
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You're scanning every stranger for some ideological purity or some outward sign
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of their of their click, their set, their tribal marker so that we can determine
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whether or not even to say hello or just ignore them indignantly.
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If I got my red MAGA hat on, right, of course, no one on the left is going to
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be like, oh, hey, I'd open the door for you. They're going to sneer at you.
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Right. And maybe vice versa.
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Your good old boy walking down the street start start
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to open a door and a young girl that looks like my
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daughter with shaved head and piercings all over and
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tattoos he just opens door and walks in and cuts her off because he thinks she's
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a little lefty weirdo or whatnot that's what's going on out there it is going
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on there there are plenty of examples you can see it now look There's not chaos
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out on the streets of Rome or Atlanta.
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I do see little acts, but I see more acts of dismissiveness than I do of courtesy or good manners.
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I will see people open the door, walk in and let it go without even holding it open.
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And then some 80-year-old guy and his wife and he's reaching,
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you know, I see that all the time.
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So even if it's just dismissive, it's bad manners.
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Or I hate, I hate to see people drop shit on the ground, especially people who smoke.
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Hey, if you're listening to this and you drive your car with the window down
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and you smoke and then you flick your butt outside the window because you think
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the world is your trash can.
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You you're an a-hole and i'll take it up with you
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in private we can talk about it one yeah that's
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littering don't matter if it's a cigarette or not two
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in places like i don't know out west colorado and things that have heavy drought
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and dry seasons you can get a heavy fine for that because that can start literally
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start wildfires so anyway yeah i see things like that a lot and i'm like wow,
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And I'll mean mug them through the window I'm not going to get in a fight over
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that But sometimes I'd like to Sometimes I'll just like get out and go stomp
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someone It's good manners not to get out and go stomp someone,
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So now you got the identity politics And it's causing people to selectively
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use their kindness Because they don't want to be kind to the wrong people,
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Yeah You know, I thought this when I was young because my dad was very much
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a blue-collar guy, and there seemed to be like this universal sort of pact amongst the working man.
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Easy because that guy's struggling just like you are that's
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in your mind you're like yeah man just working stiff get
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a free you know not a free pass but like yeah let
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the guy in you know what I mean or whatever because you
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knew that like yeah he's out there struggling if he's got especially like my
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dad worked for the city of Atlanta and so if they had the city of Atlanta resurgence
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patch on their shoulder in some dirty ass work boots like you knew that dude was struggling yeah man,
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so it's just become easier just to either ignore stay silent or just retreat
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and all these little small gestures these simple little courtesies have have
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begun to uh the fade away man and look this,
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I talk about racial stuff a lot.
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And why is that? I mean, I don't know why that is. I think it's the way and where I grew up.
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But, you know, Atlanta, well, Atlanta's majority black, but I mean,
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Georgia itself is a significant black population.
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But working class neighborhoods, man, you know, black dudes and white dudes
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are punching the same time card.
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You know, I've done many a temp job Working factories.
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Color is irrelevant When you need a job,
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know, it sucks just the same. Your back hurts just as bad as his and his just as bad as yours.
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Grocery bills are still expensive, regardless if it's you or him buying them.
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So I hate to see bad manners show up when it comes to cultural and racial divide,
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because that is just one simple little thing,
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one simple thing that would have a great impact, I believe, on easing,
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easing up those cultural and racial divides, I think.
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But yeah, I'm going to go back to the big evils, media and politics.
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They kind of conspire to keep the divide in place because,
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yeah, it keeps the conflict fresh on the front burner so that we don't have
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to look at the real issues, the deeper issues,
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economic issues, civil rights issues like real civil rights issues,
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when the media and,
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when they frame every little workplace friction or every little traffic slight
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as some kind of racial war.
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Yeah, it just perpetuates the problem
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and the trust amongst your neighbors disappears when it doesn't need to.
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People stop giving the nod or the wave.
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Stop letting people get over. When you see somebody with a blinker,
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you know, you speed up, close up the gap.
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That's effort. It takes effort to do that, by the way, to speed up,
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to close that gap. Why would you do that?
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If you weren't paying attention enough to let that gap happen and somebody gets
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in it, then you have some good manners and just let it be.
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And the irony is, especially with the black and white situation,
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working class, because I'm not going to, for the rest of this,
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I'm not going to differentiate black and white, working class,
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is that that's the irony is that you have so much more in common with the other
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working class guy, regardless of his color, than you do with any of the media pundits.
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The perfect hair or the media, social media influencers, you know,
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making $20,000 a month on YouTube somehow or whatnot.
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You don't have anything in common with those people.
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You've got everything in common with a dude that lives in your neighborhood,
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who you see him every morning on the same route going to work,
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same route coming home from work.
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So one good way to get back to good manners, because it's an act of effort,
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but it's just not much effort, that's all. It doesn't require much effort.
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But to remember that our common ground with the other human beings is a real
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easy way to make that effort easier.
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Remember that you do have the common ground.
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You have nothing in common with Hunter Biden, unless you have a giant penis, I guess, and do crack.
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But the dude pulling out of your neighborhood, going to work every morning,
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he probably got plenty in common with him.
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Manners, good people, listen to this and listen real good.
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Manners are not shallow. They define you.
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Yep they define you and if
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you don't use them at all ever that's how
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you will be viewed and remembered so they're not as shallow as they seem but
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the fact of the matter is they are small simplistic minimal minimal effort inputs
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outward displays of well your character,
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And those good manners that you use and interact with the other human beings
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are just a small daily confirmation,
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a little daily piece of proof that you see the cashier or the waitress or your
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coworker or some stranger on the street as fully human.
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Yeah. And worthy of some basic human respect.
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That's what good manners are. You know, they may seem like surface level,
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surface level gestures, and they are, but they're not disingenuous.
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And that's how simple they are. If you simply do it, it's not disingenuous.
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Now, you can have some artificial manners if you're trying to kiss butt with
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an executive at your work or something. but good manners given artificially
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they come off immediately like that they come off as shallow and.
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But generally speaking, for the regular public, if you make the effort, it is genuine.
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It don't have to be some crazy, you don't have to shine the guy's shoes as he
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walks through the door. I mean, it's just surface level.
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A simple thank you or I appreciate you. Oh, my God, man.
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That's a simple act of humanity. no deeper philosophical reasons required.
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Yeah, no deeper, no hidden agenda required.
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And here's the secret genius on all that is that it'll improve the day of the
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person you're being kind to for sure.
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But it also feels good in your own bones. It will improve you.
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Yeah, that's right. It'll improve you as well.
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Because if you hold a door and you get a genuine smile back, man, it feels good.
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I might not be able to carry you through the day, but man, it feels pretty good.
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Or if someone, you hold a door and somebody actually says thank you, it feels good.
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Or if you let somebody in and then they roll their window down and throw their
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hand out, wave frantically, feels good.
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Feels good. You just brighten somebody's day, if only for a little bit,
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if only for a second, feels good.
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And all the digits, all the algorithms and all the screens will not replace
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those kinds of feelings. Those are real.
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Those are genuine human feelings.
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Can't be replaced with algorithms. Can't be replaced.
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And by doing these little things, you can, well, walk a little taller.
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You know what I mean? You feel a little bit better about the person that you
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just chose to be in that moment.
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You guys know I always quote Ayn Rand. I love Ayn Rand.
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I think she was a philosophical genius.
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And you know she strongly, she was a staunch advocate of rational self-interest.
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She understood this better than any moralist or altruistic person ever has.
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Rational self-interest, rightly applied, is not at all selfishness,
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certainly not petty selfishness.
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Rational self-interest is a very clear-eyed recognition that your long-term
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and short-term well-being depends on the quality of the environment that you occupy,
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the quality of the environment that you interact in and you contribute to.
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So being well-mannered towards other people is not altruistic.
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It's not because Jesus said so.
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It's, well, a level, I mean, it's a little bit of an enlightened perspective of self-interest.
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I help you because it helps me. So that sounds selfish, right?
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But you're being helped.
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By helping you, I'm helping myself. Maybe not directly, maybe,
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maybe three or four times removed, you know, you treat other people with the
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dignity that you want to cultivate in your community.
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Because if you do, then they're more likely to treat others the way you treat them.
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So for instance, I don't know, what tradesmen, your local, your local carpenter,
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you know, if he consistently shows fairness and a little bit of human class, right?
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He good customer service and he does quality work and he's honest and his reputation precedes him.
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That creates an environment that people like to be a part of and feel like,
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well, I've got to step up my game.
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Or yeah, I keep saying this one, but if you, a driver letting someone else merge,
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man, I mean, that's, It's such a small gesture.
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It's such a small gesture.
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But if you let somebody merge, guess what? They are more apt to let someone
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else merge later on down the way.
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Yep. It's the same concept. I know I bring up my friend Trail Trash Dirtbag
28:31
every now and again, but he picks up trash along the trail and he doesn't go out to pick up trash.
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He goes out to run or to cycle. but when he
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sees trash he stops and he picks it up and he's
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i think he saw a study or something or at least it's his
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philosophy that if somebody sees you do that then they are something like i
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can't remember 80 percent more apt to stop and pick up trash on their their
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their movements whether it's on the trail or wherever on the sidewalk whatnot yeah.
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Yeah, you have an effect on other people. You cultivate the community you want
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to be a part of by doing that.
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Unless you just want to be a
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part of a bunch of a-hole communities or a community, a bunch of a-holes.
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And then speaking of rational self-interest, and notice that is not selfishness again, folks.
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We can go into this nuance on another, you know, we'll go into it.
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But if you show a little casual kindness to a stranger or whatever,
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or you're just patient with someone trying to trying to get it out,
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whatever, they can't quite put their words together or they're stumbling, you know, whatever.
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That might land on someone who opens doors for you down the road.
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And I don't mean literal doors. I mean, like opportunity.
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Do you know what I'm saying? Maybe a job lead or a contact, you know,
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somebody knows somebody who's in your field, et cetera.
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Or even just, you know, they remember you in the right moment when you need a favor.
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So rational self-interest lived daily, and I mean lived, turns good manners,
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which costs you nothing, into very, very smart investment.
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Investment in people. Yeah.
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Now, good manners in our society are not a foregone loss. I'm not saying that we're doomed.
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The apocalypse is around the corner. I mean, it may be, but...
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People out there, right? And there's different segments of society that practice
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good manners on a regular basis.
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And I'm talking about working class here though, mainly, but we can and should
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rebuild a culture of where it's commonplace.
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A simple way of a yes, sir, no, sir. Yes, ma'am. no ma'am. Firm handshake,
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hold the door, get the chair.
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I'll tell you one that I make it a point to practice is that if I'm sitting
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down somewhere and someone walks up to shake my hand, I stand up and I shake their hand.
31:25
Or if I'm with a group of elders and we go to have coffee, I allow them to sit down before I sit down.
31:34
Where do I get that stuff from? Hell, I don't know. I just know that it's good manners.
31:42
I sit down and have food, I take my hat off my head and put it in my lap.
31:47
Is that overly formal? I don't know.
31:50
I'm not an overly formal guy, but I was taught good manners at some point along
31:54
the way by various people.
31:57
And those things have stuck with me.
31:59
A little round Italian man named Leo,
32:04
who had forearms the size of my frigging thighs and he looked like a little
32:09
he was like five foot five and he you know bald he was like a character in a
32:15
you know godfather movie or something,
32:18
taught me that you will shake a man's hand and you will give that man a firm
32:24
handshake that that is it anything else these that you're not a man people will
32:30
not take you seriously And not squeeze the guy's hand off, but you got to give a firm head shake.
32:36
That's good manners. That's one way you know you can trust to a degree.
32:44
Now, a little side note on that. I once shook the hand of Lindsey Graham,
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the senator from South Carolina.
32:53
And it was like a dead fish, clammy soft.
33:03
Oh, my God. It was disturbing. It was very disturbing.
33:09
Yeah, it was very disturbing. Where am I at, man? Golly. Golly.
33:16
Daughter and I were discussing manners and stuff and such
33:19
and her and her friend had
33:23
gone down to visit with her grandmother they live about an hour south of us
33:28
and she'd gone down to visit and and Nana had made you know little snackies
33:34
and and whatnot and then you know not the next day but the day after,
33:41
or the next two days later,
33:44
my daughter sends Nana like a thank you note.
33:48
Hey Nana, thanks for having us. We had a really great time. Love you.
33:52
Always fun spending time.
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See you soon. That was it.
33:56
Man, how much impact do you think that had on Nana?
34:00
I mean, think about that, man. A gesture, a simple gesture that took my daughter
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probably 15 seconds to write, probably had a profound impact on her grandmother.
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Yeah. Little thank you note, you know, hell, go get a Hallmark card if the spirit moves you.
34:21
Yeah. Thanks for your efforts. I appreciate you. That's it. Nothing big.
34:28
And that right there, folks, is what you call class. I don't care how much money
34:33
you have or what kind of car you drive.
34:34
That is classy. That is classy.
34:38
What else? If you're at work, you know, you might not be best buddies with everybody
34:42
in your job, but, you know, every now and again, throw a kind word up to somebody
34:46
who you wouldn't normally, you know.
34:48
Hey solid works today you know thanks for picking up the slack good job simple,
34:55
and what do you think man they're gonna go home and analyze that
34:58
for weeks like what did he mean by that no that's well some people will because
35:03
now we're in a neurotic society where people don't take things for face value
35:08
they got to read into it they got to go look it up on the on the digits on the
35:13
computer what did he mean what did he mean you.
35:17
Today. Good job. That's one way to make your daily life just a little different, a little better.
35:24
Hold a door. I've said this 8 million times already, especially for the elderly
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or especially for a mother toting around a couple of toddlers and an infant
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scurrying around to do her chores while her husband's at work.
35:38
And she's got a handful and she's bumbling her way up to the door and you're
35:43
getting ready to walk in open the damn door hold it give her a smile and then
35:49
you know good luck whatever.
35:54
Door without expectation by the way folks if
35:57
you don't get a thank you that don't mean never open the door for
36:00
someone else again oh hey don't
36:04
don't do it with an expectation otherwise maybe it's not genuine don't do it
36:09
with an expectation now look there's one rule here that i i learned when i worked
36:15
construction with my cousin barry the man carrying the load gets the right of
36:20
way And I apply that everywhere.
36:23
If I'm on the city street getting ready to walk into a building and someone's
36:27
carrying a box of files or a big-ass briefcase and a purse in one hand,
36:33
a briefcase, and open the door for them.
36:36
They have the right of way. They're carrying more stuff than you. That's just as simple.
36:40
That's simple. But even on a job site, you know, if you're overloaded and then
36:45
some dude, yeah, let the guy with the load go first.
36:49
Give him space that's a
36:52
common that's common good manners and action right there
36:55
again man let try it
36:58
one day do an experiment when you're in your daily commute try letting
37:02
a couple people over you ain't got to open up the gap and then
37:05
let everybody and their brother squeeze in
37:09
and now you're three miles back from where you started you don't have to do
37:14
that i'm not telling you to be ridiculous about it i'm saying if if it presents
37:18
itself you know sometimes people are are a-holes and they they hit the right
37:23
lane and speed up and then try to get over before the lane runs out.
37:27
And then sometimes you got somebody who's just completely clueless to the ways of atlanta traffic.
37:37
Do an experiment do it spend one week letting
37:41
people in time your commute compared to
37:44
your normal you know right see how much time that costs you i think you'll find
37:49
out that probably it costs you about nothing and then you've allowed somebody
37:53
else to un-f themselves that's a good one though here's one and i'm horrible
38:00
with it and i'm trying to be better about it but here it is,
38:03
remember names remember someone's name and use
38:06
their name yeah very bad with names and I don't know if the military would make
38:13
you better or worse with that but I've met so many people I know so many guys
38:19
with the same exact name I know so many dudes who look like some other dude,
38:24
I've been in units with with guys all around the world and then bump into them
38:32
again And then you just, there's just so many.
38:34
So I've always been very bad with names, man.
38:38
I never forget a face and I'm proud of that, but that don't carry the same pull.
38:43
Remembering someone just in general. Yeah. I think they appreciate it,
38:47
but remembering their name, that means they take up a little bit of space in your memory bank there.
38:52
And that makes them feel like they're maybe a little bit important or,
38:57
or at least important enough to register. yeah man use names.
39:07
Good one well here's one and i do this periodically when
39:10
i can offer unsolicited help
39:14
with a heavy lift now here's a
39:18
little example if you work in a warehouse you know just sliding the
39:20
jack over so you can get to it but like grab the
39:24
other end of the tough box without some dude
39:28
asking when you see some dude getting ready
39:30
to wide arm a tough box it probably weighs 130 pounds just get on the other
39:37
side and i got it bro let's do it again it ain't gonna cost you much time at
39:42
all help him throw that tough box up on the truck and that's it thanks man right
39:47
on boom done it's easy peasy,
39:51
now this might be a bridge too far for some of you but hey man.
39:55
If you see some dude pushing a hoopty through an intersection in front of a
40:01
gas station trying to get out of traffic, throw your car in park,
40:05
turn the key off and go help that joker push the car.
40:08
It ain't going to hurt you. It'll help him get that job done that he's embarrassed,
40:12
and out there struggling.
40:14
So just help, man. Just help him push the truck or car out up into the gas station or whatever, man.
40:22
Or if you see somebody with a flat. Now look, I did this the other day.
40:28
And again, I say you worry about how it looks when you go to help somebody.
40:32
But I saw a young lady at a gas station with a car up on a little,
40:37
little scissor jack, but she was on like a sort of an incline, well, a decline.
40:44
And it looked sketchy. And, and there was another lady standing out there with
40:49
her and they were kind of, and there was some kids running around.
40:51
So I pulled up. I was like, hey, can I help you?
40:55
No, it's okay. We got it. And I was like, yeah, you know what?
40:58
It's not a big deal. And I got out.
41:00
Well, it ended up that I ended up having to run to my house to get my impact ranch and come back.
41:06
But still, it's irrelevant. The point is that.
41:11
Solved the problem themselves and good on them, man. But it was frigging blazing hot outside.
41:16
There was a couple of kids running around and, you know, the,
41:20
the, some of the lugs on the tire were, were stripped.
41:25
So that was a problem. I helped them with that problem. That's all made life
41:29
a little bit, a little bit easier.
41:33
Yeah. Help somebody with it. You know, if it's a dude
41:36
and this might sound a little sexist but if
41:39
it's a dude chances are i ain't gonna get
41:42
out and help change their tire and why would a
41:45
lady edgar why i mean i don't know man that maybe
41:48
that's some old residual old school stuff there but if it's an old couple old
41:54
man yeah i'll get out possibly even i don't know i don't know i kind of assess
42:01
like do these people look like they got they they got it squared away, right?
42:07
Because just the other day, I went past a couple who had a flat tire in a similar situation.
42:12
And as I drove by, I slowed down, looked, and they looked like they had everything
42:16
squared. So I was like, okay, they don't need me.
42:19
Anyway, point is, it's good manners.
42:22
And if you see kids in the mix, jump out and help, man. Dang.
42:26
What else? What's something else that's considered good manners?
42:31
Well, leave the goddamn break room or any room cleaner than the way you find it.
42:39
That's good manners. Don't come into a spot. And even if it's messy,
42:44
don't come into a spot, utilize the spot, and then not make an effort,
42:51
one, to clean up your own mess, but two, like maybe make it just a little nicer
42:57
than before you walked in.
42:58
That's good manners. Absolutely it is. And it's definitely bad manners to leave
43:03
it worse than you found it.
43:07
Stewardship for whatever space that is, that says a lot, man, about your character.
43:12
Especially at like an auto shop, you know what I'm saying? Where everybody goes
43:15
and gojos their hands in the sink and just leaves it a frigging wreck.
43:20
Man, just wipe the sink down when you're done.
43:24
Simple. It's very simple. And it's an easy way to display some small outward
43:32
display of your character, Even if it's just for yourself,
43:35
maybe nobody noticed you went in, nobody noticed you came out for yourself because
43:41
you can then feel good about yourself.
43:44
What else? What else is some good generic good manners?
43:50
Well, making eye contact. And Gen Zers or Gen Millennials and Gen Zers hear this.
43:59
Make eye contact. If you're at a restaurant or whatever, I don't care if it's
44:03
a McDonald's, well, you know, they got kiosks, but if you're dealing with a
44:07
human, look at that human right in their face and smile, make eye contact,
44:13
hand over the payment with a smile.
44:15
It don't have to be a big, stupid grin.
44:18
Just, just not a frown, right?
44:22
Just not threatening.
44:26
Make eye contact when you're talking with someone. Now, you'll glance away. Yeah.
44:31
And if I'm talking with my homie out on the sidewalk, right,
44:34
in the city, yeah, I'll look at him. Hey, what's up, bro? You know,
44:37
I'll be looking around when I'm chatting.
44:39
I'll look back at him, make sure we're on the same page. Yeah,
44:43
but, yeah, also I'm looking around, sure enough.
44:45
But, yeah, making eye contact matters.
44:48
Windows to the soul, man. Look, these things I just talked about,
44:53
these are not big grand jets.
44:56
That requires they don't
45:00
require money they don't require very much
45:03
effort at all and there are opportunities all day every day to use good manners
45:10
they pop up everywhere almost everywhere you go even on the phone you have an
45:17
opportunity to to be a little to be a little more kind and.
45:23
These things I just said, these simple things, they represent very simple,
45:27
regular guy ways to build goodwill amongst the humans.
45:33
And they provide the general public with visible proof that you,
45:42
as a human being, you take your humanity seriously and you have regard for their humanity.
45:49
Yeah. And if you do this, and if you practice good manners deliberately on a
45:55
daily basis, you will see your environment begin to change.
46:03
You'll see it because people respond in kind. So your circle anyway will lighten up a little bit.
46:11
Yeah. So think on these things, folks. Think on these things.
46:15
This is what I want to talk about. I didn't want to go dark.
46:17
I wanted something easy breezy, sort of positive.
46:22
But if you want better conversations in your life, if you want better neighbors,
46:26
if you want your daily life to be just a little bit better, good manners are
46:33
the best investment you can make.
46:34
And it is an investment because you do have to invest something.
46:39
It shows class and you can develop that in yourself.
46:44
You don't have to be David Niven, but you can develop a little class within
46:49
yourself, and you can live this way.
46:52
And if you can live this consistently and have good manners consistently,
46:56
without any expectation, you will 100% improve the world around you.
47:03
That's what I had for today.
47:07
It wasn't dark. It wasn't too dark. It was pretty easy breezy.
47:13
Tell me what you think about that. This ain't a cutting edge topic.
47:16
I know it's not. It's not cutting edge.
47:19
It's not trending probably on any social platform whatsoever, but it's meaningful.
47:27
Yeah, it's meaningful. Man, let's add a little bit of meaningful interaction back into our lives.
47:36
All right, good people. Thank you so much for listening. I appreciate you all.
47:40
Our listenership is growing, our downloads and all that stuff.
47:44
And I'm still not doing video. These video clips are just little bites.
47:49
I'm still not doing video. I want to wait till I have a more presentable environment.
47:55
What do we got? We got June. So this coming up Saturday, we have Libertarian
48:00
Party of Georgia Range Day.
48:03
That's on Saturday, the 13th. And on 14th, we have a pistol workshop.
48:09
So Sunday. So get in that. And then next week, I think we have is next week,
48:17
the, I'm drawing a blank, Sons of Liberty two-gun match.
48:23
Golly. Sons of Liberty two-gun match.
48:26
So yeah, get in that. Check them out. Come out. Have some fun.
48:30
We're scheduling. We do have some plenty of space for private sessions coming up in July.
48:36
We don't have a lot scheduled at all for July.
48:39
And I know it's hot, but we have space. Excuse me. We have space.
48:45
Check out twoteamguys.com. Yep.
48:49
Please give send go.com backslash
48:53
help a homey fund that are that is
48:56
our charitable efforts that is our
48:59
our way to solicit donations
49:03
so that we can distribute those done voluntarily so that we can then distribute
49:10
those throughout right now the rome or and or atlanta areas to people who may need whatever.
49:20
And, and look, if you know someone who could use a little help,
49:24
if their kid needs shoes and you, for whatever reason, don't feel like you should go buy shoes,
49:31
hit me up and we'll, and we'll go and see what we can do.
49:35
If you know someone who needs a ride somewhere, I mean, we're not an Uber,
49:41
but I mean, we might be able to get somebody somewhere for a job interview or something like that.
49:45
Or if you know somebody who is subsisting on frigging ramen noodles alone,
49:50
you know, we can get them a bag of rice, some SpaghettiOs or something, man.
49:56
Like that's, that's where we're at right now. Right.
49:59
But eventually we plan to grow this into a nonprofit and try to do some great, great stuff.
50:05
All right. So that's, that's where we're at. Good people. Thanks again for listening. I appreciate you.
50:11
Take care of each other. Use.