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Jonas's avatar

I see the current consolidation of elite opinion in the US as something very similar to what happened during Victorian England. Before then, social etiquette and manners never mattered as much in England, and hasn't mattered as much thereafter.

Most of the "opinions" being consolidated right now are really new forms of rules of manners. And nothing gets you socially punished as much as violating these rules of manners publicly. Whether you actually draw the obvious next-step conclusions from any of these opinions are way less important.

How does your theory map onto what happened then?

As to the aftermath of Victorian England, somewhere along the way the British Empire did collapse / or was abandoned, but I don't know if that precedes, coincides or came after the dissipation of the social focus on manners.

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Andrew Luscombe's avatar

The frontier is the edge of control of the dominant society, and expansion into it is the spreading of that dominant society. It's not a relief valve.

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