The Etiquette Edge, 2nd Edition

CHAPTER 1

Manners in the Twenty-First Century

Finally it arrived: the new millennium. For most of us, it was full of hope and promise and fresh beginnings, but it was also filled with dire predictions and omens. Now, more than a decade later, after all the hoopla, hype, and histrionics subsided, we have passed through the gateway into a new age and have settled in to being twenty-first-century savvy. And with the traumatic and gut-wrenching events that have ushered in this new era, we may feel an ongoing urge to reflect and take stock. The picture is not all that pretty.

We see contentious dispositions and adversarial approaches to one another played out in the barrage of 24-hour news, as politicians at the highest level can no longer discuss ...