The Service of Social Harmony, Essay Example

In the service of social harmony, politeness often discourages the expression of negative emotions (even if they are felt) and encourages the expression of positive emotions (even if they aren’t felt). In what ways is this good for the individual and/or the society? In what ways is it bad? Using what you know about emotion, make a case for or a case against politeness (as it relates to emotional expression).

Politeness is often defined as the presentation of what good emotional reaction is especially when one faces a particular point of breaking as he or she relates to others. Most of the time politeness often takes on a different sense of application depending on the situation to which it is used as a response to a particular person or a particular event. For instance, one may react politely to a person based on his behavior or the connection they have between each other; however, there are instances when one wants to react differently [probably on a more negative manner] but out of being polite, such consideration of negative reaction is stashed in and the more polite option is taken into account to be able to keep the peace at bay. This often happens when the offensive party has a higher authority or social class compared to the one receiving the oppressive action [as if the one at the receiving end does not have any choice but to be polite].

Being polite does have its pros and cons when it comes to application of matters. This is where ethical decisions come in proper place. Noticeably, it could be understood that being polite has brought many individuals into a much better state in life because they are simply able to let small transgressions pass and make peace with almost everyone, even those who are offending them. While this is good, some who are at the receiving end are actually becoming less concerned about their actions because they feel that people would just let go of such actions allowing them not pay for any bad implications they may have inflicted on others. In cases like this the positive value of politeness is being kept out of it cage. Relatively, it could be understood that because of this situation, there are instances when politeness is being dealt with indifferently by others as if seeing it as a sense of implying tolerance even among individuals doing something wrong against others.