Tact and etiquette, two words that are found in the English language, but that are poorly understood these days. Coming from the latin tactus, which means a sense or action of touch, having ‘tact’ is having a keen sense of what is appropriate or tasteful, with regards to communication between person to person. Etiquette on the other hand, based on the French variant of the same spelling dates back to the 16th century, and is a code of conduct of ethical behavior, usually between professionals in their dealings with one another, but can be attributed to any societal division.
You have to wonder though, if people really know what those definitions actually mean.
Examples of the clear absence of the proper usage of these terms can be seen or heard almost daily, whether you watch TV, surf the ‘net or follow any of the various trends on social media platforms. It paints a clear picture of a dangerously slippery slope of human interaction in the world today, despite the fact that all of this is coated with a comical veneer.
Whether people are taking jabs at cultural differences or poking fun at social divisions, lambasting the church or politicians or anyone in the public eye who makes a mistake tragic or otherwise, or merely sticking our noses into somebody else’s business, anything is fair game and nothing is off the metaphorical table.
Recent events in politics have provided ample ammunition for pundits, from Conservative party attack ads on Justin Trudeau’s age to similar campaigns blaming Harper for everything including the carnage of global stock markets, but these sorts of slanderous actions are not purely limited to campaigns.
Indeed, humanity tends to bicker and nit-pick for a variety of reasons, though usually the motives are based on greed or jealousy.
Attacking a candidate’s age in a political campaign is one thing while placing the blame for things that could not possibly be the fault of any one person is another, and each are damaging in their own right, yet both carry the potential to be labeled as libel as clearly as misidentification does, if, obviously, there is a reason to doubt a person’s motives and to call them in to question.
The problem however, is that sometimes mistakes are actually mistakes, and while the person or persons involved may have done everything in their power to retain accuracy, our natural proclivity towards legal action prevents us from taking the necessary time towards sobering second thoughts, from seeking out a true understanding of all the facts related to the events themselves, and so the cycle of abuse continues, unmitigated, regardless of the damage it causes.
Reputations are built up over months or years, but all it takes is one wrong word to ruin one.
The solution is to take a second, to think things through and to not be so reactionary as we have become in the 21st century. We should not be so quick to judge, nobody is perfect after all.
