I see it almost the opposite way. A lot of what you’re describing is exactly why I don’t put much value in dressing fancy or performing “respectability” for strangers.
Wearing a nice suit to the lodge once a week doesn’t make someone a good person. Plenty of people can dress up, look impressive in public, shake hands, say the right things, and then go home and be cruel, abusive, miserable, or drunk. I saw enough of that growing up to lose any belief that polished appearances are proof of character.
So when people stop treating suits, fancy clothes, and public image as moral signals, I don’t see that as societal decay. In some ways, I see it as growth. People are realizing that looking respectable and being respectable are not the same thing.
If anything, when I see someone using appearance, tradition, or status as a mask for behavior I don’t respect, it makes me want to be the opposite of what they stand for.
It’s one of the most egalitarian things. Dressing down is inclusive of people who can’t dress up. And as far as society goes, the world was very well dressed through the period it couldn’t stop declaring war on itself.
I see it almost the opposite way. A lot of what you’re describing is exactly why I don’t put much value in dressing fancy or performing “respectability” for strangers.
Wearing a nice suit to the lodge once a week doesn’t make someone a good person. Plenty of people can dress up, look impressive in public, shake hands, say the right things, and then go home and be cruel, abusive, miserable, or drunk. I saw enough of that growing up to lose any belief that polished appearances are proof of character.
So when people stop treating suits, fancy clothes, and public image as moral signals, I don’t see that as societal decay. In some ways, I see it as growth. People are realizing that looking respectable and being respectable are not the same thing.
If anything, when I see someone using appearance, tradition, or status as a mask for behavior I don’t respect, it makes me want to be the opposite of what they stand for.
It’s one of the most egalitarian things. Dressing down is inclusive of people who can’t dress up. And as far as society goes, the world was very well dressed through the period it couldn’t stop declaring war on itself.