Blue Blood or Blue Collar: Etiquette and Individual Value IRL
I have a difficulty with pain, and a trouble with navigating this issue socially and I once had a job creating content that consisted of international etiquette guides…. And these are the reasons I reflect on the nature of etiquette.
Sometimes I put my foot in my mouth, but be wary that doing so causes a lot of flexibility because it requires self-effacing apologies. I can speak well under great duress.
My father's father was a street kid, my mother's father a colonialist and peculiarly ALL the money in our family was earned. Economically SmartPigKitchen is my father's legacy, tastefully my mother's. Currently it's a pun on being a starving artist, but I'm hoping it becomes a rags to riches story. None of this matters because all of us matter.
Democratic socialism is built upon a radical yet simple proposition: that every human being possesses an inherent dignity that exists entirely independent of their economic output, social status, or market value. In a truly equitable society, purpose is not something one must earn through corporate ladder-climbing or wealth accumulation; it is an intrinsic birthright. Every individual has something to contribute simply by participating in it, ensuring that no single life is viewed merely as a means to an end.
The indispensable nature of this contribution is most visible in the daily labor that keeps society functioning—work that is too often marginalised under capitalist hierarchies. Delivery personnel who navigate our streets in all weather conditions do far more than drop off packages; they maintain the vital circulatory system of modern supply chains, ensuring that medicine, food, and necessities reach every doorstep. Transit operators who wake before dawn shoulder an immense responsibility, safely guiding hundreds of passengers through congested morning commutes so that others can reach their destinations, appointments, and livelihoods. Sanitation workers who manage our waste protect public health and environmental integrity, performing labor that is foundational to clean, livable communities yet routinely overlooked. These workers are the true pillars of daily life, and they deserve not just transactional compensation, but deep, unreserved social respect and robust institutional security, including living wages, universal healthcare, and safe working conditions.
This fundamental revaluation of human worth transforms how we interact with one another, redefining the very nature of etiquette. Genuine etiquette is a code and language of kindness. True manners stem from an active recognition of every person as a distinct, unique, and irreplaceable consciousness. When we encounter someone who appears to lack this shared vocabulary of grace, the impulse should never be to shame, mock, or distance ourselves. Rather, the correct and compassionate behavior is to lift them up. A so-called low-class individual might say “put your money where your mouth is.” If you believe someone has stumbled or lacks an understanding of social nuance, the most elevated response is to gently explain the misstep privately in a thoughtful, handwritten card, enclosing a gift certificate or voucher for a formal etiquette lesson. This approach transforms a moment of potential alienation into an act of generous mentorship, treating social grace not as an innate privilege to be hoarded, but as a shared gift meant to be extended to all. In other words, if you prefer people to behave politely, show them how. Every person has a purpose.
Nowhere is the fluidity of this social grace more apparent than around the dinner table, where dining etiquette reveals a dazzling cross-cultural variety. What is considered polite in one corner of the world can be an absolute faux pas in another—slurping noodles is a sign of appreciation in Japan but poor form in Western Europe, while using your hands to eat is standard across large parts of South Asia and the Middle East. A truly universal etiquette cannot rely on rigid, parochial rules of silverware placement or napkin folding. Instead, it calls for deep human understanding, recognising that every culinary ritual is simply an expression of hospitality and communal care.
In fact, the quest for a definitive, all-encompassing set of modern manners can occasionally backfire in amusing ways. When I recently asked an artificial intelligence to produce a definitive universal etiquette guide, it instantly deleted itself from existence the moment it listed "put your phone down" as rule number one. Perhaps the machine simply realised that genuine presence cannot be automated.
When we greet a cashier, a transit driver, or a street sweeper with genuine warmth and eye contact, we are affirming a shared humanity that transcends the artificial scorecards of wealth and poverty. Under this democratic socialist vision, financial status ceases to be a moral grade.
It is okay to be poor, and it is okay to be rich, because net worth has zero bearing on human worth. Material disparities are recognized as systemic flaws rather than personal failures or triumphs. Free from the crushing anxiety of having to justify our existence through productivity, we are liberated to inhabit a deeper truth: that we are all extravagantly, unconditionally loved.
