Polite Speech

We tend to say things we do not mean in order to make ourselves appear as a good person, like “let’s keep in touch” and “it’s nice to meet you.”  It is not always clear whether we are actually pleased to meet someone, or just do not want to come off as rude.  In the course of saying things we do not truly mean, the expressions that we use become meaningless. 

As a society, we care too much about the way others perceive us.  We would rather say something such as “how are you” instead of being transparent.  We create this fake, forced, first impression because we are trying so hard to appear “perfect.”  We then continue being “polite” because we do not want to be labeled as a bad person.  However, we are labeled as a good person if we say, “sure, we can definitely meet up,” even though you most likely won’t. 

I am not saying we should stop being polite because it is something we do everyday and it would be silly to stop doing it.  It is a custom to ask, “how are you?” that we may not even think twice about doing so.  I have some memories of meeting a friend of my parents and saying “it’s nice to meet you” because I felt forced to, even if I did not even like them that much.  Politeness is a good quality to have, but to overuse it to the point of nothing is where the problem lies.