The ugly American, How can we change the view?

[mb1547]

I think we're turning into two Americas--some of it is economic, and some of it is attitude/culture. I'm in my early 50s--when I was growing up, no matter what you had, you took pride in taking care of it, your accomplishments, and presenting your best face to the world. You wanted to look and act successful--not by charging stuff on a credit card, but by the way you carried yourself, and how hard you worked. It was about having pride in yourself. We live in an age now where people look at people with educational accomplishments as "elitists." Vulgarity is the norm, and we celebrate it. There is no civil discourse, and some people snicker when it's suggested that we've driving this country off the bridge on nastiness. We want the people who lead us to be "just like us" vs. someone who's more intelligent, better educated, more experienced. Rather than debating, we attack each other, and it's all below the belt. Most of my family is from the south, and it's been that way there for a long time. You had the families that were "brought up" well, and the ones that weren't. It had nothing to do with money (some of the people I knew were basically poor, but they had beautiful manners) and everything to do with being gracious and working hard. We used to avoid the people who were vulgar--now they're the norm. A slovenly appearance goes hand in hand with a slovenly attitude.