Literacy is Decreasing Among the Intellectual Class

(Cross-posted from my Substack; written as part of the Halfhaven virtual blogging camp)

Oh, you read Emily Post's Etiquette? What version? There's a significant difference between versions, and that difference reflects the declining literacy of the American intellectual.

I looked into this because I noticed books published before the ’70s or ‘80s seemed to be written with an assumption of the reader's competence that is no longer present in many modern texts.

Take Emily Post's Etiquette. The force of her intellect and personality came through in the 1922 original:

When gentlemen are introduced to each other they always shake hands. When a gentleman is introduced to a lady, she sometimes puts out her hand— especially if he is some one she has long heard about from friends in common, but to an entire stranger she generally merely bows her head slightly and says: “How do you do!” Strictly speaking, it is always her place to offer her hand or not as she chooses, but if he puts out his hand, it is rude on her part to ignore it. Nothing could be more ill-bred than to treat curtly any overture made in spontaneous friendliness. No thoroughbred lady would [...]

The original text contained 3 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:
November 23rd, 2025

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/Nr4Mca2WGhv4jyvfh/literacy-is-decreasing-among-the-intellectual-class

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.