Thanks

Michael Jackson sang in Man in the Mirror: “if you wanna do a better world, take a look at yourself and make a change”. It is a modern version of a very old admonition. Nothing is said, though, in ancient or modern times, about how to change or what of change is needed. The contents of such a change are clearly subjective, because what one might think as a mandatory improvement, could be a superfluous modification for another; what it would be a significant break for some, might be meaningless for others.

I think that a very nice breakthrough in the path to improve the condition of humans among themselves is to rescue the use of the word “thank you”. I have mentioned this before here: we are stopping using this word freely, as it is supposed to.

The fact that the English tends to suppress the expression “thank you” or “thanks” by “cheers” is significant to me (perhaps, it is not too much surprising giving the fondness of this country to the drinking culture). A clear thank you for the common man and woman in the common situation is harder and harder to get.

I won’t hide the fact that this inconsiderate evolution bothers me a lot. I also found it detrimental for any healthy society formed by free individuals who interact freely. I get crossed the most any time you offer the way to somebody and the action is unacknowledged or unrecognized by the one who is benefited. Particularly, in the old times kids were touch by their mothers to say “thank you” to anyone who granted a kindness to both. In these days, nor even the mother or the father does it frequently.

The word “thanks”, “gracias”, in Spanish, or “mercy” in French has a component of gratuity, a nice recognition of the fact that favour and kindness is a note of high civilization against the wilderness of the natural environment and against our animal condition.

If I were a singer I would love to try being revolutionary by claming: if you want to do this world better, say “thank you” and teach your kids to say “thank you”.

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