> The manager of a hotel having the rule "Dress formally at this hotel after 5pm" has a purpose: he is trying to establish a look and atmosphere at his hotel by requesting that his guests respect the hotel and the other patrons by conforming to a certain standard of decorum. It's not unlike asking participants of RinkChat to endeavor to spell correctly and be polite. The rule does not extend outside the public areas of the hotel: it is confined to a specific occasion.

Umm. But I still prefer that people use correct grammar and enunciation in the real world, every day, all the time. Most people expect it from their peers. Types like a lot of us here on Rinkworks correct those who don't use it on a nearly daily basis. Further, most people expect others and adhere themselves to a socially acceptable level of politeness in everyday life, whether at home or out in public -- especially out in public, even. If "after 5:00pm" counts as a specific occasion, why doesn't "from Labor Day to Memorial Day?"

>
> "No white after Labor Day" is not a rule that addresses a level of formality. It is not tied with a specific occasion or place. It is not dictated by an authority who should have the right to do so. It is not dictated out of a request to respect other participants on an occasion or at an event. It's just there, dictated by society in general, mandating blanket, blind, and gratuitous conformance to an arbitrary standard.

The only argument I can agree with here is that it is not dictated by an authority with the right to dictate it. But at some point in time, there was an authority, and if that authority hadn't had the power to make the rule, the rule probably would never have been followed, and certainly never followed so widely.

I could possibly agree with you if you argued that the rule is obsolete, or even that it shouldn't be adhered to simply because no one remembers the source for it or the reason behind it anymore. But you don't make that argument.

Different social classes require different standards amongst their ranks. My stepmother thinks an appropriate topic for dinner conversation is bodily functions. I would never discuss bodily functions at dinner with certain of my friends; it wouldn't be acceptable. I might even go so far as to say others shouldn't discuss bodily functions at dinner. And I'd further probably malign those who didn't apply blanket, blind, and gratuitous conformance to my arbitrary standard.

> It's a big, huge world of difference.

I seriously think your annoyance with this issue is because you don't give a hoot about fashion and don't really have much patience for the subject or those who do give a hoot about it. You think it's arbitrary. Some people don't.

Moush