Do You Know What It Means to Be Elegant?

The Wisdom of Ptahhotep and Everyday Ethics

When Ptahhotep wrote his maxims in ancient Egypt, he left a record of what would be the ideal behavior of each individual for social progress and improvement. What is curious is to notice that many of these maxims consist of simple behaviors, we could even say obvious, such as: “How wonderful is a child who obeys his father” or even, “How happy is the one who is told: A child is kind when he knows how to listen.”But what lies behind these phrases that I chose to bring to our reflection? What would be the relevance to society, in a general way, that a child learns to be obedient to his parents and heed their teachings? I believe Ptahhotep offers us the pointing out of the importance of respecting hierarchies. When we are children, our family and the way it is structured shape our social perception, that is, the way we will later deal with the world around us.Therefore, when this value of hierarchical respect is emphasized, in other words, we are underlining the importance of a social order so that courtesy among people is ensured and preserved. And the sooner this understanding is formed, the better the quality of human relations will be. The understanding of respect for others and social order, when put into practice, creates a more harmonious environment. In the workplace, these precepts are fundamental for excellence and the proper functioning of a team, for example.Understanding one's place in the world and being clear about how one's actions can change and affect the lives of those around them is very important. Let's look at a seemingly silly example that happens frequently in daily life; priority seating on public transportation. Who hasn't witnessed a young person pretending to sleep to avoid giving up a seat to an elderly person or a pregnant woman? In fact, this behavior is not silly at all; behind this attitude there is a deep neglect and lack of perception of the other. It is a selfish and rude act. This triggers a failure in basic learning, which brings us some possibilities, among them, that there was a lack of proper instruction to enable this individual to play a good role in social life.In view of this, I believe that through small everyday ethics, that is, the teaching of etiquette, we can help to prevent behavioral missteps like these. When we once again give credit to fundamental values and, gradually, begin to rescue them, etiquette will finally cease to be understood as a set of outdated rules and will once again be seen as a fundamental social basis for good collective functioning, as it was once thought by people of importance such as Ptahhotep, Socrates, Marcus Aurelius, Erasmus of Rotterdam, and others.