{"id":4310,"date":"2025-08-07T13:25:27","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T12:25:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/meerkatmusings.co.uk\/?p=4310"},"modified":"2025-08-07T13:26:03","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T12:26:03","slug":"stray-meerkats-the-dress-code-hill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meerkatmusings.co.uk\/?p=4310","title":{"rendered":"Stray Meerkats: The Dress Code Hill"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

One of the on-going, and highly entertaining series Bruce Gerencser posts is the ‘Christians Say the Darnedest Things’ series. One of the latest entries made me ponder whether to write a Meerkat Prompt<\/a>, or a Thinking ‘Kat<\/a> entry, but I couldn’t decide as to which was more relevant. Hence a Stray Meerkat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In one of Bruce’s latest entries<\/a> to the Darnedest Things series, he takes a look at a post by one Francis Slobodnik, who has decided that the necktie is the hill to fight on<\/a>. Apparently the rising tide of men who do not wish to wear ties in everyday life is a sign of society in decline. Details such as comfort should be secondary concerns, at least that’s how I interpret Mr Slobodnik’s remarks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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One article of men\u2019s clothing that is sadly on the decline is the necktie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This abandonment reflects a refusal to accept any restrictions, discipline or discomfort in clothing<\/a> or presentation. Many want to feel comfortable at any cost, even if undignified. Comfort and informality are today\u2019s fashion gods. People will go to great expense to wear torn and ragged fashions with designer labels to worship at the altars of these gods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The necktie is one major casualty of the war on good taste and formality. Some still wear it, but it is sadly disappearing and only visible on rare occasions. A person wearing a necktie stands out in a crowd today.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I can’t speak for everyone to wears the ripped jeans, or for that matter everyone who wears jeans, t-shirts and other everyday articles of clothing, but I for one do not go to a great expense to wear clothes I am comfortable in. I think most people don’t. In fact, it’s usually the tailored suits, or generally just a suit, that works out more pricey. There is certainly little comfort to be found in any suit, at least in my experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Besides, if one is to create boundaries between formal events and casual ones, if we are to somehow define what is termed elegant presentation, and what is not, there needs to be a distinction, doesn’t there? The meaning of wearing a tie, a suit, a jacket… it all kinds of fades away if everyone does it, all the time. It fails to be a distinguished moment if suddenly everyone is wearing a suit to say, the cinema, or a football match, or in general everyday activities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It should also be noted that it is entirely possible to be suited and booted, and still be lazy. I could cite the example of former UK prime Minister Boris Johnson, whose behaviour and manner is as slovenly as any human being on the planet, as demonstrated by his time in office. Meanwhile, there is plenty of evidence to show that working from home, perhaps even in one’s pyjamas, is every bit as productive as getting dressed up and travelling to the office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To quote from a bit further on:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The tie was a small detail in a Christian civilization. Those seeking to do something to oppose the destruction of good customs would do well to get a tie and learn how to tie it. Stand out from the crowd. Be part of that restoration of a Christian order that is sacral, austere, anti-egalitarian and anti-liberal.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Eh? Did Jesus wear a tie? I seem to recall he wore sandals a lot of the time. I don’t think he would be particularly obsessed with a dress code, and would he be promoting an anti-equality stance (which is what Mr Slobodnik seems to be arguing for here, hence his idea of a society that is anti-egalitarian)? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The presence of a tie, or lack thereof, is not the linchpin of civilisation. Some people really do choose the strangest hills…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back to Stray Meerkats<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the on-going, and highly entertaining series Bruce Gerencser posts is the ‘Christians Say the Darnedest Things’ series. One of the latest entries made me ponder whether to write a Meerkat Prompt, or...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":688,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[13],"tags":[35,161],"class_list":["post-4310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics-and-society","tag-christianity","tag-weird"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/meerkatmusings.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/image-86.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meerkatmusings.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/meerkatmusings.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/meerkatmusings.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meerkatmusings.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meerkatmusings.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4310"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/meerkatmusings.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4310\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4314,"href":"https:\/\/meerkatmusings.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4310\/revisions\/4314"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meerkatmusings.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meerkatmusings.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meerkatmusings.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meerkatmusings.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}