Right. Sure.
I am aware of your intended meaning for "class" and was using rhetoric to point out that it is a bastardization of a term that has everything to do with social status caste systems and little to do with politeness. Thats why I used quotation marks. It's also why I called your grammar cop routine pretentious.
Right, sure, part two.
It only matters if it effects me.
This is the truest thing you've written about your opinion so far.
I'm not trying to change random stranger's shallow opinion. I'm trying to remain comfortable while watching a public performance. We're talking about the opera or going to a restaurant, not someplace that matters to me what opinions are made and has earned my respect. I am not advocating tennis shoes for the Oval Office.
You do realize, of course, that at a public performance, for the spectators there, the public is part of the performance?
The opera is not an occasion that demands respect. The only respect that is required is to purchase a ticket and to not disrupt the performance. The person I attend with demands respect, and so may be accommodated with formal wear if we both desire it, but the stranger in the aisle seat has no claim on my attire.
Like I wrote, you have every right to appear in public dressed in whatever costume you prefer. You seem to believe the rest of the world should bend towards your standards, however, and like I wrote (again), you might as well scream at a wall. Be like one of these teenage girls who wear pajama bottoms all the time if it makes you happy---the rest of society still won't take you seriously, and think you a boob. That's never going to change, nor should it. If you're going to throw society the finger, society can throw the finger right back at you.
Military appearance and bearing are a whole other thing, touching on discipline, uniformity, and a rigidly enforced caste system required to do their job. There, clothing strictures are a tool of the trade.
In all walks of life, pride in appearance fosters pride in performance, my friend.
Right. Sure.
I am willing to take you at your word, sir. In a discussion about formal behavior, I would expect no less of you. There are, of course, formal consequences to impugning another's honesty.
You do realize, of course, that at a public performance, for the spectators there, the public is part of the performance?
Then they should all be amazed and thrilled at my theatrical portrayal of of a man showing total indifference to their spectating me.
You seem to believe the rest of the world should bend towards your standards,
Boy, do you have that backwards. It is you who is advocating that I conform to the standards of the opera snobs. Lighten up, Francis; it's only a play where people are singing the dialog. It's not a conference to cure cancer. It. Doesn't. Matter.
In all walks of life, pride in appearance fosters pride in performance, my friend.
Opera isn't my walk in life, it's a pass time, a froth, an entertainment at which I am not performing. I am not a professional restaurant critic, so my eating in one is also not not subject to performance review. And how I dress at either activity will effect my performance at them not at all. "Why, look at that diner's panache! See how that three piece suit enhances his soup consumption? Why, he could never perform that meat cutting in jeans."