Polite, was the first word I looked up in the English dictionary as a 7-year-old, after my grandparents came back from their trip to the UK; curiously it does not have a direct translation into Spanish.

My hat goes off to the ancient British that come up with this lens for what is in a conversation.  In essence, politeness is a call to let go of our egoic trips that have us absent to what is being really said to us. 

The wag of my finger to the British for not living up to their Politeness Enlightenment, reducing it to fake reproductions of “after you”.  Even worse, politeness is the currency that distinguishes the good guys--some version of “us” the in crowd--from the rest.  Thus, England endures a class-divided country.