Why modern manners are actually a hidden map of state power and control

Ideas & Philosophy · Published 29 September 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Norbert Elias, a German sociologist who spent decades in obscurity, revealed that our most basic social norms—from table manners to emotional restraint—are not natural. Instead, they are the result of centuries of state formation, forcing individuals to internalize self-control to survive within increasingly complex, interconnected social networks.

Born in 1897, Norbert Elias spent much of his life as a marginal figure in sociology. His magnum opus, The Civilizing Process, was first published in 1939 but remained largely ignored until its republication in 1969. Elias argued that the modern 'self' is a historical product, shaped by the rise of centralized states in Europe. As these states grew, they demanded more predictable behavior from elites, which eventually trickled down to the rest of society through socialization.

Elias traced this shift by analyzing historical documents on etiquette and bodily functions. He observed that as social interdependencies grew more complex, thresholds of shame and repugnance increased. This forced individuals to develop 'second nature'—a psychological structure of self-restraint that mirrors the external control once exerted by courtly life. This process, which he termed 'civilizing,' was not a linear march toward moral progress, but a structural shift in how humans regulate their impulses to navigate dense social webs.

His work was often misunderstood as a form of social Darwinism, yet Elias insisted it was a metaphor for social processes rather than a theory of upward evolution. He famously described the Nazi genocide as a 'decivilizing spurt,' a regression within a civilization suffering from decay. By the time of his death in 1990, Elias had become one of the most influential sociologists of the twentieth century, with his theories on figurational sociology providing a bridge between individual agency and large-scale societal structures.

Despite his perfectionism, Elias was notoriously reluctant to publish, leaving behind a massive archive of essays and drafts. In the early twenty-first century, the Norbert Elias Foundation partnered with University College Dublin Press to release a definitive 18-volume collection of his work. This project aims to correct errors in earlier translations and provide context for his complex theories, ensuring his insights into the relationship between power, emotion, and the modern human condition remain accessible to future generations.

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