Why was social respect, and chivalry SO IMPORTANT back then? Why was it seen as "gentlemanly" to get killed on the Titanic?
The question might be "Why is it so unimportant now?"
1912 culture was as different to us today as any foreign culture. Why it changed is subject to interpretation and debate, but I would suspect the following reasons:
1. An increase in casualness, brought about by
a. increased media communication, allowing people to realize that many leaders and symbols of authority were "just like us"
b. An increase in the democratic spread of wealth, erasing the boundaries between upper and lower classes.
2. A decrease in religious devotion, indirectly reducing the ideal of "honesty above all".
3. People questioning events like the sinking of the Titanic, and deciding that chivalry wasn't worth dying for.
4. Ordinary shifts in culture and opinion
5. Perhaps it hasn't changed at all, it just appears to have for certain perceptual reasons (most notably the stories that live on are the stories of heroism and villainy, not ordinary events, so we simply never here about "ordinary things and this leaves us to assume that history is full of heroism)
In 1912, many of the most "Chivalrous" passengers of the Titanic were wealthy members of well-connected society, an isolated caste, whose success depended on their reputation. They had been trained from birth in the idea of chivalry, of decency, honor, gentlemanly conduct, good sportsmanship, and the importance of not telling lies.
Many people, especially Andrews, realized that hundreds of people were going to die, and that every person who saved themselves took someone else's seat in a lifeboat. Even today, "Survivor's Guilt" is a very real phenomenon. Also, even today, there are people who risk their lives to save others, and for many people, chivalry is still alive and well.
