Chap­ter 7 of “The Ways of Men,” enti­tled “World­ly Col­or-Blind­ness,” draws a par­al­lel between the lit­er­al inabil­i­ty to dis­cern col­ors and tones and a metaphor­i­cal lack of dis­cern­ment in social set­tings. The author presents a crit­i­cal view of those who, despite good inten­tions, fail to under­stand the sub­tleties of social gath­er­ings, result­ing in uncom­fort­able and unen­joy­able events.

The text opens with an anal­o­gy to phys­i­cal col­or-blind­ness and tone-deaf­ness, men­tion­ing indi­vid­u­als who, despite these lim­i­ta­tions, have made their marks in fields like paint­ing and music. How­ev­er, the pri­ma­ry con­cern is with “social col­or-blind­ness,” a con­di­tion where indi­vid­u­als are obliv­i­ous to the nuances required to host enjoy­able social events. This lack of aware­ness affects all stra­ta of soci­ety, espe­cial­ly notice­able among the well-born and sup­pos­ed­ly well-man­nered, lead­ing to dull and unsat­is­fac­to­ry gath­er­ings.

A sig­nif­i­cant por­tion of the chap­ter cri­tiques the moti­va­tions behind enter­tain­ing, por­tray­ing it as often dri­ven by osten­ta­tion, social oblig­a­tion, or cler­i­cal metic­u­lous­ness rather than gen­uine enjoy­ment or con­nec­tion. The author humor­ous­ly describes the strate­gic maneu­ver­ings of hosts to ful­fill social oblig­a­tions with min­i­mal effort, includ­ing throw­ing poor­ly timed par­ties to ensure a high rate of dec­li­na­tions.

The cri­tique extends to var­i­ous types of hosts, includ­ing those who, out of a mis­placed sense of char­i­ty, invite dis­rep­utable or mis­matched guests, mak­ing their events seem like gath­er­ings of the “moral­ly lame, halt, and blind.” This mis­guid­ed attempt at inclu­siv­i­ty only serves to dilute the qual­i­ty of social inter­ac­tion, mak­ing the events stren­u­ous rather than enjoy­able for the guests.

The author bemoans the lack of tact, dis­cern­ment, and gen­uine socia­bil­i­ty in host­ing, point­ing out the com­mon pit­falls of hos­pi­tal­i­ty, such as inap­pro­pri­ate guest pair­ings and indis­crim­i­nate invi­ta­tions. The cri­tique cul­mi­nates in a call for aware­ness and restraint, sug­gest­ing that those who are “social­ly col­or-blind” should abstain from host­ing, to pre­vent the myr­i­ad social faux pas they inad­ver­tent­ly com­mit.

In sum­ma­ry, Chap­ter 7 humor­ous­ly yet point­ed­ly cri­tiques the social inep­ti­tude that per­vades the realm of hos­pi­tal­i­ty, where a lack of dis­cre­tion and empa­thy leads to unful­fill­ing social inter­ac­tions. The chap­ter serves as a satir­i­cal com­men­tary on the super­fi­cial­i­ty and trans­ac­tion­al nature of social gath­er­ings, urg­ing a more thought­ful and gen­uine approach to hos­pi­tal­i­ty.