Page 9 - Division, Intolerance, and Conflict: Can Public Civility Ever Be Restored?
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“The obvious kind of civility,
the civility of niceness, is only
lack of politeness in public. They curse, the most superfi cial marker
push to the front of the line, lay on their of much deeper moral obliga-
tions.”
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car horns, insult strangers, and yell at
restaurant servers and cashiers. While —ZZ Packer, novelist
some wish angry people would just be
more polite, author ZZ Packer does not
think this will solve problems associated with incivility. She main-
tains, “The obvious kind of civility, the civility of niceness, is only the
most superfi cial marker of much deeper moral obligations.” 6
Enlightened Thinkers
The term civility evolved from Latin. It denotes the responsibility
of being a good citizen. In this usage, civility includes principles
like politeness, respect, and empathy for others. The Greek phi-
losopher Aristotle used the term civil society to describe citizens
who share ethical standards and morals. In a civil society people
could live freely and safely under a common rule of law. In the
seventeenth century, English philosopher Thomas Hobbes ex-
panded on the concept of civil society in his groundbreaking po-
litical tract Leviathan. Hobbes linked civility with an idea called the
social contract, a term still in use today. Citizens who are part of
the social contract agree to surrender some of their more corrupt
impulses, such as greed, aggression, and revenge, for peace and
order under a central government. Hobbes wrote that without a
social contract, humanity would descend into chaos and total
war, making life “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” 7
The social contract theory was a major inspiration to the found-
ers of the United States. The Constitution starts with the words “We
the people.” This simple phrase expresses the ideas embodied in
the social contract; it is the people who are giving their mutual con-
sent to be governed. In exchange for this consent, the social con-
tract requires governing authorities to keep the peace while granting
people certain rights, such as free speech and freedom of religion.
Packer links the social contract spelled out in the Constitution
to what she calls the moral and political duty of civility. “We must
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