We live in a day of uncivil discourse. Hate and contempt along with blame and name
calling are the norm. You will find
people calling for civility in discussion and discourse. Those people are relics of the past who no
longer understand the world we live in.
Yes, civility is dead. And it is
never coming back.
Allow me to explain.
In the past, civility was part of the expectation of
participation in the public discourse.
When a person lost civility, even if the point he was making was good
and valid, he was rebuked for being uncivil and speaking wrongly. Even Machiavelli was against threats and
insulting language, even if it was for self-serving reasons. Somewhere that changed. And it changed because the humanity of the
opponent was taken away. The opponent is
sub-human somehow (usually through a position they hold or believe), and that
status makes his worthy of scorn and contempt, and soon much, much more. The opponent now is a target worthy of hate.
Please understand, all is acceptable if the target is worthy
of hate. After all, do you really have
to be nice to the devil? Shouldn’t you
kill Hitler if you went back in time? So
now, you can punch a person unprovoked in the face, if the guy is a Nazi. You can say horrible things to people, if
that person is horrible to begin with. This
is how actions are now justified, not on the basis of the action in comparison
to an objective standard, but on the basis of the recipient of the action. This extends beyond simple words, but even to shootings.
The result is a vicious cycle. In order to make sure one’s actions continue
to be justified, part of the goal then is to continue to demonize the
target. Because if the target becomes
accepted by the masses or somehow is humanized, then all of your actions that
were previously justified are now all unacceptable. This could in turn make you viewed as a
target worthy of hate, and thus all someone else’s actions against you would
now be justified. So, there is never
room to stop and talk as equals or what used to be called “being civil”. Such an idea would tend toward making actions
against that person unjustified and could create a situation that endangered me
if the tide of opinion turned against me.
Don’t think I am just talking about politics. This is everywhere in life. Everywhere.
There is a minor scandal in the Comic Book Industry about how people handle those who do not like
their stories. One creator tried to
start a hashtag #comicsceasefire and got massive backlash. A liberal MSNBC and Vanity Fair editor spoke
up when a comic creator wished a critic had died in Afghanistan, and was amazedat the level of hate he received for speaking up.
Do I need to even remind anyone about sports now? But even just stating an opinion like Hall of
Famer Chipper Jones did the other day immediately is treated as worthy of hate
and past sinful actions of Mr. Jones are brought up in order to show he is anobject worthy of hate. What adultery has
to do with gun control is anyone’s guess, but it does make one feel better
about dismissing and treating him poorly.
If you want to see more examples of making a person morally
worthy of abuse and then giving that abuse both Gamergate and the Sad Puppiescampaign against the Hugo Awards (science fiction awards) are fine
examples. Or go to Twitter and see the
daily fights that often reward people with more followers for being completely
uncivil and dehumanizing to one another.
It should go without say why Christians cannot follow or participate
in this trend. We can never “dehumanize”
someone made in the image of God. But we
ought to no longer expect that same respect in return.