Civility is Not Coming Back

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.