Topic: Civility
The Price of Lost Civility In Public Discourse Why uncivil behavior in public debate is counterproductive and should be discouraged as strongly as possible.by Walt Thiessen
(libertarian)
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Robert Heinlein wrote in his novel, Friday (Ballantine Books, New York, 1982, p.242), "Sick cultures show a complex of symptoms...but a dying culture invariably exhibits personal rudeness. Bad manners. Lack of consideration for others in minor matters. A loss of politeness, of gentle manners, is more significant than a riot."
I strongly agree with Heinlein, although I think he made one small mistake in his comment. Rudeness is not just a symptom of a dying culture when it involves a "lack of consideration for others in minor matters". It also involves a lack of consideration for others in major matters.
Take, for instance, the case of South Carolina Congressman Joe Wilson who so famously shouted out, "You lie!", in the middle of President Obama's address to Congress a little more than a week ago. Wilson wanted to dramatically make the point that Obama's proposed policies encourage providing public health care for illegal aliens, contrary to what the President himself said. Unfortunately for Wilson, his point has been completely lost as a result of his outburst. Scan Google News or nearly any major newspaper or magazine's article on the subject, and you'll see scathing reviews about the comment itself, about his censure before Congress, about how the comment was racially motivated, and about a score of other points.
What you won't find is much of anything regarding the subject of Wilson's comment. By being rude, Wilson effectively drove the topic he cherished right out of the realm of public debate. His supporters miss the point when they cry that this media reaction proves once again that the media is liberal-leaning or make some other similar argument. What the Wilson experience actually demonstrates is exactly how counter-productive lack of civility is in public debate.
If not for Wilson's deplorable mistake, advocates of the position that the government should not be funding health care for illegal aliens could be moving their point forward. If Wilson had handled the point properly, the point could be playing a significant role in the national debate. Instead, the point has been lost and dismissed. The reason? He couldn't hold his tongue when he got angry and chose to unleash that tongue at an inappropriate time and in an inappropiate manner. In other words, his rudeness backfired spectacularly.
Instead of learning from this, Wilson's supporters by-and-large have chosen to follow his lead and to refuse to learn as well. They consider their righteous anger to be more important than the result of the inappropriate expression of that anger. In this way, they ignore the overwhelmingly obvious fact that inappropriate expression of one's anger actually harms one's own argument.
Sad to say, we will continue to see similar mistakes made by people on all sides of all issues. When economic conditions and international relations get worse, civility tends to disappear. This also means that instead of debating and discussing the issues that affect all of us directly, as do the issues involved in society's decline, we'll end up ignoring those important issues. We'll get hung up on the issue of civility instead. The issues we should concentrate on will end up ignored and dismissed.
In my opinion, people need to grow up. They need to grow thicker skins. Popular anger is understandable, but it should not be considered a justification for intentional rudeness and enmity toward our opponents. Instead, rudeness should be recognized and acknowledged for its counter-productive, antisocial nature. We should all seek to rip out rudeness and meanspiritedness from our own expressions of opinion on the issues.
I hope our society does not lose civility entirely. If that happens, then discourse and debate will end. They will be replaced by people pulling out guns and shooting each other in a massive civil war. America has already passed through that kind of tragedy once before. Let's hope she is able to avoid it in the future. Avoidance of tragedy can only happen if and when people learn to control their anger and direct it in positive forms, rather than negative forms.
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The views expressed in this
article are those of Walt Thiessen only and do not represent
the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates. Walt Thiessen is
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employee or otherwise affiliated with Nolan Chart, LLC in his/her role as a columnist.
In the early days of this nation,congressmen waged duels. The average American had more freedom and less government! Modern bi-partisanship,tyranny instead! Incivility in Congress isn't the problem,lack of duelling is!
".... the overwhelmingly obvious fact that inappropriate expression of one's anger actually harms one's own argument."
Sadly, not overwhelmingly obvious to all liberty advocates. Anger is a poison pill, not for the opponents, but for the protestor. It doesn't advance a cause, it retards it. The fact is that Obama did lie, immediately after insulting Wilson and other dissenters as being guilty of "telling lies" about My Healthcare Bill, which doesn't even exist.
Protests are fine, but they don't persuade anyone of anything. Insults may be totally accurate, but they don't earn commendations from any civil observers. The facts and principles are important - critical - to the nation's future. Putting them on the sidelines to satisfy a craving to stomp one's feet won't solve the problem.
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