{"id":9741,"date":"2018-07-13T07:44:06","date_gmt":"2018-07-13T12:44:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/?p=9741"},"modified":"2021-06-14T07:25:50","modified_gmt":"2021-06-14T12:25:50","slug":"on-civility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2018\/07\/13\/on-civility\/","title":{"rendered":"On civility"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some<\/a> say the problem in today’s political world is the lack of civility<\/a>. Others<\/a> say the problem<\/a> is civility itself, or the pretense of it (and use of it as a bludgeon), when what is called for is outrage<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It seems to me that there is no universal “civility.” Civility is a matter of fitting in and accommodating oneself to a larger civic body, a larger civitas<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

The problem today is that there are different (potential) civic bodies, and our actions contribute to the formation, strengthening, or transgression of one or another of them. The civic sphere is not predetermined once and for all, and its rules of engagement are always negotiable.<\/p>\n

It’s easy to be civil with your own in-group. The trick is to go beyond it and experience life outside of that in-group. Humans are not customarily very good at that, both when it comes to other human collectivities and — perhaps especially — when it comes to the broader not-just-human world. It is in that “outside” where one can find a new civility, but only through trial and error, negotiation, and the learning of a new respect for those one is not accustomed to fitting in with.<\/p>\n

The task today is to create a new civic body, a multicolored, multicapabled, and multispecied one that can carry us beyond the blinders and limits of the ones our (more popular) politicians are dredging up from the past. That’ll take courage, experimentation, and humility.<\/p>\n

But articulating the principles for getting along today — in our national and global spheres — is a good place to start. And then working them into a body politic that is capable of neutralizing those whose mission is to destroy the possibility of any new civility.<\/p>\n

In the end, we have to choose our allegiances and our civilities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some say the problem in today’s political world is the lack of civility. Others say the problem is civility itself, or the pretense of it (and use of it as a bludgeon), when what is called for is outrage. It seems to me that there is no universal “civility.” Civility is a matter of fitting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[690660],"tags":[520567,520566,520563,520565,520554,520564,4449,123663,454984,454932],"class_list":["post-9741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cultural_politics","tag-body-politic","tag-civics","tag-civillity","tag-communicative-discourse","tag-illiberalism","tag-incivility","tag-left-politics","tag-politics","tag-post-truth","tag-trump"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4IC4a-2x7","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9458,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2017\/10\/05\/on-cultural-civil-conflict\/","url_meta":{"origin":9741,"position":0},"title":"On cultural civil conflict","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"October 5, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I think it's fair to say that the United States is in a state of\u00a0cultural civil war. It is cultural\u00a0war in the sense that it is a war fought with signs and symbols rather than with guns -- signs and symbols intended to elicit affiliation, allegiance, and identification with one\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cultural politics"","block_context":{"text":"Cultural politics","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/cultural_politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2017\/10\/8A7BE982-A5DD-4A47-866E-0AB3FA6048E9-275x206.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1359,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2010\/10\/26\/the-house-of-cards-house-of-cards\/","url_meta":{"origin":9741,"position":1},"title":"the “house of cards” house of cards","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"October 26, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"For all my skepticism toward most \"climate skepticism,\" I find the case of Judith Curry very interesting. This recent post at her blog Climate Etc. repeatedly resorts to metaphors like \"'Alice down the rabbit hole' moments\" and \"bucket[s] of cold water being poured over my head\" to describe her experiences\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Climate change"","block_context":{"text":"Climate change","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/climate-politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"house-of-cards.jpg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2010\/10\/house-of-cards.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1368,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2010\/11\/13\/inside-job\/","url_meta":{"origin":9741,"position":2},"title":"inside job","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"November 13, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=X2DRm5ES-uA?fs=1&hl=en_US It's not as good a film as I would have liked -- there are too many talking heads, and director\/interviewer Charles Ferguson (who remains conveniently invisible throughout) has an annoying tendency to look for \"gotcha\" moments, when his interview subjects hesitate and stumble in answering his questions, as if\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cinema"","block_context":{"text":"Cinema","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/cinema_zone\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/X2DRm5ES-uA\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9423,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2017\/08\/29\/hysteria-or-hope\/","url_meta":{"origin":9741,"position":3},"title":"Hysteria, or hope?","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"August 29, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Based on its title and on the snippets I saw being quoted, I fully expected to dislike Lee Jones' article \"Charlottesville and the Politics of Left Hysteria,\" posted a few days ago at\u00a0The Current Moment. Instead, I've found it nuanced, cogent, and well worth reading. I myself have tried to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cultural politics"","block_context":{"text":"Cultural politics","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/cultural_politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9730,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2018\/09\/17\/illiberalism-the-utopian-deficit\/","url_meta":{"origin":9741,"position":4},"title":"“Illiberalism” & the utopian deficit","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"September 17, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"An off-the-cuff essay, written not for any particular occasion, but just to get it out of me. It's probably mostly common knowledge (among people on the green left), just maybe not well articulated yet, and too easily forgotten. Politically, we're all playing a little catch-up these days. Understanding the apparent\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cultural politics"","block_context":{"text":"Cultural politics","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/cultural_politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2018\/09\/preview-275x155.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11469,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2021\/01\/10\/mob-politics-killer-selfies-and-the-future-of-social-media-an-ecotopian-perspective\/","url_meta":{"origin":9741,"position":5},"title":"Mob politics, killer selfies, and the future of social media: an ecotopian perspective","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"January 10, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Two points of social media use call for more attention as we make sense of this week's events at the U. S. Capitol. 1) Videos and selfies from Trump's \"Stop the Steal\" rallies are circulating online and making it easier to identify those who participated in the attempted coup at\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cultural politics"","block_context":{"text":"Cultural politics","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/cultural_politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2021\/01\/11-selfies-superJumbo.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2021\/01\/11-selfies-superJumbo.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2021\/01\/11-selfies-superJumbo.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2021\/01\/11-selfies-superJumbo.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2021\/01\/11-selfies-superJumbo.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2021\/01\/11-selfies-superJumbo.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/99"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9741"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9741\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9749,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9741\/revisions\/9749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}