Restore civility
Please.
I intended to post this Thomas Reeve’s commentary on the culture wars since it was first out, but in the meantime, it has practically gone viral and set a new record for views on Mercatornet. Now that tells us a lot, and hopefully, all good. That people are connecting so readily with the message of civility (and our name-calling culture) and passing it on to others may just be a sign that we’re trying to turn things around.
Examples of uncivilized blather abound. For example, if one has serious objections to the public display and approval of sodomy, one is called a “homophobe.” Opponents of racial preferences are branded “racists.” (Blacks who find special favors demeaning and patronizing are called a variety of vile names.) To believe that a pregnant mother bears a person rather than a thing is to be labeled a “religious extremist.” The same label is applied to people who believe that organized religion should participate in the public square.
If you object to even one feminist dogma, you’re a “sexist.” Support efforts to purge the public airwaves of obscenity and violence and you’re a “bigot,” just like the “dummies” who believe in objective right and wrong…Those wishing to restrain propagandizing in the classroom are called “right wingers,” and are often shunned by colleagues. Those who oppose the nanny state are labeled “uncaring,” “inhumane,” and the like. Using the “n” word is one or another brand of racism—unless, of course, the word is used by African-Americans themselves, which it often is. Spending huge sums of tax dollars to save the economy is labeled Socialism. And on and on.
This is so familiar, right? And so refreshing to hear someone call things what they are, put clear and objective words to the clouds of disingenuous rhetoric in political and social arguments, and point to the fact that they are precisely arguments and not debates because they lack civil discourse. Flame throwers “substitute banalities for thought,” Reeves says, and he is exactly right.
And it gets better…..he asks that we get past using generalities when making an argument or giving speeches but talk about ideas and back them up with specifics.
A democracy requires its citizens to think rather than simply obey. All people in a free society benefit when discourse is civil, which means that it should be reasoned, fact-filled, specific, and respectful of the highest moral standards the country has traditionally embraced. Let us think and speak clearly and with the best of intentions.
Yes, let’s have clarity with charity.
Pass it on. Thank you.
