An epidemic of incivility

June 30, 2010|By Roger M. Knutson Courier Columnist

Identifying just exactly what is wrong with our society is a popular sport, and it’s time I engaged in it. Our society’s problem is not malaise. It is not dishonesty, although there may be a lot of that. It is not unethical behavior, despite how much of that there may be. It is not the sexual peccadilloes of political figures, although those are entertaining for short periods. Our problem is an epidemic of public incivility.

As the root word “civil” suggests, civility consists of those actions that make it possible for us to live together. They include some degree of deference, and courtesy, along with what might be called decency. Incivility is behavior or language that is rude, ill-bred, discourteous and harmful to the mechanisms that make it possible for us to live more or less harmoniously in large groups.

In the recent furor over a series of interviews with the staff of the now-fired General McChrystal, one of the media commentators suggested that the general’s staff, when speaking to a reporter from the publication Rolling Stone, engaged in “locker room trash talk.” Such talk might be fine in a locker room, but is clearly uncivil in public. Referring, as those aides did, to the national security advisor to the president as a “clown,” and to Vice President Biden as, “bite-me,” falls well outside the bounds of civility. The Rolling Stone article contained many additional examples.


We all try to teach our children that language and expressions which might be appropriate in private are not always appropriate in public. General McChrystal’s aides, and possibly the general himself, appear not to have absorbed or retained that early lesson.

What is the source of our epidemic of public incivility? Like all epidemics, it must have had a small beginning and then spread widely in the population.

Maybe we can blame Don Rickles, who made a living as a comedian by publicly saying uncivil things about celebrities. At least Don Rickles was funny. Today’s uncivil public figures; whether politicians, military personnel, talk show hosts, etc. are anything but funny.

The problem that a society must solve when faced with an epidemic is how to restrict it or stop it. Earlier disease epidemics have been controlled or stopped by mostly two methods. They are immunization, which has wiped out smallpox, for example, and quarantine, which can restrict the spread of disease if no other methods are available. Since there is not yet any immunization to prevent incivility, it would appear that only quarantine is a possibility. If access to the rest of the population is prevented or restricted, public incivility is impossible.

Quarantine of the truly uncivil would be most desirable (Think of not just careless or rude politicians, or trash-talking military personnel, but also the least civil of the talk-show hosts.) This is not a denial of anyone’s free speech rights, it simply assures that the audience for that free speech will be much smaller. The person infected with rampant incivility would have only himself and a few other quarantined individuals to talk to.

Incivility appears to spread from person to person, not by germs, but by example. If incivility seems to be popular or successful, normal people might become infected and begin to behave in uncivil ways. It is the only example I know of where truly sick people, already infected with the disease of public incivility are praised and admired. We could, in pursuit of social health, at the very least cease contact with the sick ones, even if we cannot completely quarantine them.

Public incivility is as surely destructive of society as is any communicable disease. I don’t quite want to declare a war on incivility, since wars seldom accomplish their supposed goal. But certainly we should all work to limit the success of incivility and try diligently to avoid the disease ourselves. Be courteous in public statements. Show some deference to opposing opinions.

Don’t be rude for effect. Consider the good of society as a whole. Civility is NOT wimpyness, it is wisdom.

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