The Decline of Civility

by Keith Cooper

From Broader View Weekly, September 25, 2009

The outburst from Joe Wilson during the president’s address to a joint session of Congress was troubling, but it did not exist in a vacuum.

Recently, the New Yorker magazine printed a story on Robert Frank’s “The Americans,” a photographic collection that criticized many, at the time, for presenting a negative commentary on American society and lifestyle. Frank’s photos, in fact, simply captured moments of truth and reality that can sometimes be painful to those who seek to ignore their own blemishes.

Today, the painful truth is that there is an ugliness that is emerging in our culture. We can choose to ignore it, or deny it, but it is becoming clear that our baser instincts are dominating our social structure. Important and complex issues have been reduced to the equivalent of points in a sporting event, as pundits and talking heads seek the upper hand at any cost.

Many have referred to racism as a potential factor to explain the nature of the current hostility throughout the country. Perhaps people are searching for the impetus that has driven so many of the privileged to the streets with such intensity of emotion.

The fact is that the fiery town hall meetings and raucous rallies have drawn few people of color. And, some of the signs and t-shirts on display have connoted racism and xenophobic hatred of immigrants, even if they don’t explicitly depict slurs.

Some stand up in objection and mock offense at words from people like former President Jimmy Carter. Some argue that in the post-racial Obama era, racism has been officially declared over. However, some of these same detractors project a tone in their criticism of Obama that appears infected with racial prejudice.

Most of us would deny any implication that we have racist inclinations. For instance, I consider myself to be forward-thinking and open-minded. I am sensitive to prejudice and would like to describe myself as colorblind. Yet, if I employ the same honest introspection I spoke of above, the ugliness of racism appears in my reactions to the world around me. As with the other day in Elmira, I saw an Oldsmobile with custom wheel rims and though the windows were too darkly tinted for me to tell, I envisioned the driver as African-American. I am not proud of the presumptions then conjured up by my subconscious about the character of this unknown fellow driver. Again, this past weekend when visiting Erie, Pennsylvania with my son, I found myself making judgments about the neighborhood through which we were walking, based solely on the faces of those we met on the street.

While I don’t believe that racism is entirely behind the protests going on currently, and while I believe the accusations leveled against protesters in some ways muddy the waters even more, I do think we need to accept the truth that we do not live in post-racial times.

But racism only contributes to part of the animosity that is fueling the fire of fury in the U.S. A general decay of decorum has left us rude and crass. The divisiveness that drives us apart has spiraled into a dark tone that has blotted out the light that would otherwise illuminate the facts at issue.

What I see in rallies and town halls is a rage leveled at political parties and their members. I see hatred of certain politicians and blind praise of others. I see the win or lose mentality overshadow discussion of real issues that affect real people.

It is no surprise that society has regressed to this point. We have lost the common sense of respect that my generation grew up with. When I was a kid, the president’s picture was on the wall of every classroom. Our parents would not have even thought of preventing us from listening to a speech given by him.

Today our athletes hurl language and threats at officials that would make the infamous John McEnroe blush. Today, we aren’t outraged that a musical artist rudely interrupts another’s award acceptance speech with an appeal against the results. Today, we accept defamation of character on baseless grounds and hold no one to account for the attacks they wage.

The right to free speech is sacred and vital to democracy. Sports arenas and entertainment venues are immaterial to the real problems that need solving in most of our lives. But as civility perishes, those issues are drowned out by the din of shouted insults and bumper sticker jibes. With the demise of decorum comes the death of hope and change.

We will be left with the status quo, which many of us can ill afford. We will be left with a nation divided into blue and red. We will be left fighting over empty ideals and meaningless ideologies.