Why Bloggers Blog: Part II
To Find Solace in Civility
The Latin word civitas means “community of citizens” and is the root word for city, civilize, civilization, civics, and civil (meaning “common” or “polite” or “legal,” e.g. “civil rights”). There is a related noun that describes the spirit of common courtesy that allows civitas to work: CIVILITY.
Civility is getting harder and harder to see these days. It hasn’t disappeared entirely, but never has INcivility been more marketed and modeled. From
T-shirts to bumper stickers; “talk radio” to cable TV; MSNBC to BET; comedy clubs to Capital Hill; things that once appalled
most people are
now applauded. (Depending, of course, on who says it and who takes offense.)
So Part II and III of “Why Bloggers Blog” are tributes to civility in blogging and in writing. It has been my experience that the blogosphere can be a civitas, a “community of citizens” who show remarkable civility and disarming patience toward one another.
I’m not naïve that there are vulgar, risqué blog circles out there spewing indecency and incivility, and we've all seen the rudeness of some “drive by” anonymous readers who like to throw stones as they pass rather than take time to sit on the front porch. Such things will happen wherever people are free to be themselves. “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.”
For the most part, however, we've all met lots of folks in our corner of cyberspace that seem to understand the Civility Code of Wikipedia and the premise of an excellent book on this subject, Choosing Civility. (Read a sample chapter here.)
Exercising civility doesn’t mean we buy into every mandate of political correctness or that we don’t see the double standard of its selective enforcement. It doesn’t mean that we aren't frustrated when more “tolerance” is extended toward cross dressers than those who defend the cross. It doesn’t mean we don’t have opinions. It simply means we know the difference between respecting one’s right to hold an opinion and respecting all opinions equally. Some opinions are baseless and flawed, but most bloggers respect their readership enough to have learned how to disagree without becoming disagreeable. As I said back in June...
The Latin word civitas means “community of citizens” and is the root word for city, civilize, civilization, civics, and civil (meaning “common” or “polite” or “legal,” e.g. “civil rights”). There is a related noun that describes the spirit of common courtesy that allows civitas to work: CIVILITY.
Civility is getting harder and harder to see these days. It hasn’t disappeared entirely, but never has INcivility been more marketed and modeled. FromT-shirts to bumper stickers; “talk radio” to cable TV; MSNBC to BET; comedy clubs to Capital Hill; things that once appalled
most people are
now applauded. (Depending, of course, on who says it and who takes offense.)
So Part II and III of “Why Bloggers Blog” are tributes to civility in blogging and in writing. It has been my experience that the blogosphere can be a civitas, a “community of citizens” who show remarkable civility and disarming patience toward one another.
I’m not naïve that there are vulgar, risqué blog circles out there spewing indecency and incivility, and we've all seen the rudeness of some “drive by” anonymous readers who like to throw stones as they pass rather than take time to sit on the front porch. Such things will happen wherever people are free to be themselves. “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.”
For the most part, however, we've all met lots of folks in our corner of cyberspace that seem to understand the Civility Code of Wikipedia and the premise of an excellent book on this subject, Choosing Civility. (Read a sample chapter here.)
Exercising civility doesn’t mean we buy into every mandate of political correctness or that we don’t see the double standard of its selective enforcement. It doesn’t mean that we aren't frustrated when more “tolerance” is extended toward cross dressers than those who defend the cross. It doesn’t mean we don’t have opinions. It simply means we know the difference between respecting one’s right to hold an opinion and respecting all opinions equally. Some opinions are baseless and flawed, but most bloggers respect their readership enough to have learned how to disagree without becoming disagreeable. As I said back in June...
“Just neighbor visiting neighbor
in the kindness of the night
where differences are dimly lit
and love needs little light.”
Part II has been about the spirit of civility in blogging. Part III will look at 
samples of the skill of civility as seen in the lost art of letter writing—particularly 19th Century letters. Here’s the strangest use of today’s word… the letters were written during the Civil War era (including some Emily Dickinson letters). For now, I’ll close Part II with a line from her most familiar poem:
Because I could not stop for Death—
He kindly stopped for me—
The Carriage held but just Ourselves—
And Immortality. We slowly drove—
He knew no haste And I had put away
My labor and my leisure too, For His Civility....
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .[emphasis added]
samples of the skill of civility as seen in the lost art of letter writing—particularly 19th Century letters. Here’s the strangest use of today’s word… the letters were written during the Civil War era (including some Emily Dickinson letters). For now, I’ll close Part II with a line from her most familiar poem:Because I could not stop for Death—
He kindly stopped for me—
The Carriage held but just Ourselves—
And Immortality. We slowly drove—
He knew no haste And I had put away
My labor and my leisure too, For His Civility....
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .[emphasis added]
Labels: agreeable, civility, front porch
posted by .Tom Kapanka | 7:07 PM
|
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