Ex 2-2:  Root Causes of the Decline in Civility

1. Media, social media and the internet: an aggravating factor.
2. Political polarization and political divides: has returned to “normal”. ☹
3. Concentration of wealth (Robert Putnam, The Upswing): correlation is not causation.
4. Radical individualism replacing community: major cause driven by economics, science, philosophy, religion and both political parties.  The Republican emphasis on capitalism/free market emphasizes individual consumption and production.  Classical liberals emphasize a legal/human rights conception of the political system, rejecting the need for specific shared community values.  Modern liberals promote the importance of individual identity, creativity, authenticity and growth.
5. Human nature: even with education, health and scientific insights, we are imperfect in all dimensions (especially prone to selfishness).
6. Skepticism: deep doubt and habits undermine beliefs, security, hope, religion and wisdom.
7. Our Secular Age: Science and philosophy promised proof and perfect explanations for everything.  No religion or paradigm meets these criteria.  We are relearning how to evaluate things “outside of science”, but we still default to the Newtonian physics standard which has been superseded in physics, chemistry, biology and mathematics.
8. Imperfect Myths: The non-religious, secular, scientific world views don’t answer the religious questions well enough, and religions have not adapted well to the influence of “our secular age”.
9. The Therapeutic Society/The Culture of Narcissism: Many individuals have adopted the personal growth solution to “living a good life”.  Critics argue that it overpromotes a rootless individuality which threatens community and Civility.

Summary

Social change is undermining Western Civilization, which had a strong 500-year run.  We are re-assembling a revised culture that preserves the benefits of history and science.  We successfully migrated from rural to urban, farming to manufacturing, manufacturing to services, local to national, national to global, central power to democracy, do-it-yourself to trade, ignorance to knowledge, and slavery to freedom.

Not easy: balancing religious and secular, balancing the individual and the community, fine-tuning political structures and redefining essential social norms like Civility to support democracy.  We believe that Civility is a magic elixir that can help with all four challenges.

Causes of the Decline in Civility #2

Civility Crisis or Civilization Crisis?

Civility Resources (2): Causes of the Decline in Civility

Causes of the Decline in Civility: Index

6 Root Causes of Our Situation

The World is Not Atomistic, Deterministic, Materialistic

Only the Individual?

Our American Community

Critical Role for Community in American History

How (NOT) to be Secular: Reading Charles Taylor

Facing Our Political Situation: How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?