Something horrible has happened to civility. We can no longer hold
political discussions without screaming at each other, so our democracy
is dying. We can no longer look at strangers without suspicion and even
hostility, so our social life is dying. We can no longer hold public
conversation about morality without trading vicious accusations, so our
moral life is dying. All the skills of living a common life-what Alexis
de Tocqueville called -the etiquette of democracy'-are collapsing around
us, and nobody seems to know how to shore them up again.aStephen L.
Carter, author of the bestsellerThe Culture of Disbelief, argues that
civility is disintegrating because we have forgotten the obligations we
owe to each other, and are awash instead in a sea of self-indulgence.
Neither liberals nor conservatives can help us much, Carter explains,
because each political movement, in a different way, exemplifies what
has become the principal value of modern America: that what matters most
is not the needs or hopes of others, but simply getting what we
want.aTaking inspiration from the Abolitionist sermons of the nineteenth
century, Carter proposes to rebuild our public and private lives around
the fundamental rule that we must love our neighbors, a tenet of all the
world's great religions. Drawing on such diverse disciplines as law,
theology, and psychology, he investigates many of the fundamental
institutions of society-including the family, churches, and schools-and
illustrates how each one must do more to promote the virtue of
civility.aThrough it all, Carter emphasizes that loving our neighbors
has little to do with how we feel and everything to do with how we
choose to act. The true test of civility is whether out of love and
concern for others, we will discipline our individual desires and work
for the common good.
