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Is Civility Dead?

I hate to be the one to beat a dead horse, but really Kanye? Really Serena? Really Joe Wilson? What in the world happened? Apparently, society decided to go on a good manners break and we got to see the results, shown over and over again, on every media outlet possible.

Marco R. della Cava delves into this topic when he posed the question in his aptly titled “What Happened to Civility” article which appeared in last week’s USA Today. He writes “Are we a nation of boors — or just keeping things real? It is an interesting debate. Was Kayne being rude to Taylor Swift or just telling it like it is? I seem to recall just a few weeks ago when Republicans were applauding those Americans who were blasting the Democrat’s health-care reform plan at Town Hall Meetings, causing raucous, sometimes even out of control, meetings where good manners were definitely left at the door. Was this incivility or just speaking our minds?

So are we a ruder society today or are we just more outspoken? Or does it go beyond that? Are we exactly the same way we have always been, but because of today’s “media saturated world,” led by Twitter, is it just harder to keep these bad behaviors hidden? I doubt when President Obama called Kayne a “jackass” during pre-tape chatter prior to a news conference, which I might add, is supposed to be off-the-record, he realized that it would be broadcast via Twitter within seconds. I bet he’ll remember next time!

Would Serena or Joe Wilson’s outbursts have as many people talking if they had not been viewed on YouTube by over a 4 million people (Serena) and just shy of a million (Wilson)? I seem to recall John McEnroe being “known” for his controversial behavior on the court. Was it more accepted then because we didn’t have the opportunity to watch, read or post about it? It is an interesting argument, one that has many different answers.

The way I look at it is this, maybe we aren’t ruder, maybe we aren’t more outspoken, but we definitely are more accountable. We have Twitter, YouTube and cell phones to thank in part for this. And maybe that isn’t such a bad thing. Maybe, accountability will be what makes our society more civil in the future!

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