Wednesday, 17 June 2009

Do you have to be civil to talk about civility?

Julia Unwin, CEO of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, posted on the Joe Public blog the other day, on the topic 'Our society has lost the instinct for kindness' - trailing JRF's 'Social evils' publications.

'As a society, we appear to have lost the instinct for kindness and the willingness to extend the hand of friendship. Our responses to children, to older people, to strangers, are all conditioned by a concern not to offend and a fear of getting involved.'

Nothing like a mild generalisation to get Joe Public going. Within the stream of very diverse comments which has been accumulating were a few which tried to acknowledge and navigate the complexity glossed in the article, including this (more nuanced than the quote above, I think):

i think it is very easy for those who are well educated, secure and have nothing to fear to talk about civility / politeness - they find incivil behaviour bewildering - they muse over our 'broken society' and ask why - i think it is very easy to be polite and play by the rules when you are winning the game. If you are constantly losing and need the rules of the game changed asking politely doesn't normally deliver!

I'm pleased to have seen this point made.

17 Jun 2009 22:02:35 | Social capital

1 Comment

This post, from one of my favourite bloggers may appeal to you Kevin?

http://fatmanonakeyboard.blogspot.com/2008/04/no-respect.html

Posted by: Paul Evans | Friday, 19 June 2009 at 20:15

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Kevin Harris

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