On the Altar of Civility

by

Abby Zimet, staff writer

 1 Comments

 

A few words on the blinding hypocrisy of that phantasm of civility suddenly being summoned by a regime run by thugs and sociopaths. This is not a crisis of manners, it has been noted, but of democracy. Civility got us them, Gorsuch, that sick ghoul Miller,white supremacy and state-sponsored child abuse. 

With it all, Trump's "enforcers" long ago forfeited the right to expect politesse, or silence, or consent: "It makes little sense to prostrate oneself at the altar of civility while others are gleefully desecrating democracy itself. Historical precedents abound where people, in retrospect, feel they should have done more when they had the chance." Amidst what many see as dark echoes of the Holocaust, one historian reminds us of Quaker Henry Cadbury, who in 1934 famously urged Jews to be more "civil" toward Nazis. It did not turn out well. Now more than ever, Howard Zinn: Civil obedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience."

https://www.commondreams.org/further/2018/06/26/altar-civility