Civility

Something terrible 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. Basic good manners have become a casualty…