Creating A New Civility
A How-to Citizen Handbook for Contemporary Times
I conceptualize civility as a commitment to Full Humanity, Interdependence of All, and Common Good (a definition I take from Adam McClellan).
The heart of CNC is what I ambitiously call a Paradigm for a New Civility. I present five processes— a “paradigm” of five steps that build on one another and help readers develop a civility consciousness. The paradigm is positioned in relevant historical, rhetorical, and contemporary scholarship. The processes describe models, strategies, action plans, and practical exercises through which readers take an honest look at their own civility heritage and scrutinize personal experiences in order to glean insights about living a civil life— in this moment, now. Their goals are fairness, awareness, harmony, compassion, and insight.
What is new here?
Most appropriately, given the current movement for racial justice that has developed since the publication of my book in early March, the processes are presented in a spirit of activism. The activities examine identity, nurture a mindful, personal awareness, and explore relationships. They teach the reader to listen anew, empathize, and reason well— all with the purpose of building a civility repertoire.
CNC is for the reader-as-citizen who desires to advance the well-being of communities large and small, including families and neighborhoods. It is for the reader-as-activist who rejects the use of civility as a tool for repression of the “other,” of the lesser. History, unfortunately, gives us examples of exploitive white supremacists who used civility to suppress, socialize, and hence control people of color, leaving them no room for collective self-assertion or independence. This egregious turn of civility has been implicated not only in issues of race but also issues of gender, class, ethnicity, ability, and so on. Hence, the need to specify and describe a new civility.
My book is anchored in the personal. Born at the end of the Silent Generation, I draw on my experience of family life on a bustling farm in the Ohio heartland. My family supported my college education, and, after marriage, I maneuvered a post-graduate education amid traveling something of the world, mothering two amazing daughters, working through the complexities of a complicated marriage, and finding my way into academia’s realms of literature (particularly 19th century American writers), rhetoric, and writing and its teaching. I published in those areas. I taught twenty different courses. In leading a writing-across-the-curriculum program, I absorbed something of the genres of different disciplines, which proved useful when I delved into the social sciences as I researched my book.
I am an explorer. I defined myself broadly, a somewhat dangerous act in the silos of academia. I jumped in, stayed the course, all the time working toward my felt sense of a greater good. In essence, my life was a preamble to what I believe is a timely rethinking of civility, given our racial justice revolution and the moral challenges involving our current pandemic.
I am at work on a companion volume to CNC, tentatively titled The Civility Galaxy, in which I press forward on the implications of Interdependence of All.
The heart of CNC is what I ambitiously call a Paradigm for a New Civility. I present five processes— a “paradigm” of five steps that build on one another and help readers develop a civility consciousness. The paradigm is positioned in relevant historical, rhetorical, and contemporary scholarship. The processes describe models, strategies, action plans, and practical exercises through which readers take an honest look at their own civility heritage and scrutinize personal experiences in order to glean insights about living a civil life— in this moment, now. Their goals are fairness, awareness, harmony, compassion, and insight.
What is new here?
- The conceptualization of the precepts as a paradigm, a move that signals the critical role of civility as an indispensable human good that shapes what one critic calls our collective consciousness;
- the specificity of the processes and their connections to the greater good;
- the effort after interconnectedness so appropriate for our global age; and
- the emphasis on the possibilities of Full Humanity— all in in hopes of civil repair.
Most appropriately, given the current movement for racial justice that has developed since the publication of my book in early March, the processes are presented in a spirit of activism. The activities examine identity, nurture a mindful, personal awareness, and explore relationships. They teach the reader to listen anew, empathize, and reason well— all with the purpose of building a civility repertoire.
CNC is for the reader-as-citizen who desires to advance the well-being of communities large and small, including families and neighborhoods. It is for the reader-as-activist who rejects the use of civility as a tool for repression of the “other,” of the lesser. History, unfortunately, gives us examples of exploitive white supremacists who used civility to suppress, socialize, and hence control people of color, leaving them no room for collective self-assertion or independence. This egregious turn of civility has been implicated not only in issues of race but also issues of gender, class, ethnicity, ability, and so on. Hence, the need to specify and describe a new civility.
My book is anchored in the personal. Born at the end of the Silent Generation, I draw on my experience of family life on a bustling farm in the Ohio heartland. My family supported my college education, and, after marriage, I maneuvered a post-graduate education amid traveling something of the world, mothering two amazing daughters, working through the complexities of a complicated marriage, and finding my way into academia’s realms of literature (particularly 19th century American writers), rhetoric, and writing and its teaching. I published in those areas. I taught twenty different courses. In leading a writing-across-the-curriculum program, I absorbed something of the genres of different disciplines, which proved useful when I delved into the social sciences as I researched my book.
I am an explorer. I defined myself broadly, a somewhat dangerous act in the silos of academia. I jumped in, stayed the course, all the time working toward my felt sense of a greater good. In essence, my life was a preamble to what I believe is a timely rethinking of civility, given our racial justice revolution and the moral challenges involving our current pandemic.
I am at work on a companion volume to CNC, tentatively titled The Civility Galaxy, in which I press forward on the implications of Interdependence of All.