Where has all of our civility gone?

Is civility dead?

A vast majority in Bonner County residents feel it’s either dead or on life support, according to a recent online poll by the Bee. Of the 377 people who voted, 22 percent said it’s gone the way of horse-drawn carriages and another 58 percent said it’s barely hanging in by a please and a thank you.

Why are we so gloomy about good manners? Is it because politicians seem rude and disruptive as a matter of course and strategy? Is it because of the egocentricity of some entertainers that pushes them to acts of stupidity? Is it because a world-famous athletes acting like children denied a cookie?

Unfortunately, these are merely symptoms. I don’t know if it’s selfishness or some  narcissistic gene, but we seem unwilling as a society to let others have their say — or even to agree they have a right to believe something different.

Civility doesn’t mean cookie-cutter views or a “Stepford Wives” world. We should be able to disagree until the proverbial cows find their way into the little red barn.

Instead, profanity has become a casual adverb and it’s more important to launch a scorched earth attack and  call someone names or mock their beliefs than to say, “I don’t agree, but that’s OK. Here’s what I think and why.”

We want to be right and if that means launching the equivalent of a no-holds barred nuclear attack, then we put the send button before considering how we feel when we’re on the receiving end.

How do we once again make Emily Post proud? I don’t know, but I do know we need to do something before the slide into mean-spirited incivility becomes irreversible.

Your thoughts?

Caroline Lobsinger is the managing editor of the Daily Bee.