by jpitney | Jun 3, 2020 | Civic Education, civic virtue, Civility, Coronavirus, Tocqueville, Volunteering
Daniel Stid at The Art of Association: Viewing civil society through the distorting lenses of our polarized and nationalized politics, and via media that are part of the fray, yields a bleak perspective. These lenses emphasize conflict and suggest what happens in...
by jpitney | Jun 1, 2020 | civic virtue, Civility
William Kristol at The Bulwark: In making his point, my friend recalled Rodney King’s famous statement from May 1, 1992, made as riots convulsed Los Angeles: People, I just want to say, you know, can we all just get along? Can we get along? Can we stop making it,...
by jpitney | May 30, 2020 | civic virtue, Civility
The 1861 Inaugural: We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and...
by jpitney | May 27, 2020 | civic virtue, Civility, Coronavirus, Public Opinion
At The Atlantic, Peter Wehner talks to social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, who acknowledges partisan polarization but notes other, more promising, signs. … Haidt pointed out that several surveys, including one in April by More in Common, show that the pandemic...
by jpitney | May 24, 2020 | Civility, Coronavirus
At Newsweek, Alexandra Hudson writes about Washington’s rules of civility: The novel coronavirus is an excellent example of how individual actions matter most because of their aggregate effects. Civilization is held together by the cumulative effects of our...
by jpitney | May 20, 2020 | Civility, Coronavirus
Tim Pawlenty at the Minneapolis Star-Tribune: Even before the pandemic, there was a great deal of fear and anger stirring in America. Massive demographic, cultural and technological change — combined with a growing sense of economic injustice — severely stressed...
