Tag Archives: civility

Direct action and reform politics meet in Apartheid South Africa in playwright Athol Fugard’s 1989 play My Children! My Africa! Within the ruling class, apartheid violence of white South Africa sits a play with a seeming taste for moderation and order in debate, and the recognition of the political uses of speech. But the debate is not just between the …

Today, politicians and intellectuals warn that we face a crisis of civility and a veritable war of words polluting our public sphere. In liberal democracies committed to tolerating diversity as well as active, often heated disagreement, the loss of this conversational virtue appears critical. But is civility really a virtue? Or is it, as critics claim, a covert demand for …

Next time on Interchange: “Do you bite your thumb at us, Sir?” What is Civil Discourse and why do politicians and pundits seem to resort to admonishment when discourse gets messy and less than civil. Also, what is civility in the first place and who gets to define it? I’ll talk with author Teresa Bejan about her book Mere Civility, …