Civility helps us become more trusting of others by helping us become trustworthy. In addition to removing the low-grade discomforts of everyday life, civility supports our freedom on personal, institutional, and societal levels.
Alexis de Tocqueville noted that every generation must develop anew the habits, knowledge, and dispositions necessary to support the free and flourishing society—especially a democratic system of governance like our own.
As Niccolò Machiavelli wrote in his Discourses, “For as good manners cannot subsist without good laws, so those laws cannot be put into execution without good manners.”
For the ancient Romans, the civitas, or city, was composed of a group of cives—citizens united by common laws. The laws of the civitas offered citizens the rights of citizenship, but also bound them to certain obligations. These rights and obligations among citizens were the premise of the civitas. Each citizen was born into the laws, rights, and duties of the civitas, and each citizen had to abide by them to remain part of it.
Read Full Article »