Civility, Civilised, Civilisation: Do they mean anything at all, really?

We like to think that we are a civilised people, don’t we?

I was pondering this question, considering what it means to be ‘civilised’, what ‘civil’ looks like, so I asked a few people on my morning walk and the answers were quite different: some expressing a degree of scepticism, that civility is from a by-gone time, others that civilisation is an ordered, sophisticated social phenomenon, that the opposite is barbarianism, but no further definition was forthcoming.

So I thought it may be an interesting exercise to explore the origins of civil and the various uses of hat word, to see what it meant, what it means today and then to explore whether we are civilised or not it in today’s inter-connected world.

A National Geographic article headed “Civilizations” starts with:

‘Scholars often differ over how to define “civilization” and how to categorise societies on that definition – or whether to categorise them at all. Most historians, anthropologists and archeologists working today feel that the word is problematic because of the way the label has been used to set up harmful oppositions among world societies, with “civilized” societies being seen as superior to “non-civilized” societies.’ (Note: the National Geographic article uses the American spelling for “civilizations” and “civilized”).

Looking back to its etymological roots, the word ‘civilisation’ relates to the Latin word ‘civitas’ or ‘city’, so the literal meaning of ‘civilisation’ would be a society made up of cities, as compared to nomadic or agricultural based societies. Would that imply the civic roles, such as administration, both governmental and civilian functions? Is it separated from militaristic endeavours?

And here in lies a problem in the way we see the world, in the way, say, European explorers saw the world, the new worlds they ‘discovered’, in the way the Middle East is understood, the way in which alliances are achieved and maintained. In the way colonisers used violence and disease while establishing rapacious settlements in the ‘new world’, but essentially carrying on the cycle of conquest and collapse which has been the mark of history since the beginning of time.

The Middle East has been described as the cradle of civilisation.

Iran, the ancient Persia, has a proud culture, dating back over 5,000 years, which in its recent history has suffered external aggressions, yet has been supportive of the ruling regime at times of threat from invasion, even the current authoritarian theocratic regime, due to civilisational pride, a Shia tradition of martyrdom and a strong sense of nationalism, which in the current climate makes them a formidable foe. Yes, there are elements of dissent, such as the uprising in January, protesting hyper-inflation which was admitted later to be a ploy by external forces to sow discontent.

Iraq, formerly home of the ancient Mesopotamian, now a dishevelled remnant of a once proud empire was laid to waste through years of colonial rule, whether it was the Ottoman Empire until 1917, or under the carve-up of the Middle East between the French and the British, a colonial grab for the oil riches as the spoils of war for the victors.

Syria, including Lebanon, home of the ancient Assyrian Empire… and so it goes, the cradle of civilisation now seen as the home of barbarians and religious zealots scrabbling in the desert sands, pretty much an uncivilised bunch of despots and unworthy riffraff. At least by the new colonisers, the new leaders in civilisation, those seeking to reinvent a mythological past.

How did the cradle of civilisation become such a cultural wasteland? What has changed?

In asking various people what they see as ‘civilisation’, or how they would define ‘civility’, a common thread was a rather cynical view that civility has diminished, that people are ruder today than most can remember, blaming the depersonalisation of the social media, where there is no face to face connection, rather a competitive field of put downs and denigration, of a sense of powerlessness which places blame on some sort of ‘other’… Whether that be through the ‘manosphere’ promoting a form of masculinity which is toxic, a re-assertion of male power, of male dominance, or fashion influencers promoting unrealistic images spawning the ever-growing beauty industry.

Civilisations are defined in various ways, but included are aspects such in technology, the arts, culture, innovations, governance, societal structuring, literacy and numeracy, law and order among other ‘markers’ and inevitably comparisons are made, to define one group as more or less civilised than others. This was particularly evident during the European colonial expansion from the sixteenth century and continues today with western dominance, particularly Christian America and European, and in the Middle East Jewish people seen as more European than the indigenous Arabs. At the time of the Roman Empire, there were citizens and barbarians. Today there are civilised and ‘others’, the civilised being white, of Christian European background, or sharing ‘Judeo-Christian values’, a term which emerged in the 19th century referring to Jews who converted to Christianity, morphed into a unified opposition to Communism during the Cold War. Today its usage is as a superior culture to anyone who does not share those ‘values’.

Judeo-Christian values are very much the arsenal of the new right of the Liberal Party in Australia, following the Republican Christian Nationalists of the US: targeting the ‘immorality’ of feminism demanding equality, demanding special ‘women’s rights’, such as equality, respect, and recognition of their right to control their bodies, in demanding consent to engaging in sex, in controlling reproduction through contraception and abortion among the other hard-fought for rights, such as the right to vote, the right to own property and so many other ’rights’ which really allow women to be recognised as ‘people’ rather that chattels or objects. Or the rights of people who self define their sexuality or gender, demanding the right to same sex marriage.

The ‘superiority’ of Judeo-Christian values is now also used in the neo-colonial setting of the Middle East in the support of Israel and the ongoing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza and The West Bank… Along with a continuation of the wars over access to oil, forcing regime change in oil rich nations to support cheap, reliable oil and petroleum products to the hungry, very deserving, civilised ‘west’, starting with the carve-upon the Ottoman Empire after WWI, the overthrow of democratically elected government of Iran in 1953, two wars in Iraq, and on and on it goes. Muslims are not ‘civilised’, and therefore can be eliminated, whether they be Iranians, Lebanese, Syrians or any other group Israel decides is a threat to their existence. To oppose that view is very quickly defined as antisemitic, and not upholding Judeo-Christian values which define civilisation today. In other words, civilisation is defined through a moral code, a Judeo-Christian ethos, a set of moral standards upheld through the teaching of the Bible, both Old and New Testaments, including those teachings which alienate those who are not ’God’s People’, currently being justification for the ongoing expulsion and genocide of Palestinians and other Arabs.

Anti-Islam posts abound, framing Muslims as barbaric, fuelling an increasing crescendo of anti-immigrant political messaging. It is not just that there are too many people trying to get here, in the west, but too many Muslims, bringing with them Sharia Law. “Look what’s happening in England, in The Netherlands, and other places”. A bombardment of messages which ramp up fear and hatred: which divides people but offers no solution except to promote fear and hatred.

After WWI, a ‘new’ form of art emerged, Dada, which subverted the conceptional understanding of what art was, as a part of ‘civilisation’, as a product of a civilised people, a sort of ‘anti-art’, a nihilistic, anti-war response to the horrors of the recent war. In 1969 the artist and teacher Jeff Nuttall wrote ‘Bomb Culture’, in which he reflected on dada and the frustration of not just having gone through another war, but the development of weapons more destructive than what had ever been produced:

‘In the new world the light was harsh, a perpetual noon of decisions, every crucial action being possible final. No man was certain anymore of anything but his own volition, so  the only value was pragmatic. Moral values, thought absolute were now seen as comparative, formal social entities around which morality had revolved were now called in doubt and nothing of morality remained. The society for which we has more or less cheerfully fought and (some of us) more or less cheerfully died had dropped its mask and in so doing had robbed all its institutions – church, political party, social class, happy family – of moral authority. No longer could teacher, magistrate, politician, don, or even loving parents guide the young. Their membership of the H-bomb society automatically cancelled anything they might have to say on questions of right or wrong.’

Wherein the aftermath of the world wars there was an expression, “It could all be over tomorrow”, and from that a sense of freedom, to explore the wonders of life, a respect for difference, a lack of constraint imposed by the institutions, which led to the beatnik and hippy ‘revolutions’, new adventures in art, film and literature, while today the response is far different. While that ‘freedom’ opened new avenues in the arts, in creativity, the current experience of individualisation has become far more divisive. The rise of social media and the ubiquity of personal technologies is driving alienations which are expressed in the vitriol of ‘X’, Facebook and other on-line forums.

The hatred which abounds in the on-line, the social media sphere and the right-wing news media echo-chambers amplify the lack of civility, the lack respecting basic human rights, which, by the way were codified after the horrors of the second world war, after the revelation of the holocaust, the result of entrenched hatred, in the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, a light which the current entrenchment of hatred seems to be dimming more day by day, leading to the conflagration which is the Middle East. And the hatred for Muslims who have sought a safe refuge from the violence and absolute devastation of their homelands, only to find they really are not all that welcome… But where can they go, after the civilised ‘west’ has obliterated their cities, destroyed their homes?

But does it have to be that way?

Is that not a choice we make, a choice to engage in the whirlwind of misinformation and quick grabs to demean this group or that group, to vilify those we disagree with, to spew hatred because ‘they are not like us’, and allow that to influence our day to day reactions to people we see when we venture out? The response we have to the woman wearing a hijab, or the very effeminate young man, looking so ‘gay’, or any other person who is far too different?

A young Indian doctor was at Cottesloe Beach yesterday. He was laying on his back, his baby daughter sitting on his belly. The reason for being at the beach was to see the Sculptures by the Sea exhibition, and the stillness of that little girl sitting contentedly on her father’s tummy made me question whether they were actually part of the exhibition. We enjoyed a laugh, and then he expressed his desire to work here, to immigrate with his family. The point of this diversion is to end in a positive note.

We, the doctor and I, agreed that we cannot solve the world’s problems, we cannot make peace suddenly happen in the Middle East or in Ukraine or anywhere else where religion or ethnicity or any other division causes people to kill each other, however, we can influence the immediate surrounds we occupy, being, dare I say it, CIVIL, polite, respectful, listening to those we meet on life’s journey. And, with his wife’s encouragement, stay off social media where so much of the negativity starts.

Civility is not dead, unless we let it be dead. It is a choice we make. We cannot individually solve the problems of the world. But we can make the space around us a safe place, a civilised place.

The doctor I spoke with saves lives as his day to day job. He does not judge who or what that person believes in, he does not judge the person for their self-definition, their gender, their ethnicity, he is there to save that person’s life, to mend a broken body. To respect the humanity of his patient.

The uncivilised actions which justify the the destruction of cities, of infrastructure, of so many lives is just the never ending quest to prove the superiority of one ‘civilisation’ over another. Ask Putin, ask Netanyahu, ask Trump whether they represent ‘civilisation’. They would claim that they absolutely are protecting ‘civilisation’ from the ‘barbarians’, at least in their definition of civilisation.

As individuals we can not fix that, but we can choose civility in the small spaces we occupy.

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