Civility!

Maggieb808's picture

The truth is, humanity, by default, is not civil in nature. One really smart uncivil person just came up with civility as a theory one day as a means of keep the more stupid uncivil people in line. Turns out it was a good idea, but it always originates more as a method of control than a moral decision on anyone's part. Civility is only instilled within individuals or small groups of them through conditioning. Once learned, however, those who have been taught civility transform these teachings into what they believe is their own individual "moral code." Ironically, this is a result of trying to gain control over something that they never had any control over to begin with: how they were conditioned as children. That said, once subconscious civil behavioral training within a person evolves into the person's own conscious code of ethics, that person applies this code to every interaction with other individuals for the remainder of his or her life. The problem, here, is that, when confronted with uncivil behavior, the civil person focuses on the behavior of the other as somehow their fault, as if it were a conscious decision on the part of the uncivil to be that way---when, in fact, the uncivil are completely unaware of the inappropriate nature of their behavior. Since their parents were likely self-destructive (rather than controlling) they have no other point of reference---much in the same way that civil people have no other point of reference, due to the fact that their parents were controlling (rather than self-destructive). Meetings between these two types of individuals result in interchanges much like the one we just had. Or, in the case of Brangelina, mass adoption and reproduction.