Do you know why is civil discourse important in our society? Probably the most popular and monumental event in US political history was the 2020 US Presidential elections. It was an election that countries and individuals all around the world tuned in to watch unfold and anticipate the results.
However, as the world leader in Democracy, continued to demonstrate and portray how democracy is meant to take place, there was an overlooked point in all of the diplomatic debacle.
The fact that leading up to the elections, the civil discourse was on the decline, and on the rise, were moments of extremist debate, and at times, flat-out violence.
And that’s the thing with politics today and with the world in general. People are less and less participating in actual discourse, and gravitating towards more extreme measures.
Practices like hate speech, cancel culture, violent protests, riots, and extremist rhetoric have taken over the political and social stage.
This decadence of civil discourse comes with the rise of racist rhetoric and extremist stances. After all, the keyword is the word civil. To have civil discourse, one must be willing to accept all views and listen to all opinions.
It is unlike extremist debate in the sense that you cannot mercilessly attack your opponent, or the person you are communicating with, on the pretext that you are right and they are wrong.
And so, that’s why civil discourse in society today is so important. It not only promotes and elevates communication and conversation in the pursuit of resolution but also protects and shields us from the alternative, which is the decay of every social fabric.
Violence begins where discourse ends. Those who fail to pursue possible resolutions through proper discourse will go about it through other means. More often than not, those means either start out as violent or quickly become so.
Societies and people must realize this fact. Both means are plausible if you want to reach the same outcome. However, you can either reach it through proper and peaceful communication or through destructive and aggressive measures.
You can promote communication culture or cancel culture. Which one would you rather choose?
And that is the main issue going on in America today, it’s that people are refusing to acknowledge their similarities simply to focus on their differences. By doing so, the outcome is always leading to violence and destruction.
Consider the protests, riots, acts of violence, shootings, and extremist movements that transpired in the United States just in the last couple of years. All tragic events led to the breaking point which was the incident that unfolded at Capitol Hill.
So as you can see, even the world leader in Democracy and Speech can be suspect to a total dismantling of civil discourse and civil communication.
This only adds emphasis to the fact that we should work to maintain the impact discourse has and continue to opt for discourse whenever the situation calls for it. Because the alternatives are never better, and in some instances, are much worse.
