WASHINGTON 鈥� During and after a bruising presidential campaign, many have been bemoaning the coarsening of American culture. But it began well before Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton threw their hats into the ring, and Towson University English professor Andrew Reiner has been fighting for a more civil culture for years.
Reiner teaches a course titled 鈥淢r. Rogers 101: Why Civility and Community Still Matter,鈥� and on Thursday, he told 草莓传媒 “we鈥檝e become a much more fissured and splintered society over the past 30 or 40 years.鈥�
He said he first noticed something going on when he was on the roads in the area.
鈥淚 really started becoming aware of how dangerous it is driving on a lot of secondary roads, and especially on the Beltway and the highways in this area.鈥�
Asked about the underlying causes, Reiner said the answer is 鈥渧ery complex. But I can tell you 鈥� we are definitely becoming a more narcissistic society. We become less accountable 鈥� especially to strangers.鈥�
Toward that end, Reiner鈥檚 class includes assignments such as eating lunch or dinner with a complete stranger, and committing 鈥渃onscious civil acts,鈥� such as talking with someone who鈥檚 in obvious emotional distress.
Some students reported life-changing experiences, Reiner recently wrote in ; others complained about 鈥渕andated volunteerism鈥� and even considered the instruction a command to 鈥渂e rude,鈥� under the notion that 鈥減lacing the sovereign rights of the individual above all else.鈥� Later, he wrote, many of the resistant students admitted they were covering a fear of rejection.
That fear of rejection 鈥渘ever has to happen with our online lives,鈥� Reiner told , and he added to 草莓传媒 that with the rise of social media 鈥渋t ratchets up the ability to be a lot less civil鈥� thanks to the built-in anonymity. And it鈥檚 not getting better, he said, as 鈥渨e鈥檙e tending to blur the lines between our offline and our online lives.鈥�
Reiner said that the presidential campaign was an exhibit of the lack of civility in American society, and the election of Donald Trump won鈥檛 help.
鈥淗e has normalized, in a very short amount of time, a lot of the deeper impulses and feelings and opinions that a lot of people have been at least keeping at bay 鈥� with some degree of restraint.
鈥淎nd his modeling of being the person in power who can basically disregard the filter because it鈥檚 viewed as a reaction to being politically correct 鈥� gives a lot of people the license to say 鈥榃ell, hey 鈥� if this person I revere 鈥� is doing this, it鈥檚 license to do that myself.鈥欌��
What鈥檚 the solution? Reiner said it鈥檚 in the sort of little interactions that are included in his class.
鈥淪mall steps. Real efforts at doing a better job of re-engaging these filters that work really well for us in a democracy, and of just not looking at the other as people that are worthy of our contempt. Just making small, simple gestures as a way of extending ourselves.鈥�
