Search News: ‘Search Amor Mundi: Civility and Politics Hannah Arenet considered calling her magnum opus Amor Mund Love ofthe World Instead, she settled upon The Human Condition, What is most dificult, Arendt writes, i to love the word ast, with all the evil and suffering init, And yet she came to do just that. Loving the world means nelther uncritical acceptance nor contemptuous rejection. Above alt means the unwavering facing up to and ‘comprehension ofthat which is, Every Sunday, The Hannah Arendt Center Amor Mundi Weekly Newsletter wil offer our favorite essays and blog posts from around the web, / will help you comprehend the world. And earn to love it WE MARCH TOGETHER CATHOLIC JEWS PROTESTANT FOR DIGNITY AND BROTHERHOO? ¢ OF ALL MEN UNO | Now! Civility and Politics City does not mean niceness, Clty derves from the Latin ives meaning the city or the public. place; it means the practice of cv isthe practice of being a ctzen. Someone is civil who exists not only asa private person but also as a public person with rights inthe world. The importance of Ciulity isnot thatt upholss morals or a culture of order. Rather, cvity isa potical vtue that upholds the political ideal that amist our dferences and plraiy, we can stil engage with each ‘thor as citzans of a common world, Roman pollics was a blood sport, butit was alvays cin tha it was a contest over the republic, the public thing To enter polis takes courage, the courage eo nacardasnemenin 786Rendoedrsto risk oneself in publi, which is why Hannah Acendt called courage th lbram X. Kendi reminds us ofthe connection between cvilty, courage, and civil d'sobedience, et vitue of poties “Paltical confrontation and harassment is as cul as itis American, Evading confortation as the chiléren cry, as their oppressors ery for ‘more erie, is a8 uncil as it s un-American Instead of encircling poical confrontation and harassment in inivty, we should be recognizing the dividing ne in American poltcs—a ine that nas continuously changed American history for better or worse always fo the chagrin ofthe gradual or do-nothing moderate Americans. The viding tne in ‘American poies is constructive or destuctve poltical conftolation and harassment ‘Today moderates are again whiting out ths dividing line, and instead drawing tine between uncivil harassers and cvl unifies. They are instructing their Republican and Democratic Doers to stop out ofthe ring of confrontation, ‘Today's moderates sil vow contontations as threats. They write things tke, “Let us meet hate with love,” as tho ABC Nows political analyst Matthew Dowd twooted Monday moming "Let us meet bullying with an embrace, Let us meet vulgarity with chy, This Is how our ‘country and worl win” They imagine, Ike Dow, that they are folowing the path of Martin Luther King, Mandela, Gandhi." Thay imagine, Ike the CNN poltcal analyst David Gergen, thal "the civi-sights movement” was "much mare cil in tone.” Moderates change the path and tone used by King, a strident advocate of pliically harassing segregationist establishments, 2 strident oppanent of the maderates who chastised his crect-action canfrontaons as univ. King tesponded to the moderates in his {fameo 1963 “Letter from Birmingham Jail” He distinguished te “Ku Klux Klanner from the “white moderate” in the same way today we can distinguish the white nationalist Trump from the white moderates chastsing direct action against Trump officials “I havo almost reached the regrettable conclusion.” King wrote "that the Negro's groat ‘stumbling block in his stride toward freedoms. the white moderate, whois more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice; who prefers a negate peace which isthe absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says:'l agree with you in the {goal you seek, but| cannot agree wih your methods of direct acon’ who paternalsially Delaves he can set the timetable for anther man's treedam: wolves by a mythical time and we constantly advises the Negro to walt fora ‘more convenient Kendi's right that its iil to act as a ctzen Inthe name of justice even when such actions are dlisordedy. The civil dsobediont is cil nol because he is nic, but because his or her disorder is Claimed to ba inthe service of restoring the civic space tis ideals. While it may bring about temporary cisorde, itis in the name of a higher order. King's protests were disobediont, but they ‘wore cv in procisely this sonse that they argued thatthe present ordr of Jim Crow segregation land racism was in fa Lunconsttutional and out of step withthe ideals America should sland for. He was right, and the moderate clergy in Birmingham knew he was right; though they questioned his tactics, they understood the justice of his cause, and thats why King's cil éisobedience could be succosstul In our conversation about civility, we need to rethink whatit means tobe a clizen engaged in cv ‘c's. Civilty includes also cv dsobeciance, which is civil not because iis nice or orderly, but because intervenes in the civil discourse through political acts by ctzons. Because we need to rethink clizenship and civil dsobedionce, Hannah Arent Centers 2018 Annual Conference ‘aims to do just that Included in the conference is "Prayers of the People” @ secular Itugical performance of Martin Luther King Jr's Letter from a Birmingham Jai, conceived by Kenyon ‘Adams (ite ray) and crected by Bil. Jones, Registration for our conference “Citizen and Ci Disobediencs is now open. Roger Berkowitz Mere Civility President Trump's veroal thrashing of public norms is disgusting and despite his incessant prate ‘9 Twitter about ‘iceness,’ Is not nee. But at least so fa, the President has acted civil insofar as he does nol respond to cries with volence. Yes, he has wielded verbal threats and he makes prodigious use of dog whistles and bombast, but within the long tradition of verbally abusive and at‘umes puglstc American eile Ie, Trump is nat such an ‘utr In ight of recent discussions around cvilty, ts worth recaling this essay from last yearby Teresa Bejan ‘hat tums back to history to argue that some kind of civility Is indeod needed in politcal society, what Bejan, fllowing Roger Wiliams, calls more city “Sli history confirms how easly calls for civil disagreement can justy suppression and exclusion, i ‘also demonstrates how essential civ isn navigating it civilly of@ particular and peculiar kind heated disagreement — al Here, modem Americans could stand to lear a thing or two fom the 17th-century foundar ‘of Rhode Island, Roger Willams. Far from being a proto-mulcuturalist, Willams was exiled ‘rom Massachusetts because his theological intolerance and evangelical zal made even his flow Purltane uncomfortable, He knew firsthand how accusations of inevilty could be used to persecute, suppress and exclide, Nevertheless, in Rhode Island, he took up the banner of civility and in so doing created the most tolerant and inclusive society the work had ever seen. ‘The key o this apparent paradox was Willams's commvtment to what | all mere civility. AS the minimal, often grudging conformity to social norms of respectul behavior needed to keep a conversation going, this civility falls far short ofthe reasonableness and mutual respect ite proponents usually have in mind, Willams knew from experience that the “bond of civlity“necassary o hold a tolerant society together was less @ matter of avoiding insult than cutvaing the mental toughness te tlerate what we perceive as our opponents inci, to ve with them and continue to engage, even when we think them iredeerable, “As if because bars, thoms, and thistles may not bein the garden of the church," wrote Willams, therefore they must al be plucked up out ofthe wildemess. Whereas he that is a bia, that is, a Jew, @ Turk, a pagan, an anti-Christian, today, may be (when the word of the Lord runs fray) a member of Jesus Christ tomorrow." Accordingly, Rhode Island welcomed CCatholc“ant-Crrstians,” as well as Jews, Muslims, American “pagans” and Protestants of all stipes. Willams was pratt sure they were all going {hel an tld them so; stil, he ‘thought one must “go out ofthe wore" ently to avoid Keeping company with such “igolators” [As practiced by Willams, mere cvilty was more often an expression of mutual contempt ‘han mutual aémiration. We might recognize it as the vitue governing those unpleasani-but- unavoidable interactions with ex-spouses and bad neighbors, as well as anyone who voted for the other gal (or guy). Bul even mere cvilty can be quite demanding In attempting to understand other minds on the madel of our aun, people make sense of cisagreement by Concluding that aur opponents are stupid, bigoted, evil or even insane. Yet mere chilly demands that we keep the disagreement going, no matter how disagreeable, to continue the bale of words without resorting lo violonce. Judging by the eitra of mere cilily, Trump's worst infractions restless on his Lutneran talent for insult than on his record of sing his wealth and postion to bully his eres. As victims of cil silencing themselves, his ‘supporters must epeak out against these efforts and defend the right to free and frank ‘speech for their opponents 28 well” ‘The problem with the refusal to serve Sarah Sanders and her family ata restaurant and wit calls tolharass members ofthe Trump administration in ther private Ives, is thatthe objection to such tactics is not simply that they are disorderly, bu that thay forget the basi premise of cil if, which isto ive together with others wth whom we disagree Roger Berkowitz Outside the Black-White Binary Thomas Chatterton Willams—who will speak atthe Hannan Arendt Center's Annual Conference “Ciizenship ‘and Civil Disobedience’—profles the artist Adrian Piper. “The occasion is a now show atthe MoMA, a retrospective of Piper's work, thatthe artist will nt see, because sho is ling in sel-imposed exile in Germany, Willams is himself ‘one ofthe most nuanced thinkers of racial categories and he fnds in Piper someone who, in is words, "has been ulelly conducting, tram that vexed and ever-expanding blot ‘onthe American fabric wnere white and black bleed into