Civil Discourse: What is it? Why does it matter?

Examples of civil discourse are hard to find in today’s culture and media. For most, it is probably easier to find examples of what civil discourse is not than what it is. For example, the recent presidential debates have been anything but civil —grown men and women disagreeing with one another via name calling, degrading commentary, and shouting over one another to be heard. Unfortunately, this example is the one that our society has decided to emulate, especially via digital mediums. The civil discourse which was foundational to American society for generations has become a lost art. So what does it look like to reincorporate civility and respect into exchanges of opposing views???

At OSI we define civil discourse as a respectful airing of views with the intent of mutual understanding even amidst disagreement. Successful debate should involve a robust conversation, with plenty of room for passion, enthusiasm, understanding, and mutual respect. This all sounds nice, but in this era where every topic seems charged with live-or-die rhetoric, and many of our political leaders are far from role models of peace, unity, and civility, we lack critical representation of bridge-building deliberation.

I sometimes think back to college, where I witnessed many examples of successful and respectful civil discourse. Once during my junior year, a large group of people gathered in my residence hall for a “Greatest of All Time” conversation, debating topics of varying categories ranging from sports to condiments. Several individuals presented their impassioned defense of why they believed their chosen athletes, condiments, etc. were the greatest of all time. Everyone in the room listened with rapt attention, applauding or disagreeing throughout the debate and voting for who they believed presented the best arguments. There was abundant passion in the room, there was some agreement, some vocal disagreement, even some changing of views, but most notably, there was a recognized mutual respect for everyone involved—no matter their views at the end of the day.?

While this may seem like a silly example of college students having some fun, our society would do well to consider the merit of this mentality in our approach to discussing pressing societal issues. The current climate of verbal sparring on social media, spurred on by digital acquaintances with whom we may never meet in person, looks more like combat than conversation. This is why OSI is passionate about seeing our society recover civil discourse. We do this by creating spaces for polarized voices to come together to find actionable, common-ground solutions to current issues.