Since the arrival of the digital age in our lives, we have been facing the gradual extinction of civility, to the point that incivility has become the norm on social networks.
Rudeness, insults, threats, most of the time anonymous, are commonplace these days on the Web; a real context of verbal violence and diarrhea.
It must be said that the same wave of incivility affects the political world and relations with citizens.
The quality of human relationships has taken a hit since the invention of the Internet, this so-called information highway, a large part of whose content ultimately resembles disinformation rather than information. credible and verifiable.
Under cover of anonymity
The appearance of the Internet in the 1980s and 1990s was hailed as an almost prodigious innovation in the field of information technology. As a result, communications between humans accelerated and became global. It now became possible to communicate quickly anywhere on the planet. Unparalleled joy, one could exclaim!
But this joy would be ephemeral, because this technological innovation proved to carry a serious setback, namely the anonymity of our correspondents. Anyone could now hide their identity on social media, opening the door to lies, pettiness, fraud, predators — a nauseating odor of cowardice.
What a beautiful communication tool humanity had invented when it created the Internet! To encourage the emergence of harmonious human relationships, we could certainly have done better; on the contrary, they deteriorated as they entered the all-digital world.
Who says civics says civilization
The former American president – and current leader in the current race for the Republican nomination – Donald Trump is alone the perfect illustration of incivility and the total absence of ethics in a politician. Here is a man who lies like he breathes, who shamelessly insults his political opponents or anyone who dares to differ in opinion with him.
Closer to home, in Quebec, the political class is fortunately — and generally — demonstrating a greater sense of ethics. She sometimes faces the onslaught of social networks, as was very recently the case for the mayor of Gatineau, France Bélisle, who made it one of the main causes of her resignation, she says. And Mme Bélisle is far from being the only municipal elected official to have fallen in battle. They — and they — are, it seems, legion. Since the municipal elections of September 2021, nearly one in ten elected officials have left their position, according to Élections Québec.
On the other hand, the political environment is not exempt from incivility, as we can see in the debates in the National Assembly or the House of Commons, debates which often lack a minimum of height.
The very foundations of civilization are undermined when respect for others is absent from public debates, when debates are so sharply polarized.
The influence of digital technology has favored the rise of individualism, to the detriment of human communities who know the importance of maintaining healthy dialogue to promote their collective development.
Isn’t civic-mindedness the very essence of civilization?