When I hear the same thing from multiple sources and in multiple ways, I pay attention. This kind of synchronicity means that something big is happening and that lots of different people are perceiving it—though they often use different words to describe it.
I’ve been collaborating with my law colleague and friend (and Jesuit priest) Greg O’Meara SJ for several years on an academic article about how to get out of the corner we’ve backed ourselves into in terms of constitutional law—the legal expression of how We the People are going to be with each other.
On the one hand, we have the “what is”—which sociologist Zygmunt Bauman described chillingly in his book Wasted Lives. On our current path, we divide people up according to who matters and who doesn’t, and we desensitize ourselves to the “out” or “them” group.
But on the other hand, political philosopher Iris Marion Young invites us to “greet the Other” as the foundation for building the solidarity that allows us to create a just society. When we see and are in relationship with people who are Other—people who are not like us—we grow the civic muscle that makes community thriving possible. The call here is to “Us-and-Them” and to the touchstone belief that no one is disposable, that everyone belongs.
These two stories call us in two radically different directions, toward two very different cultures, norms, and institutional practices.
They present us with a choice:
There is a “fakelore” tale of two conflicting wolves—one good and one bad—vying for our actions and our souls. The question “which wolf wins?” arises. The wise response is “the one you feed.”
Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker in his recent State of the State address echoed this perception that we are being called to choose between two different stories:
I am begging my fellow politicians, my fellow Illinoisans, my fellow Americans to realize that right now in this country we are not fighting over policy or political party. We are fighting over whether we are going to be a civilization rooted in empathy and kindness—or one rooted in cruelty and rage.
We are surrounded by stories of division, of cruelty and rage. These stories tell us that some people don’t matter, that they are disposable. These stories—and actions that appear to validate them—tell us that this is who we are. Even more troubling, these stories try to tell us that this is who we have to be—are destined to be.
But another set of stories—and actions—illuminates a different path. All over, everywhere you turn, people are choosing to greet the Other. They are choosing empathy and kindness. They are choosing to feed the good wolf.
And they are acting in ways that breathe life into these stories.
Most of these people and these actions are not making headlines. They are just being who they are and doing what they do in the places that they live and work. They have a vision of the kind of community they want to live in, the kind of community they want to be part of creating … which wolf they want to feed.
These people are building communities grounded in relationships, and they—we all together—are growing a culture of intentionally connecting with respect and empathy across differences.
This is civity.