A Civility Campaign

ByBrian Phillips

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy recently stated that he has seen “a degradation in civility” among air travelers. As a part of what he called his “civility campaign,” he pleaded with Americans to quit wearing pajamas on airplanes. Rather than scold airline passengers for their attire, Duffy should convince his boss to set a better example.

Civility means treating others with courtesy, even when a disagreement exists. When someone disagrees with Trump, he responds by calling them morons and low-IQ people, or by fantasizing about dropping excrement on them.

Comedian Patton Oswalt has noted that Trump appeals to middle-age Americans who live “under the heel of some boss.” Trump flaunts the rules, and many of his supporter find this exhilerating. “They fantasize about being that guy,” Oswalt said. “And that’s who Trump is, and that’s their fantasy.”

Certainly, Oswalt’s claim is a generalization, but I think there may be an element of truth in his statement. MAGAngsters see their leader dropping any pretense of civility, and they feel empowered to do the same. And on the other side of the aisle, Progressives see their arch enemy behaving like a spoiled brat, and they feel they may do the same. Trump is setting an example for everyone, and it is not a good example.

Wearing pajamas on an airplane may be uncouth, but like Trump’s boorish behavior, it is not the cause of the degradation in civility. Both are a symptom. The cause is morality, and specifically the morality of altruism.

Altruism holds that we have a duty to self-sacrificially serve others. When people realize that sacrificing for others does not lead to happiness, they often embrace a false alternative—sacrificing others to themselves. Rather than be a slave to others, they, like Trump, seek to be the master of others. They, like Trump, expect others to cater to their whims. When others refuse to do so, they respond with a lack of civility.

Life is not a choice of who should sacrifice to whom. As John Galt famously said in Atlas Shrugged, “I swear, by my life and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine”. If Duffy truly wants his “civility campaign” to be effective, he would do well to heed Galt’s words. Civility does not require sacrifice.

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