There is a sense in town that our local political discourse is turning itself inside out to become coarse dissing. This has prompted several of our readers to write in to lament the lack of “civil” deportment among politicians. The word civil, from the Latin root civilis, meaning “of or belonging to citizens,” has no less than 20 separate definitions in the Oxford English Dictionary, with “educated, well-bred, polished, refined, polite” coming along at No. 9. We expect if we made an attempt to define civil in this year’s political arena, we’d have a serious, perhaps not-so-polite, argument on our hands. But we get it. Certain people aren’t being nice to certain other people.

We could blame it on the culture. In the past week alone, we have witnessed extraordinarily rude behavior by a hip-hop artist, a tennis star, and a US congressman. But we do not know too many people who are anything but appalled by such indecorous displays. At the heart of these unseemly moments, however, is a new acceptance of hubris and narcissism that may help explain what is happening to our political give and take.

It used to be that entertainers were humble and appreciative, athletes were gracious and self-effacing, and members of Congress addressed even their bitterest foes as the gentleman or gentlewoman from the great state of…wherever. They may have been beasts in real life, proud and self-absorbed, but at the time, the American ideal was all about fair play, good sportsmanship, and aw-shucks humility. So most people had the good sense to roll out their better natures, if only just for show.

Niccolò Machiavelli in his classic Renaissance 16th Century treatise, The Prince, unmasked forever the distinction between the abstractions of political idealism and the often-harsh necessities of political realism. And now that the American ideal seems to have morphed from “fair play” into “win at all costs,” the tactics of winning are becoming more and more Machiavellian, not only in politics, but in business, sport, and apparently the world of music videos. Humility has been discarded in favor of humiliation. Character assassination seems to have become a useful tool for shaping public opinion on talk radio, cable news, and in the recent spate of town hall meetings on health care reform. So is it any surprise that we see incivility used as a tactic in local politics?

Cato the Elder, the Roman statesman who thought deeply and spoke eloquently about things civilis, observed that “anger so clouds the mind that it cannot perceive the truth.” So when it becomes desirable to pry large numbers of people quickly and efficiently into decisions that are often at odds with their best interests, it is essential to have a sturdy fulcrum of ignorance to work with. Anger, consequently, becomes an indispensable tool.

We would hate to see a local election campaign devoid of contention. When everyone politely agrees with one another, there is no choice and, frankly, no democracy. We cannot condemn anyone who is passionate about a cause; that is how our country came into being. But when the passions turn from critiquing ideas, policies, and promises to striking down people and their reputations, we should remember that the anger that arises in us from such arguments is a calculated manipulation of our emotions. Someone wants us blinded. Someone wants to cloud our thinking. Someone is not being civil.