Civility is being defined as the act of being polite and courteous. But it does not in any way mean to be observed only by the civilians- defined as a person not in the armed forces or the police.
The increasingly visible attitude of the armed forces and the state police personnel would suggest otherwise, with reports of high-handed and arrogant misbehavior against the civilians becoming an everyday inconvenience. It would be taking things too far, however, to generalize and categorize the armed forces and other state and para-military forces as such in their totality.
Having said that, it has become a de-facto prerogative of the well-heeled, the influential and the powerful (those with authorized weapons included, whether in uniform or otherwise) lot to impose their self-induced superiority on the common people, or even the not so common yet civilized citizens. Perhaps, the maddening race for power, influence and wealth has reduced the majority of us to mere servants of their wealth, their every waking hour consumed with the driving craze to amass more wealth, by means fair or foul.
The emerging trend of self-styled Social Workers, majority of whom started out as unscrupulous contractors and businessmen with a penchant for minting money through dubious means, and who are displaying their newly acquired role of messiah of the downtrodden, with an eye on the next election could very well be the only rational conclusion of such a system. That such social workers becomes inaccessible to the very public who voted them to power is another matter altogether, an aftereffect of the submission to greed by the public which always leaves a bad aftertaste. The game of one-upmanship being increasingly played out in the public life have relegated courtesy to a thing of the past and reduced the importance of politeness and civility, to such a point that politeness is being equated with weakness. Such misconceptions often lead to clash of egos and foster bad blood. Perhaps, setting an example by the powerful and the influential on the matter will go a long way in bringing to the fore the importance and necessity of adopting good manners and civility, and yet it is getting increasingly rare to find someone with that rare combination of power and humility.
Our society, impulsive and reactive as it is as a whole, failed to learn from the numerous unfortunate fallouts resulting from lack of manners and inconsiderations and are, therefore, condemned to repeat it. It is high time we get ourselves over the delusion of grandeur and superiority and take a long hard look at the crumbling social mores. Kindness and courtesy does elicit similar response, and our society will be the better for it. It is not our self-proclamations but our deeds that will judged. Being polite and humble takes lot more courage and personal integrity.
