Behavioral scientists sometimes speak of different levels of human development and consciousness. For instance, ‘warrior’ consciousness expresses itself in terms of “the world is a jungle; eat or be eaten; express yourself and to hell with everybody else.” You have to admit those are not particularly admirable traits nor do they lead to admirable ways of interacting with others and the world at large. And yet, even though this level of consciousness is one of the lowest levels of all human interaction, suddenly it feels ubiquitous.

We’ve seen and heard it loudest in our most recent political discourse. The entire healthcare debate has seemingly polarized an entire country already diametrically opposed over its military involvement in both Iraq and Afghanistan.  A member of the Republican Party interrupts the president’s speech on the house floor by yelling “liar,” followed by a poll of New Jersey conservatives stating that 18% of respondents believe President Obama is the ‘antichrist’ while another 17% say “they are not sure.”

Our nightly news is not much better. The running feud between FOX and MSNBC personalities (with a little CNN thrown into the mix just for fun) leaves us feeling soiled and even opining for ‘the good ole days’ – you know, when the news was just slanted, biased, sensationalized and all around poorly done!

Hang out on Facebook or other social networking sites and you’ll find a lack of civility in abundance there as well. The unholy trinity of such incivility, otherwise known as ‘scapegoating, demonization and conspiracy theories,’ abounds. 

My suspicion is that what lies at the root of most, if not all of this, has to do with identity. I and others have staked our identity on a plethora of outward ‘forms’: Right/left, Democrat/Republican, Conservative Christian/Liberal Christian, patriot/expatriate, on and on.

And once invested in the demonizing process, it’s hard to exorcise. Once the line has been drawn, it isn’t easy to get everyone to back off, take a breath, clear the deck – and just ask some bottom-line questions like: What is going on in the world? Where is there injustice today? What can be done about poverty and as quickly as possible? How can people without healthcare be assisted without taking advantage of others in the process? What can be done about the poor, the homeless, and the hungry, other than telling them to ‘get a job’ or ‘if you loved Jesus you wouldn’t be in this position’? Why do so many little children suffer needlessly?

Perhaps most of all, what could happen if we left our labels aside long enough to work together apart from politics and other ego-centric institutionalism(s)? What if we saw every person as part of the divine? What if we first sought the presence of God in every eye we met? What if we began to respond to each other as we would respond to the Unnamable (whatever that may be for each of us)?

What would happen, if in all things, we first sought civility?

These are all big questions, I know – some might say impossible ones – sicknesses without a cure; pathologies without hope of reversal. But it doesn’t change the basis of the need to recover some of what so much of has seemingly been lost: Civility.

It may not be too late to find it. And that, it seems, would be a good place to regroup and begin refocusing our efforts on some global ills that simply must be addressed before we reach the point of no return.