Through the millennia, species have evolved, adjusting to their environment, adjusting their environment to themselves. Many species survived by force, by their speed, by their agility. Others continued their existence by migration, by transformation, possibly by luck. Many species vanished, overwhelmed by the challenges they faced, or unable to overcome external circumstances.
Humankind is a unique species whose survival instincts have fluctuated throughout time between barbaric dominance to intellectual prowess, from contrived ignorance to spiritual enlightenment. Time has slowly evolved the nomadic tribal patterns that were woven together with tales of heroism, indigenous mores, and adventurous curiosity into condensed urban clusters that at times demonstrate a new style of barbarism.
No longer, through this evolution, could conflicts be addressed exclusively with physical force, shifting the conceived patterns of barbarism to systems of discussion and debate. However, in recent times, it seems we have fallen back, closing the doors on evolution through electronics, altering thought, finance, education, and creativity.
It is time for a renaissance of civility. By definition, civility is an improvement of culture, based in politeness, courtesy and consideration. Civility derives from the rights of the individual citizen, and with these rights come responsibilities. It is time to refocus our attention away from the un-civil to those who are making great strides in philosophy, in science, in sustainable solutions. We are seeing private citizens soar into space, driven by their own dream and sponsored by their own successes. We are seeing a surge of brave entrepreneurs working tirelessly to develop their new ideas into reality. We are seeing many discovering the new freedoms that civility provides, freedoms to believe, freedoms to create, freedoms to learn from others with whom they once may have rejected as different.
We have in this brief moment the opportunity to evolve as individuals and replace barbarism with civility, in our lives, in our homes, in our work. Civility will launch humanity into a new sphere, an evolution whose time has come.
— Gillian