I find the culture of our country, even before our current President of USA and perhaps why he was supported and elected) is one of voices more of anger than voices of civility. Once relegated to the less educated and less knowledgeable, our 'type first think later' environment encourages venting and ranting before analysis. before you think I am about to rant about ranting, I would like to suggest some ideas that might be provocative and calming at the same time.
the first, a man who greatly re-directed some of my own rant thinking many years ago friend and mentor- Dr. Thomas Sobol, Christian A. Johnson Chair of Outstanding Educational Leadership, TC, Columbia University -, advised "stepping in" at causes of injustice in rational ways - working to make positive long term impact. The nuclear option is not the best solution for every offense he might joke with a smile. He was perhaps the most recent of a very long line of highly educated mentors who tried to get me to 'see the light' (I can be a very slow learner). But I also had a long line of 'uneducated mentors' (those with great intelligence and knowledge of human psychology but were not privileged to attend school). The most recent would be a poorly dressed man in a less than desirable neighborhood of Washington D.C. that I listened to as he first spoke to the air and when I came to listen to him he spoke to me. I watched him get a parking ticket, from a distance I could see a conversation between the enforcement officer and him but I could not understand the words from that distance. The officer removed the ticket and moved on to the next car. the old man called out - as stated perhaps to no one or perhaps to me - his philosophy of life. Treat people with respect and honesty he started to tell the story. 'I saw the officer at my car beginning to write the ticket. I approached and said I had live here all of my life; parked on this street moving the car to avoid the change in permitted parking during the day. You have a job to do, and I respect that. I was wrong to park here and you have every right to give me the ticket so I will accept it. the officer looked at me an replied, all I ever get are people cursing me for my cruelty for not giving them a second or third chance. calling me 'pig' or worse. I often fear for my safety'. The old man continued his conversation again, now directly to me- 'You see we must all treat others with kindness, what a much better world we would have.' I agreed and talked with him for a while.
So here is my take-away. Sometimes we react too quickly, too harshly, to bitterly - none of are immune to stupidity and if we do so once a month, or once a year, if it were only ourselves doing it it would go unnoticed. But if we live in a cyber society of millions, and each does this once a year - how quickly we see exposed the cracks in humans shell of kindness. And now we may (again in the same proportion) lash out against the comments. the result can change the glass half full to glass half empty or nearly totally empty of respect, civility, and respect.
Of course I encourage everyone to hold back on visceral reactions before reflection, but we cannot change the actions of others. We can change the actions and reactions of ourselves. I offer this not as criticism of the person who wishes to walk away from a battering although it sure seems like I am, my suggestion is that perhaps many read the comments and take the thoughts and ideas in but do not react to them on line but just the same appreciate the ideas and reflect personally and privately to them.
My last foolish example. I discovered, by chance, the photographs of a woman I knew slightly 50 years ago and began doing the"like, love the photos" thing on Facebook. She remembered me and we chatted very briefly privately. I mentioned that I enjoyed her photographic work and while I would sometimes comment - it did not suggest that the photos that I ignored were not enjoyed by me - it only meant that now and then I wanted to do more than do the "like" thing, I wanted to and perhaps started to, describe more of what they did for me as a viewer but just did not have time to respond as I would like to so chose instead to remain mute. She responded "thanks, that's nice, I get it".
Is any of this relevant?