HAT Forum - Civility
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The Humanist Association of Toronto
http://www.humanisttoronto.ca/
Every Saturday we meet on Zoom to discuss a topic decided upon the previous week. These are topics of humanist interest, from a humanist perspective.
The topic of the discussion will be decided in a prior meeting, usually two weeks in advance. This week’s topic is: Civility, introduced by Terri Palmer
The etymology of "civility" means "related to or befitting public life or citizens." It therefore originally had to do with how people conduct themselves in public.
We associate the word "civility" with politeness, kindness, decorum, and above all with following laws and social norms. Civil people follow the rules generally assumed to lead to public order, which in turn require understanding the needs of other people and behaving differently in public than in private. For a large city, this can mean anything from "don't shove" to "wear headphones" to "wear a mask if you're sick" to "help those in obvious need."
Since the pandemic, people report they feel a decrease in civility in public spaces, perhaps attributable to the trauma of isolation or to simple loss of practice with these rules. A few years of a bad economy surely also contribute to this, as do rising rates of homelessness.
What do we owe to people around us? And what do we owe to people in greater distress than us — do the rules of civility apply equally to the person stuck on transit on the way to their third job as they do to someone with a secure position?
Meet our diverse group, trade perspectives in a free and open forum and learn from others as they learn from you!
BTW: don't be concerned if there are not many RSVP’s. Many HAT members attend regularly but don’t sign up on Meetup. Our online meetings have been very popular with 20-30 attendees.
NOTE: The HAT Forum adheres strictly to the City of Toronto Policy on Non-Discrimination (http://www.the519.org/public/content/policy-files/The519SpaceUsePolicy.pdf)
Our Website (http://www.humanisttoronto.ca/)