I’ve been thinking a lot over the last couple of weeks about civility. In part this has been inspired by a series of interpersonal and political conflicts at the non-profit hackerspace I help run, Pumping Station: One. In part this has been inspired by the political climate here in the US and the current state of the world in general. And in part this has been inspired by my rewatching an old favorite TV show, Aaron Sorkin’s The Newsroom.

In the show Jeff Daniels plays news anchor Will McAvoy, and the show follows his conversion from lovable harmless, uncontroversial, apolitical persona to an aggressive, sharp, firebrand for the moderate middle ground of American politics. Even in 2011, when the show was set, the idea of a cable news outfit arguing for a sensible center, instead of playing a game of equal weight to both sides of an argument, was novel enough to make great fiction. These days, some fifteen years on, it seems completely ludicrous to imagine. Daniels’ character calls his quest a “mission to civilize” inspired by the classic Miguel de Cervantes novel Don Quixote. Like the man “de la Mancha” himself, Will McAvoy struggles with the realities of life in the modern world while trying to hold the world, and most notably his acquaintances and coworkers, to higher standards than the society around them. And this is where I find myself this week as well.

PS:1 continues to hit, and fly past, growth milestones that were unfathomable when I first joined the space in 2017. We have close to 1000 active members, have more tools and equipment than ever before, and this past December signed an agreement to purchase our building - a great stride towards securing our home for years to come. But with that incredible growth comes a whole bunch of growing pains as well. As an involved emeritus board member, and the current head of scholarships, I have chosen to spend a lot of my time working on providing context, history, and mediation to resolve member disputes and help keep PS:1 on track for what I believe our core mission is and should be. The obstacle to this lately, and more and more the chief obstacle to most community cohesiveness in the world, is communication. Disagreements are a given, but how people approach them and work through them is the difference between communities that are able to persist and grow and communities that explode. Communication is key in human relationships, and human relationships are the key in any form of intentional community.

And so, we arrive back at civility. Because civility is a core value that allows for communication. Without mutual respect, not necessarily for each other’s opinions but for each other as human beings, is the key to having healthy and productive communication. When civility breaks down, so too does communication, and where communication breaks down, so does community. And yet, the concept of trying to argue for civility seemingly remains as quixotic today as it did in Sorkin’s early 2010’s America, and as it did in Cervantes’ early 1600’s Spain. Despite that, I think the goal remains admirable and I continue to expend energy to try to help people get there. Because while we don’t all have to get along, we do have to exist together and it is easier for all parties if we can maintain civility in our interactions.