full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Teresa Bejan: Is civility a sham?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


So here's the thing: civility isn't bsluhlit, it's precious because it's the virtue that makes fundamental disagreement not only possible but even sometimes occasionally productive. It's precious, but it's also really, really difficult.

ciltiviy talk, on the other hand, well, that's really easy, really easy, and it also is almost always cmleotpe bullshit, which makes things sgltihly akrwwad for me as I continue to talk to you about civility.

(Laughter)

Anyway, we tend to feogrt it, but politicians and intellectuals have been warning us for decades now that the United States is facing a crisis of civility, and they've tended to blame that csiirs on technological developments, on things like cable TV, talk radio, social mieda. But any historian will tell you that there never was a golden age of disagreement, let alone good feelings, not in American piltiocs. In my book, though, I argue that the first modern crisis of civility actually began about 500 years ago, when a certain professor of theology named Martin lutehr took atangvdae of a recent advancement in communications technology, the printing press, to call the Pope the Antichrist, and thus inadvertently launch the Protestant reiatoorfmn.

Open Cloze


So here's the thing: civility isn't ________, it's precious because it's the virtue that makes fundamental disagreement not only possible but even sometimes occasionally productive. It's precious, but it's also really, really difficult.

________ talk, on the other hand, well, that's really easy, really easy, and it also is almost always ________ bullshit, which makes things ________ _______ for me as I continue to talk to you about civility.

(Laughter)

Anyway, we tend to ______ it, but politicians and intellectuals have been warning us for decades now that the United States is facing a crisis of civility, and they've tended to blame that ______ on technological developments, on things like cable TV, talk radio, social _____. But any historian will tell you that there never was a golden age of disagreement, let alone good feelings, not in American ________. In my book, though, I argue that the first modern crisis of civility actually began about 500 years ago, when a certain professor of theology named Martin ______ took _________ of a recent advancement in communications technology, the printing press, to call the Pope the Antichrist, and thus inadvertently launch the Protestant ___________.

Solution


  1. crisis
  2. bullshit
  3. civility
  4. advantage
  5. forget
  6. slightly
  7. politics
  8. luther
  9. complete
  10. reformation
  11. awkward
  12. media

Original Text


So here's the thing: civility isn't bullshit, it's precious because it's the virtue that makes fundamental disagreement not only possible but even sometimes occasionally productive. It's precious, but it's also really, really difficult.

Civility talk, on the other hand, well, that's really easy, really easy, and it also is almost always complete bullshit, which makes things slightly awkward for me as I continue to talk to you about civility.

(Laughter)

Anyway, we tend to forget it, but politicians and intellectuals have been warning us for decades now that the United States is facing a crisis of civility, and they've tended to blame that crisis on technological developments, on things like cable TV, talk radio, social media. But any historian will tell you that there never was a golden age of disagreement, let alone good feelings, not in American politics. In my book, though, I argue that the first modern crisis of civility actually began about 500 years ago, when a certain professor of theology named Martin Luther took advantage of a recent advancement in communications technology, the printing press, to call the Pope the Antichrist, and thus inadvertently launch the Protestant Reformation.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
civility talk 4
religious tolerance 3
early modern 3
american politics 2
long history 2
tolerant societies 2
united states 2
modern crisis 2
martin luther 2
civility precisely 2
civil means 2
mere civility 2


Important Words


  1. advancement
  2. advantage
  3. age
  4. american
  5. antichrist
  6. argue
  7. awkward
  8. began
  9. blame
  10. book
  11. bullshit
  12. cable
  13. call
  14. civility
  15. communications
  16. complete
  17. continue
  18. crisis
  19. decades
  20. developments
  21. difficult
  22. disagreement
  23. easy
  24. facing
  25. feelings
  26. forget
  27. fundamental
  28. golden
  29. good
  30. hand
  31. historian
  32. inadvertently
  33. intellectuals
  34. laughter
  35. launch
  36. luther
  37. martin
  38. media
  39. modern
  40. named
  41. occasionally
  42. politicians
  43. politics
  44. pope
  45. precious
  46. press
  47. printing
  48. productive
  49. professor
  50. protestant
  51. radio
  52. reformation
  53. slightly
  54. social
  55. states
  56. talk
  57. technological
  58. technology
  59. tend
  60. tended
  61. theology
  62. tv
  63. united
  64. virtue
  65. warning
  66. years