Is civility a sham?

Civility doesn’t mean holding back from saying what’s on your mind. Rather, it means being willing to express our disagreement, but doing so in a way that allows us to stay in dialogue with those who differ from us. Drawing on research of 17th century religious tolerance from her book Mere Civility, in this TED talk Oxford professor Teresa Bejan describes the complex nature of civility and the critical role it plays in democratic societies.