What is Civil Society? Just a "Nice Phrase" like "Moderate Muslim"?

Posted December 13th, 2007 by iFaqeer

"Civil Society" has become the new touch phrase in Pakistani politics. And it’s gotten to the point where people express the same kind of cynicism about it that is usually reserved for words like "Islamist", and "War on Terror", and, well, "Progressive Islam". A friend on one of our alumni mailing lists was getting pretty disgusted by Nawaz Sharif’s piling on to the Civil Society bandwagon.

But words have meanings, and undue cynicism can be self-defeating. In fact, we need to fight the battle of perception and how things are framed. That’s been quite a discussion in US politics and thought, particularly kicked off by the book by George Lakoff titled Don’t Think of an Elephant: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate

And in our own situation in Pakistan, it is important to keep people honest in their language.I think it would go go a long way towards a better society.
And honestly, I have the same attitude towards "terrorism", "moderate", "Islamist", etc. See, for example, my post on the concept of one man’s terrrorist being another man’s freedom fighter or other posts on being flip with language, such as this one about terrorists that are "Hindu" or "Islamic".

And to further that cause, here’s my definition of "Civil Society":

Anyone who’s not affiliated with a political party or a government servant (including military).

What’s yours? What’s your pet peeve in terms of language?

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Civil may be in contrast to

On December 14th, 2007 Sitaram says:

Civil may be in contrast to Criminal, in a court of law.

Civilian may be in contrast to Military.

Here is what wikipedia has to say:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_society

By “civil society” I

On December 14th, 2007 Baraka B says:

By “civil society” I thought you meant, like, a calm environment, in which case, the term civil society is useless. There are many ways of keeping the people calm (read: sedated) that I am not so fond of.

But I like your def. of civil society if you’re talking about the noun civil and not the adjective civil.

As far as cynicism, I don’t like it as much as the next person, but people view it like it’s a costume people wear, when in actuality it’s a symptom, albeit the cause of other symptoms. Cynicism is not a state of being people in satisfying environments maintain because they’re bored. Cynicism is the result of a life of mediation (or, simulation as the late great Baudrillard might have said). It’s hard not to be cynical when your wings have been clipped and those that clipped them (and their trumpteters in the form of disassociated parents and “civilized people” et al) are telling you to fly!

I don’t get mad at cynics, I pity them. I empathize.

I fight cynicism in myself, but only becauee it makes me feel gross.