Hygiene Ceremonies: Politeness in a Crisis

This commentary examines the value of civility-as-politeness in a crisis. It questions Bonotti and Zech’s (2021) defence of politeness on two grounds. First, it considers potential costs of displacing traditional, hierarchical constructions of civility in favour of pluralistic and egalitarian alternatives. Secondly, it differentiates between the consequentialist and expressive value of politeness, and contends that over-concentrating on the former may unhelpfully obscure or undermine the latter.