Sacrifice of civility

Time and time again, we seem willing to sacrifice the delicate flower of civility--as though it were worth little or could easily be replaced--for the sake of things we claim are more important. This is perilously close to treating people as means to an end. The valuing of decency and respect for one another is derided as originating from some kind of liberal, humanistic agenda.
Instead, we have come to glorify "thug-culture," in which things like prison time, capacity for violence, deftness with profanity, readiness to use weapons, and hyper-masculine expressions of toughness and emotional callousness are idealized.
This civility, which we consider such a expendable thing, is in fact an apex of societal development extending back over at least 2,000 years. If we sacrifice it for the sake of other alleged goods, we cannot casually get it back, because the ability to negotiate for a better common future depends on (you guessed it) that very civility.
If we cannot consider it ultimately important that we are able to look another human being in the eye, and see something of importance and value in them that transcends the question of whether they share our ideology, political perspective or religion, we demonstrate our willingness to sacrifice not only civility, but humanity itself.