Michael Oakeshott once described civil society as a group of porcupines huddling together close enough to stay warm, but far enough apart not to poke each other. We seem to live in a world where we have neither the warmth, nor the separation, nor the thickness of skin to withstand the inevitable barbs that come with living together. A civil society is indeed a particular kind of animal presupposing conceptual and practical bonds. Civil society is not an extended family. It is not a tribe or a religious society. Its bonds are those of the civitas—life rooted in a common sense of citizenship, understood both juridically and morally, and exercised in practical affairs. Our society is civil to the extent that we treat each other civilly, with the respect that presupposes and enacts participation in a common legal, material, and moral life.
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