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An overview of the relationship between social structure and social order is employed to highlight the importance of the civility concept to civic society. In discussing these issues, the author provides a brief historical and a contemporary context for assessing the civility concept. This assessment draws on an eclectic literature that addresses the relationship among civility, socialization, and learning, the role of education in the civility process, the changing emphasis of higher education, the culture of individualism, and technology. The author concludes with a brief discussion of culture and the future of civility.The problem of order arises out of the dual circumstance that human beings have limited (though not nonexistent) capacities for sympathy with their fellows and that they inhabit an environment that fails to provide them with sufficient resources to satisfy fully the needs of all of them. The problem of order is therefore rooted in inescapable conflict between the interests and desires of individuals and the requirements of society: to wit, the pacification of violent strife among men and the secure establishment of cooperative social relations making possible the pursuit of collective goals. (Wrong 1994, p. 36) The relationship between social structure and social order has long been a subject of sociological inquiry. More recently, this inquiry is directed toward a lay public's focus and social discourse about increasing violence among young people as well as perceived lack of manners and a decline in respect for those in authority and others in positions of responsibility. Concern also is expressed over a lack of social etiquette and a loosening of decorum (the incivility spiral). Then there is the perception of a declining morality. These concerns have prompted passage of an increasing number of social control policies. Such policies, including the passage of laws mandating prison sentences and harsher penalties for drug dealers, are intended to address the relationship among self-interest, selfcenteredness, parochial partisanship, conflict with and a disregard for others, and the effect these phenomena have on civil society. All of this poses a number of important sociological issues. Specifically, these phenomena relate to civility and the civilizing process as this is influenced by the social and moral inculcation effect of the family and religious institutions, economic affluence, liberal democracy, the content of contemporary culture, and the dynamics of social order and socialization.In Chapter 2, ''The Problem of Order From Hobbes to the Present,'' Dennis Wrong (1994) discusses and historically summarizes the Hobbesian

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The relationship between social and psychological correlates of youthful suicide victims and methods of lethality is examined. Data on those who commit suicide are also used to explore the suicide intent hypothesis, and the findings are discussed in light of recent claims that choice of method of lethality is useful for understanding completed suicide. The results suggest that a wide range of factors may be related to youthful intent and suicidal behavior, but only minor differences are observed among a single cohort of committers.

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