Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty/Courtesy Ben Crump
In the Bible, specifically the Book of Leviticus in the Old Testament, a passage reads: “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”
This phrasing has been reused throughout the centuries as part of the foundation for what we understand as “civil society.”
Civil society is supposed to comprise a community of citizens linked by common interests and collective activity. There was a time when neighbors looked out for one another—whether it was to keep an eye on a child, deliver a package, share a friendly greeting, or tend to their community together. In some pockets of the country that reality still exists. But there has been a concerted effort over the course of decades to turn neighbor against neighbor, one piece of hateful and dangerous legislation at a time.