Before rushing into this rather lengthy chapter we should first note that a question has been begged by our title: should we confront everyday incivility? Common sense says yes. Opinion polls show that people see rudeness as a problem worthy of remedy (Public Agenda 2002). Moreover our own book has uncovered a realm of reasonably frequent events that usually produce unwanted emotions. These generally require coping, may generate fear and aversive behaviour, and can lead to less sociable attitudes. Here, then, we have a social problem. Yet a little reflection might be in order before we move forward to propose some fixes. We might start with the sociologist Emile Durkheim's (2006 [1897]) observation, one famous among sociologists, that norm violation was often a precursor to positive social change or creative renewal. He cites the example of Socrates, a man subject to vilification, yet whose thinking was more progressive and acute than that of the Athenian state which condemned him. Perhaps a society without such ‘antisocial’ behaviour would be stagnant. Certainly, it might be rather unexciting and without grit or edge. The overwhelming comment one hears from people who have been to Singapore – even more so those who have lived there – is that it is clean, safe and boring (e.g., Singapore Expats 2007). Nobody says this about Manhattan. There is a price to be paid, it would seem, for banning chewing gum or Monty Python's irreverent and provocative Life of Brian.