by Kath­leen Parker

Not so long ago, Rep. Joe Wilson’s ver­bal assault on the pres­i­dent — “You lie!” — might have pro­duced a much dif­fer­ent outcome.

Instead of the U.S. House rebuk­ing Wil­son, we might be enter­tain­ing the prospect of a duel.

In early Amer­ica, call­ing some­one a liar wasn’t a child­ish insult but a direct chal­lenge to one’s honor, an appro­pri­ate response to which var­ied by region. Where duel­ing was com­mon — as in Wilson’s home state of South Car­olina — so were insults.

Here’s how an 1882 New York Times arti­cle described the think­ing of the time as it related to a Mr. John Goode, who had called a cer­tain Mr. Bai­ley a liar.

Writ­ing that “Noth­ing but blood can wipe out this insult,” the author noted that although the laws of chivalry were sup­posed to be dom­i­nant, “lan­guage used in attack­ing indi­vid­u­als is much more gross and insult­ing than in regions where the duel is not invoked as the final arbiter betwixt the man who has been insulted and the defamer.

“In the North, we are sup­posed to be a lily-livered and pusil­lan­i­mous race. Yet we very much ques­tion if any leg­is­la­tor or pub­lic man would dare to denounce another as ‘a liar.’ Nev­er­the­less, in the South, where the code of honor pre­vails, the exchange of such epi­thets is pos­si­ble, and the men who fling these names at each other live and prosper.”

Indeed.

Last week, I spoke too soon when I wrote that Wil­son might have lost his audi­ence through his boor­ish­ness. Pro­jec­tion will get you in trou­ble every time. Instead, Wil­son has become a cult hero, rolling in dough. Both he and his oppo­nent for reelec­tion, Rob Miller, report­edly have raised more than $1 mil­lion each since Wilson’s eruption.

Who would have thought that a con­gres­sional race in South Car­olina could become a ref­er­en­dum on the Obama admin­is­tra­tion? Two rel­a­tive unknowns sud­denly per­son­ify two duel­ing world­views: The You-Liars vs. The Truthers. Death-panelists vs. Hopers-Changers.

As Amer­i­cans have picked their side of civilization’s breach the past few days, some have jus­ti­fied Wilson’s words because they think they were true. Sure, one can make a slim case that some of Obama’s asser­tions weren’t 100 per­cent accu­rate, but Wilson’s behav­ior can’t be jus­ti­fied. It isn’t done. Period.

And why not? Because civ­i­liza­tion is a frag­ile and del­i­cate idea, held together by a few mere threads, bound together by lit­tle more than a wisp of mutual con­sent. Frays in those threads are daily appar­ent — from the rude tantrum of Kanye West at the Video Music Awards to the pro­fane threats of ten­nis star Ser­ena Williams when she dis­agreed with a line call.

Across the spec­trum of soci­ety, peo­ple are behav­ing badly. Even those at the very top of their games, who enjoy wealth and sta­tus, no longer can be relied upon to carry the stan­dard of exem­plary behav­ior. If ever there were one place we might hope to find peo­ple of respect­ful tem­pera­ment, it would be where those elected to gov­ern con­vene to hear the president.

Sum­ma­tion: Peo­ple in posi­tions of power and priv­i­lege have a duty to per­form at a higher level. If not them, then who?