Communication is a method of exchanging information, emphasis on "exchanging", which is the half we often leave out. The part we "leave out", is the listening component of communication, or discourse. Telling someone what YOU think about things, then moving on, is not communicating - it's a lecture or a speech.
We all have our opinions and thoughts, and have a right to indicate those to others, but for communication to occur, we have to listen to others opinions and thoughts. Listening to someone else presents no threat to what we think, as we may pick and choose what information we will keep for ourselves and what we will ignore. Once an idea or concept has been presented in some format, it is in the public domain, and the public may do with it as it wishes.
Most of what passes for discourse these days, is 1000's of voices trying to drown each other out - with no one listening to anyone else. By listening, I do not mean waiting for the other person to stop talking so we can get OUR opinions in, or repeat them more loudly, I mean hearing WHAT they are saying - and considering it. It costs us nothing to listen, and as I said, is no threat to us at all.
Listening can have far reaching, amazing and sometimes critical consequences - when we discover information we lacked. No one knows everything, however, everybody knows something - and we'll never find out what they know that we do not - if we don't listen. If we are afraid to listen, it's because we know we're lacking in information and fear having to change our minds about something, if that missing information somehow gets in.
We are rarely afraid to say what we think, but we seem to be afraid to CHANGE what we think, so try to avoid having to do that - by talking and not listening. The delusion is, if we can get a large number of people to agree with our thinking, it must be correct. The reality is, if it is incorrect, so is everyone who agreed with the incorrect thinking. The "majority rule" does not apply to information, wrong is wrong, no matter HOW many people agree with it.
America does not listen to it's allies, it delivers demands, which is why our allies despise us. Americans do not listen to each other, they issue threats, make demands, tell others what they should be thinking and refuse all discourse. Is it any wonder then, that the country is so screwed up, with 300 million talkers - and no listeners? Who the hell are we talking to anyway, when no one is listening - ourselves?
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