MUCH CONVERSATION AND LITTLE COMMUNICATION THESE DAYS
There is a problem in human communication. Most people have set beliefs which they wish to confirm or establish during conversation and they are not open to fresh ideas from others even if such ones are rationally and civilly presented before them. This conservatism is fundamental to the human nervous system which is why the rational training is so very essential, that scientific attitude which receives information and tests them for validation in understanding and experience before accepting them as truth. It leaves room for fresh discoveries that may go counter to existing theories and then expands the basis of these theories to fit in these new findings and, if it be not possible to accommodate them so, it even rejects those theories and builds up fresh models or hypotheses and newer theories are posited thereof which may be accepted after scrutinising them in the light of established scientific procedures.
In ordinary social discourse, though, the irrational, the emotional and the assumptive modes of conversation more often than not prevail which create considerable difficulties in communication of an idea, for people are predisposed to their cultural convictions irrespective of the fact whether they are thus subscribing to objective truth or not.
Human patience in these days of technological invasion of privacy is on the decrease and the rapid pace of life is programming people to come to conclusions about others' intent in speech even before they have had occasion to hear them out, for impatience is the foe to endurance in anything. As a result, hasty conclusions are drawn which are wholesale erroneous and suited only to what one wishes to hear from his co-conversationalist and not what one is actually about to hear. Hurried understanding of conversational content by cutting the other short in his speech and preemptive response thereby along wrong lines distracts the conversation from its original track and lends it an alternate path of misapprehension and mutual verbal conflict. One must have the patience to hear another out before responding rationally to him. Else, conversation becomes an exercise in vociferous self-talk and not a polite exchange of ideas where there may be much to learn. This, unfortunately, is the trend of the times.
Children are taught to be civil and respectful in conversation with adults but adults also need to adhere to the lesson they impart to the children.
The quick and escapist responses on social media where one can comment what one likes and then refuse to comment by way of corroboration of content or continuation of deliberation are making men increasingly impulsive in drawing quick conclusions and drifting thereafter into fresher zones of ludicrous exhibition of the shallowness of personality and character. A deluge of data instantly flashed before the eye leaves one helpless in assorting them in a rational manner before inferring from them. The ordinary mind is not so well-equipped to be able to sort out information and sift truth from untruth when faced with a plethora of information of all intents and aspired ends. It is nonplussed by such a flood of data and gets muddled and misled into traversing along paths perplexing. Frequent bombardment of the mind with all sorts of information in such abundance all but takes the breath away from quiet thinking and eventually induces a rapid response system in the target with all its concomitant lapses. And one such is this tendency in most not to allow the other person speak what he wishes to, to cut him off mid-speech and to interpret him in a manner quite apart from the intent of the speaker himself. This is leading to much conversation but little communication these days. Each person seems to have a set agenda in speaking which he must thrust on his target audience at any rate, a la advertising technique in common conversation. Who knows how far these constant flashes of advertisement films are contributing to human behaviour thus that neither waits nor hears anymore but wishes only to thrust opinions, criticisms and intents on others irrespective of whether they deserve such unhealthy inputs or not?
With the advent of social media and the unnecessary hustle and bustle of licentious living, men seem to have forgotten their primary lessons in civility and are merely intent on seeking the spotlight for the moment. This undue urgency in momentary self-conservation has lent the deathblow to enduring community conversation, a regrettable feature of modern living for sure. And there seems to be no way out of this messy misappropriation of men's rights to be heard as much as they need to lend their ears when they themselves are addressed by others. Now it is each one speaking whatever he wishes to and each one making sense or nonsense out of it, whatever he wishes to. It is the exhibition of the petty ego all the way, a sad and a bad decline in conversational culture.
Om!
Written by Sugata Bose
Photo : Chicago, 1893, the World Parliament of Religions. Swami Vivekananda is visible here with the Statue of Liberty in his background. Indeed, it was liberty that was all that he spoke of. But then those were the days when men spoke and they were heard, too. 7000 of them, the best intelligentsia of America and Europe, had flocked to listen to the lectures of a galaxy of speakers from across the world that had assembled at the historic venue of the Art Institute, Chicago, to render account of their respective faiths and philosophies. And one among them outshone them all. His was the organ voice of God that blended and harmonised all the lectures of the others in the comprehensive light of unifying Vedanta and he stood tall and princely, the sovereign speaker who was by universal acclaim the anointed of God. Only the bigoted Christians, the Theosophists and the Brahmo representative connived to pull him down from his princely pedestal but failed in the end owing to the transparent purity of the Swami's personality and purpose which revolved round the awakening of the dormant divinity of dreaming humanity. There was opposition from the various Christian Churches, maligning of the Swami's character which even went to the Press but there was much support as well from devotees and admirers who flocked round him to drink of the nectarine flow of his sublime words of inspiration and insight. This was an epic happening just the other day and its vibrations ripple across the consciousness of awakening humanity careering it toward truth, light and God.
There is a problem in human communication. Most people have set beliefs which they wish to confirm or establish during conversation and they are not open to fresh ideas from others even if such ones are rationally and civilly presented before them. This conservatism is fundamental to the human nervous system which is why the rational training is so very essential, that scientific attitude which receives information and tests them for validation in understanding and experience before accepting them as truth. It leaves room for fresh discoveries that may go counter to existing theories and then expands the basis of these theories to fit in these new findings and, if it be not possible to accommodate them so, it even rejects those theories and builds up fresh models or hypotheses and newer theories are posited thereof which may be accepted after scrutinising them in the light of established scientific procedures.
In ordinary social discourse, though, the irrational, the emotional and the assumptive modes of conversation more often than not prevail which create considerable difficulties in communication of an idea, for people are predisposed to their cultural convictions irrespective of the fact whether they are thus subscribing to objective truth or not.
Human patience in these days of technological invasion of privacy is on the decrease and the rapid pace of life is programming people to come to conclusions about others' intent in speech even before they have had occasion to hear them out, for impatience is the foe to endurance in anything. As a result, hasty conclusions are drawn which are wholesale erroneous and suited only to what one wishes to hear from his co-conversationalist and not what one is actually about to hear. Hurried understanding of conversational content by cutting the other short in his speech and preemptive response thereby along wrong lines distracts the conversation from its original track and lends it an alternate path of misapprehension and mutual verbal conflict. One must have the patience to hear another out before responding rationally to him. Else, conversation becomes an exercise in vociferous self-talk and not a polite exchange of ideas where there may be much to learn. This, unfortunately, is the trend of the times.
Children are taught to be civil and respectful in conversation with adults but adults also need to adhere to the lesson they impart to the children.
The quick and escapist responses on social media where one can comment what one likes and then refuse to comment by way of corroboration of content or continuation of deliberation are making men increasingly impulsive in drawing quick conclusions and drifting thereafter into fresher zones of ludicrous exhibition of the shallowness of personality and character. A deluge of data instantly flashed before the eye leaves one helpless in assorting them in a rational manner before inferring from them. The ordinary mind is not so well-equipped to be able to sort out information and sift truth from untruth when faced with a plethora of information of all intents and aspired ends. It is nonplussed by such a flood of data and gets muddled and misled into traversing along paths perplexing. Frequent bombardment of the mind with all sorts of information in such abundance all but takes the breath away from quiet thinking and eventually induces a rapid response system in the target with all its concomitant lapses. And one such is this tendency in most not to allow the other person speak what he wishes to, to cut him off mid-speech and to interpret him in a manner quite apart from the intent of the speaker himself. This is leading to much conversation but little communication these days. Each person seems to have a set agenda in speaking which he must thrust on his target audience at any rate, a la advertising technique in common conversation. Who knows how far these constant flashes of advertisement films are contributing to human behaviour thus that neither waits nor hears anymore but wishes only to thrust opinions, criticisms and intents on others irrespective of whether they deserve such unhealthy inputs or not?
With the advent of social media and the unnecessary hustle and bustle of licentious living, men seem to have forgotten their primary lessons in civility and are merely intent on seeking the spotlight for the moment. This undue urgency in momentary self-conservation has lent the deathblow to enduring community conversation, a regrettable feature of modern living for sure. And there seems to be no way out of this messy misappropriation of men's rights to be heard as much as they need to lend their ears when they themselves are addressed by others. Now it is each one speaking whatever he wishes to and each one making sense or nonsense out of it, whatever he wishes to. It is the exhibition of the petty ego all the way, a sad and a bad decline in conversational culture.
Om!
Written by Sugata Bose
Photo : Chicago, 1893, the World Parliament of Religions. Swami Vivekananda is visible here with the Statue of Liberty in his background. Indeed, it was liberty that was all that he spoke of. But then those were the days when men spoke and they were heard, too. 7000 of them, the best intelligentsia of America and Europe, had flocked to listen to the lectures of a galaxy of speakers from across the world that had assembled at the historic venue of the Art Institute, Chicago, to render account of their respective faiths and philosophies. And one among them outshone them all. His was the organ voice of God that blended and harmonised all the lectures of the others in the comprehensive light of unifying Vedanta and he stood tall and princely, the sovereign speaker who was by universal acclaim the anointed of God. Only the bigoted Christians, the Theosophists and the Brahmo representative connived to pull him down from his princely pedestal but failed in the end owing to the transparent purity of the Swami's personality and purpose which revolved round the awakening of the dormant divinity of dreaming humanity. There was opposition from the various Christian Churches, maligning of the Swami's character which even went to the Press but there was much support as well from devotees and admirers who flocked round him to drink of the nectarine flow of his sublime words of inspiration and insight. This was an epic happening just the other day and its vibrations ripple across the consciousness of awakening humanity careering it toward truth, light and God.
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