Can We Talk? Jews, Muslims, Republicans, Democrats, and Others
Of course, we CAN talk. But how? And there are other equally important questions: what are the objectives of our talk? Do you primarily seek victory or open, honest dialogue? Or, more precisely, what exactly do YOU, I, and WE want? Such questions are easily asked, but not so easily answered. I wrote two relevant books whose texts I now draw upon: Questioning & Answering: How, Who, When, Where , and Conversation: Striving, Surviving, and Thriving: Searching for Messages and Relationships. But, in the interest of brevity, I cannot in this posting explain sufficiently the details they provide. So, I collapse all the important, complicated introductory questions into a deliberately simplified, format. THE MODE OF LISTENING - Do you listen only with conscious or unconscious intent to rebut? THE BALANCE OF LISTENING - Do you deliberately strive to keep yours and your interlocutor’s allocation of listening as equal as possible? THE MODE OF TALK - Do...