AGE OF COMMUNICATIONS

THE AGE OF COMMUNICATIONS?

I remember back in the 70’s and early 80’s when all the rage was about our lack of communication in the world. The guru’s of the time kept preaching that we need to reach out and communicate, to talk to each other, to create dialogue, to enhance common understanding. I remember thinking that “I am not so sure about that”. Lots of “groups” were set up and the problem was that mostly like minded people started talking. And yes, it did raise issues and created some clarity, and then faded from view.

Then the birth of the internet and all the promises of an even greater understanding and communication, on a world wide basis. Ah yes, just with expressing how we feel and believe will create common bond and understanding. Truly listening and accepting other’s views will bridge our divides. We will get enhanced perspectives and connections. Obviously, it has not happened that way. I am sure there has been some tweaks in understanding, especially when the views were not too far apart. Those that were very far apart, only created animosity.

And now the addition of diminishing being “politically correct”, we have license to express how we really feel. We now have outright hostility toward those who would dare disagree with us. Lines are drawn in ways we have never seen. Enemies have been created where none were before. “Ah, now I know where you stand on Trump”! “So, that is how you really feel about that?” “ I always wondered about you”. And on and on around people now being honest about where we stand.

We have gained little and lost much. What used to disagreements are now out and out verbal wars. We have found our “like minded’ allies in places and spaces we never ventured. Things we would not say to another face to face, become ok in the autonomy of the cyberspace. And then add on the professional cyber bullies, and we have greater divides than ever… So much for more communication on a grander scale. It is more anger and distance on a grander scale.

Why did this not work when so many thought it was the issue, way back then? For me, communication is never the issue, but becoming aware of what and why you communicate. Becoming aware of how your mind “hears” things. How we interpret info. How we translate it. How we are conditioned to react. How we see ourselves in this world. How make meaning in this world.

If we think that all of our internal processes are secondary to simply “communicating”, then we are truly lost in this world. We create meaning and understanding with the conditioning of our mind. Anyone who thinks, that we all have the same meaning of words, the same understanding of how life works, the same framework for grasping reality, and so much more, is living in an illusion of our own making.
We all live in a world of our own creation. We do not live in similar worlds, except at the most basic level. Once you get beyond the sun rises and sets, we all have to eat, live in shelter, and make a living, it goes in many directions. We have to go inward first, discover our meaning making mechanism, and then to realize this goes on in everyone, before any kind of commination can work. We want to talk without understanding how communication works. We are simply blowing in the wind. Tlane 10/9/17

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