What if our 2022’s wish would be actual mutual communication?
Or how to aim at a less polarized society.
“Between :
What I think, What I want to say, What I believe am saying, What I actually say, What you would like to hear, What you believe you are hearing, What you actually hear, What you would like to understand, What you actually understand, There are at least ten possibilities of misunderstanding or experiencing difficulties to communicate. But let’s try, nevertheless…”
(My own translation of a French extract of “ Encyclopédie du savoir relatif et absolu d’Edmond Wells” from Bernard Werber.)
My personal wish for 2022 is that we aim at ending this era of miscommunication, this age of polarization, where everything is black or white, where you are either behind me or against me, where disinformation infiltrates so easily the debates.
Democracy is weeping. Democracy is endangered. Democracy is longing for respectful debates. Democracy is longing for more time to listen and understand one another.
Democracy is asking for more time to evaluate the facts, to differentiate the true facts from the alternative facts. Democracy requires for more time to seek for one’s truth, to assess the numerous shades of grey that coexist between black and white.
Democracy is in need for people who finally agree to disagree without taking sides, without attacks, or without one feeling humiliated.
I once read, probably in the 80s, in one of the books written by Scott Peck that one of the biggest lie was that we were all entitled to Peace. There is no entitlement to Peace, he said, we have to work and work to achieve it. And the other false belief is that once we achieved it, we no longer need to work for it. If I remember well, he also said that in his mind evil was hiding behind laziness.
I wish that 2022 will ring the wake up call that we all need to make us remember that we are all humans, living on the same tiny planet, and that each one of us has something valuable to bring to the table. Then, I hope, the evil ones would lose their power and their manipulation of the truth would loosen its grip.
Happy new year to all!