What are you Listening to?

What Ideas are you listening too???

Eleanor Roosevelt said, “Great minds discuss ideas.” We must come to grips with the idea of a more civil all inclusive society. In order to promote and to sustain such an idea, domination has to be addressed. Throughout history, systems of human domination have been constructed by dominant groups to exploit and oppress the masses. These systems of domination have stood in the paths of the human march toward freedom and authentic democracy. Certain protest movements have functioned as the historic vehicle which the oppressed have challenged and at times toppled systems of domination, clearing the path for a momentous leap forward!!!

On April 20, 1964 Nelson Mandela stood before the South African government facing the sentence of death and spoke these words, “During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against White domination, And I have fought against Black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, It is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.” On February 11,1990 some twenty-seven years later Mandela was released from prison still fighting, but now it was not just South Africa but he desired to rid the world of domination!!!

The African American protest movement has been a force to rid American society of such domination. It has had a great deal of success in dismantling slavery and Jim Crow. In the process it had lifted high the banner of democracy and human freedom. Many tyrants around the world still sit atop systems of domination's, and should be dealt with very carefully… Russia, China, and North Korea are just a few of these systems of domination that we have to contend with on a world stage!!!

That’s why its imperative that we don’t get lost in the fog of the past as far as values are concerned. As your world view changes, so should your values. That’s why I stress the difference between using traumatic experiences from the past as a example for better and more productive change, compared to using it as an excuse to remain the same. One of the men that have been very influential in my life over this past decade grew up looking at black people as inferior. On the other side of the coin I grew up looking at white people as the enemy and the continual oppressor of black people. We both were delusional to a degree, just as many well meaning people are today. He grew up being influenced by the customs and societal norms of his immediate surroundings just as I did. I grew up listening to my mothers’ tears as she would often share with my grandmother about her struggles working for Southwestern Bell telephone company. She started out in housekeeping but by the time I graduated from high school she was a regional director for At&t. My point is, growing up my ideas and perceptions were limited to my experiences and understandings of how I viewed life at that time!!!

As Muhammad Ali so eloquently stated, “A man that views life at fifty the way he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life,” In American society I believe our thinking and our awareness of what is civilly acceptable today is drastically different than what was acceptable ever thirty years ago. I don’t say that to make an excuse for the bigotry and hatred that remain. Yet it is an example of the progress made over the last thirty years. We still have a long way to go and a very short time to get there if we’re going to honestly lead the world in authentic democracy. The past should not just be remembered in vain, but that we are more prepared for the future because of it!!!

We have to be willing to explore different avenues of thought and learn how to honestly listen for the answer to problems, and not always trying to justify our own points of view. We have to honestly stop speaking past one another but learn how to listen. Carl Rogers one of the twentieth century’s great psychotherapist said, “The great majority of us cannot listen, we find ourselves compelled to evaluate, because listening is too dangerous. The first requirement is courage, and we do not always have it.” He knew that listening could transform people. If we are to really put forward the ideas needed to significantly transform our civil discourse, we should institute this rule when we find ourselves in a verbal dispute: Stop the discussion for a moment, each person can speak up for themselves only after they have first restated the ideas and feelings of the previous speaker accurately, and to that speaker’s satisfaction. Remember Napoleon said, “Armies don’t rule people, ideas do.” What ideas are you listening too???