Ron Price
Communication and Culture: Blog#1
Dr. Christina L. Ivey
“Can you hear me now?”
Philosopher Zeno of Citium once said “We have two ears and one mouth, so we should listen more than we say.” The physical aspects of listening are alluded to with the previous quote, but fails to fully summarize the listening/hearing experience. Listening is considered an active process; one that you engage in on a conscious level. There are countless anecdotes that create a delineation between hearing and listening. “I know you hear me, but you aren’t listening to me”, “Speaking is silver, listening is gold”, or as educator Peter Drucker asserts “The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn’t said” are examples of common phrases that many people have heard. Self described impromptu scribe Alex Morritt questions this elucidation and the idea of placing emphasis solely on one of our senses when he states “If 'seeing is believing' what happened to taste, touch, sound and smell ? Did our creator really intend to favour sight over the other senses ? I don't believe so.” By creating divisions within the listening/hearing process, the various modes of communication that individuals partake in may not be as beneficial as approaching the listening/hearing process holistically.
In the article “Compassionate Critical Listening with Chris McRae”, the idea of the intersectionality between culture and social norms is explained, “In other words, the modes of listening we develop always emerge in relationship to the cultural and social expectations of specific genres. Genres invite specific modes of listening.” One example illustrating this concept can be found in the when comparing a rock concert to an opera. Rock concerts provide an expectation of rowdiness, loud noise, and limited interaction with the performers. As Elvis Presley once noted, “A live concert to me is exciting because of all the electricity that is generated in the crowd and on stage. It’s my favorite part of the business, live concerts.” However, at an opera performance, preconceived notions of decorum and propriety typically are the law of the land. At an opera, audience members are expected to sit silently while watching the performance. Actors on the stage don’t engage with the viewing audience by breaking the fourth wall and are expected to act in a professional, prescribed manner while on stage. “An opera begins long before the curtain goes up and ends long after it has come down. It starts in my imagination, it becomes my life, and it stays part of my life long after I've left the opera house,” says soprano Maria Callas.
The Compassionate Critical text also explore the idea that listening should be viewed as a continuum of learning and adaptation (compared to the standard listener-receiver binary.) As human beings, we lack the control to physically turn on and shut off our hearing. Even when we are sleeping, we are still hearing noises that help shape and identity the world around us (albeit on a subconscious level). By re-interpreting and analyzing what is entailed in the communication process, we can continue to learn more about our strengths and limitations. The continuum interpretation can also be illustrated through a historical lens. In the early 90’s, Queer Nation developed and adopted the phrase “We’re here! We’re queer! Get used to it!” Fast forward twenty-odd years later and the matra for LGBTQ people has somewhat changed (“We’re here! We’re queer! Let’s dance!”), but still functions as an extension the original Queer Nation motto. The battle cries for social acceptance and legitimacy are just as strong within the current generation, reflecting the passion and outrage of our predecessors. Life is a continuum of experiences that make us who we are and we should view the listening process as such.
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