Most Important Sentence - January

The sentence that stood out to me the most out of the readings that we have completed so far comes from the Compassionate Critical Listening reading. “Performance scholar Dwight Conquergood (1985) argues that dialogic performance is “one path to genuine understanding of others.”” Within this passage from the reading, that quote really speaks to me. Genuine understanding is not something that people seem to value in this day and age. So often within a conversation people are so concerned with what they are going to say next that they barely pay any attention to the person that is speaking to them. That is why dialogue is so important. If we take the time to actually understand and comprehend what other people are saying without getting caught up in our own agenda then the number of problems that can be solved or avoided would be astounding. This form of listening and communication really reminds me of the phenomenological tradition of communication theorizing.

The phenomenological tradition focuses on the exchange of information and experiences between people without any sort of goal in mind. This meaning that one person isn’t trying to change the other person’s mind on a given subject; they are simply sharing ideas and experiences for the sake of sharing ideas and experiences. True understanding is what is really important; other than there should be no goal to the conversation, no winners or losers.

So, the parallel that I see between these two ideas is the need for understanding, not a need to win. In my opinion, this sort of meaningful exchange between people is fairly hard to come by. Many interactions, especially those with differing views, can become literal shouting matches in which one side ends up being the “winner.” However, when there is a dialogic exchange in which the purpose is solely to understand, then those involved really move forward. When there is no winners or losers in an exchange, everybody wins.