Honest Communication

Our ability to communicate at all levels, is not something we can put aside, let slip, lose focus on, its not an art, or a science its a necessity.

It seems to me that many of our problems, and challenges in modern society, across the globe come from either our inability to communicate successfully and honestly, misinterpretation of communications, or else deliberate manipulation in communication that creates a distortion.

As well as excpressing the other part of communication, is in the listening, reading watching and understanding. Look at they way we communicate with each other, the literature on the subject…men and women, religions, politics, with children and so on. There are shelves of books helping us to decode the language of others, so we can be closer.

When searching for an image for communication on google images, I was surprised how the representaions were mostly 2nd or 3rd hand electronic communications, it took me a long time and a tagental search to come up with two people face to face. Perhaps this represents the way we see communication these days, it is distanced from people, as we distance ourselves from the responsibilities of what and how we communicate.

But even with this better communication do we mean what we say? Sometimes I wonder at the incrongruence of whats going on inside people and what they express outside… you all know what Iam talking about…”how are you” —”I’m fine/good/great” (when actually you feel like hell, are about to get divorced, have argued with your boss etc etc)

What stops us from speaking the truth, telling it like it is…in my opinion its judgement , criticism for want of a better term, the internalised critic from the parental voice in childhood and external critic or judge, used to contain us to restrict us…if you say that THEY wil think X about you, or feel Y about you, or no one will want to hear about your XYZ.

I think this is particularly true with reagrd to us telling the truth about challenges in our live, difficulties we are trying to work through, in UK society “the stiff upper lip, in Australian “whingers” not sure what is said about it in US society.

This kind of internalised critic is taught to us from being small children and used to control us and the way we communicate…the most obvious being “big boys don’t cry”. If we make the giant leap from childhood to politics, we can see how this kind of thing begins to effect our lives…In business and the political arena there appears almost to be an accepted value that those who have got on or succeeded are more than likely to have been dishonest somewhere along the way.

In conversation with someone at work, it was commented that most very wealthy successful business people are likely to have an element of the gangster about them.

Why do we no longer beleive that honesty will allow us to progress, how has it become so ingrained that we do not speak our minds and if we do we are often punished for it? Well the battle lines are drawn, how much more hoinest can you make your life, how diffiuclt would it be not to tell that little white lie, to speak out when you have been trained to be silent.

Now across the globe people are speaking out …speaking truth to power, at this macro scale we are being set an example of honesty and communication…is what you have bought in the shops ethical, ecological, traded in a fair way. This example of people standing shoulder to shoulder for a fairer world, one where we look for other , non-violent, solutions; where trading with someone means communicating and sharing with them, can set us an example in our everyday lives…and truly starts to put into perspective that now older adage…”Think Globally Act Locally”

Related posts:

Related posts:

1. The Story of The Islanders
2. Home Grown Fruit and Veg
3. Bonfire, Fireworks and Lewes, East Sussex
4. Surviving…you can create a new world with your thoughts and feelings!
5. iPods and the curse of other peoples music.

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  Jonathan Spencer : Posted a new post on their blog
  (Fri Jan 13, 12:26 pm).

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