If wanting to be heard is one side of coin, the other side …

If wanting to be heard is one side of coin, the other side is being willing to listen. The two are inextricably connected. When convinced that no one _ especially those in place of power & privilege is really paying attention to our protests & demands we will be less...1/15

" As the corona virus swept round the globe killing hundreds of thousands, putting millions out of work & shattering life as we knew it, board signs appeared randomly in public parks across London. 'When all this is over how do you want the world to be different? signs asked 1/16 pic.twitter.com/DB2yqUjve7
— Yameen (@1YameenM) January 6, 2021

inclined to listen to others, particularly to people whose views differ from ours. Communication across the culture & ideological spectrum will falter &, eventually, crumble. And when communication is broken, coexistence, inclusion & social harmony will also be damaged. 2/15

In other words if perpetuated & made routine, the feeling of being systematically unheard will slowly, gradually, seal our ears, & then seal our hearts. In retracting our willingness to listen to others, we ensure that they too feel unheard. And the cycle continues.. 3/15

worsening every time it revolves.
The moment we stop listening to diverse opinions is also when we stop learning. Because the truth is we don't learn much from same_ness & monotony. We usually learn from differences. 4/15

In life most of what we have come to understand throughout the years we have acquired by interacting dis_similar & often challenging views, & by encountering information, criticism & knowledge hitherto unfamiliar to us & then processing these internally growing.. 5/15

insight from seeds of discussions, readings & observations. The thing group think or social media bubbles is that they aggressively feed & amplify repetition, And repetition, however familiar & comforting, will never challenge us mentally, emotionally or behaviorally. 6/15

Echoes simply reiterate that has already been said at some point in time, long gone. Like dead stars, they might seem to have a presence from a distance, but in truth, they are completely devoid of life & light. Echo chambers, therefore, severely limit the breadth &.. 7/15

depth of the views we subject ourselves to, they ration knowledge. And at the same time they limit wisdom: wisdom, which connect the mind & heart, activates emotional intelligence, expands empathy & understanding, allows us to reach beyond the lonely confines of our... 8/15

own minds & engage with the rest of humanity, to listen to them & learn from them. To leave one echo chamber to another is no solution either. We must strive to become intellectual nomads, keep moving, keep learning, resist confining ourselves in any cultural or mental ghetto9/15

& spend more time not in select centers but at the margins, which is where real change come from. If all my friends think like me, vote like me, speak like me, if I only read the kind of books, newspapers & magazines that are in line with what I have read before,.. 10/15

If I only follow online sites that sympathize with my pre_convinced verdicts, if I only watch videos or programs that essentially validate my worldview, & if nearly all of information comes from the same limited sources, day in, day out, it means that, deep within... 11/15

I want to be surrounded with my mirror image 24/7. That is not only a suffocatingly claustrophobic setting, it is also a profoundly narcissistic existence. But here's the thing: sometimes narcissism isn't merely an individual trait, it is a collective one... 12/15

the shared illusion that we are the centre of world. This notion was examined in detail by various thinkers in the last century, especially Theodor Aforno - Erich Fromm. What these writers had in common was that they had witnessed, first hand, the rise of nationalism... 13/15

Jingoism, Xenophobia & totali_tarianism. Their warnings are opposite today. Central to group narcissism is an inflated belief in the clear_cut distinctiveness & undisputable greatness of 'us' as opposed to 'them'. One un surprising consequence of this conviction is an.... 14/15

enduring resentment towards others. If I'm convinced that my tribe is far better & worth more, I will firs doubt, & then denigrate anyone who refuses to recognize our superiority. 15/15

@threadreaderapp compile

If wanting to be heard is one side of coin, the other side is being willing to listen. The two are inextricably connected. When convinced that no one _ especially those in place of power & privilege is really paying attention to our protests & demands we will be less...1/15

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