The Right to Listen

In a democracy, we the people are supposed to be guiding the ship of state together. To do that, we need to be able to talk to one another, which suggests that engagement, rather than confrontation, can be a civic act. It can also be an act of friendship, because one thing we want to do is to save our friends from making serious mistakes. Just bear

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The idea of silence as a commons, as Illich described it here, suggests to a me shared space into which you and I might enter and have just as much of a chance of being heard as anyone else. Technologies that augment the human voice empower those who possess them at the expense of those who do not, setting off the escalatory dynamics that eventuall... See more

A Language Older Than Words

Derrick Jensen

“We need to distinguish between listening and hearing. I believe I listen better than many people, but I still don’t hear very well. I have a lot of friends around the world who are able to actually hear the natural world. Still, whether or not we hear, listening is important. Until we start to listen—and,... See more