“If a man thinks he is not conceited, he is very conceited indeed.”
― C.S. Lewis
All of us are very poor listeners.
The fact is, we’re not that interested in what others have to say.
If we were, then why do we carry on the way we do when we know (on an economic and social level) it’s slowly killing us and every living creature.
“Don’t pollute the atmosphere.
No, you’re right…but I’ll carry on anyway.”
It’s bonkers. Seriously.
Perhaps I’m naive, but when I hear one politician after another trying to knock another lump out of the opposition, it makes me want to cry.
Who cares who’s right — isn’t it in the eye of the beholder anyway? — when’s there so many things we should all be working on together: poverty, inequality and our wanton destruction of the planet.
As someone who’s spent a good part of my life trying to prove others wrong, I only wish I’d invested that level of zeal, commitment and energy into building consensus to help abate or remedy the really important issues in the world.