“Remember that a dialogue presupposes two sides. All too often comrades lecture people, not letting them get a word in edgewise. We must learn how to listen [emphasis in original] to people. Ask questions and get a sense of their political thinking.”
We must learn how to listen. On one hand, it’s extraordinary that this needs to be said; on the other, thank God that and when it’s made explicit. All politics is learnt. All politics is also unlearnt. We are constantly relearning the give and take between the two.
I’ve been engaging with a couple of points of political contact in the city, and it’s been electric: energizing and prickly, surface rubbing against surface, causing the static to discharge. Unlike in years past, I feel more able to “hold the tension,” as a friend puts it, between belonging and disagreement; curiosity and discomfort; impatience and hope. I have become an expert in disillusionment; the task today, it would appear, is to navigate illusion more deftly.
And so, I learn to listen more intently. I will get through this with improved hearing, at the very least. At best, I will also be heard.