History teaches (and science confirms) that we as human beings are generally unwilling to understand things that conflict with our beliefs and values, truths and positions. In this final assignment, our goal is to look at how our own self-righteousness (that is, our absolute and complete certainty in our ways of thinking and being) impedes communication and thus our ability to understand different things and persons. In other words, the goal of this assignment is to reckon with how our self-righteousness makes communication impossible. Leonard Cohen, the great poet and lyricist, contends that there are cracks in everything, “for this is how the lights get in.” Indeed, everything human has cracks, meaning NO position or decision of yours is ever perfect and thereby beyond fault and criticism. What are the many cracks that your self-righteousness is concealing and suppressing in your morality and politics? Thus, what diversities and possibilities is your complete and absolute certainty in your beliefs and values impeding and obstructing? You need to draw upon your own life for examples, of which there are endless.
Quotes:
To view communication as modes of being assumes that we are bound up with our environments, which also means that our minds are shaped and influenced by our environments. The organization of space and place influences how we relate to and communicate with others.
To view communication form the perspective of modes of being assumes that communication is about what is you are willing to share , what you are willing to believe , what you are willing to experience.