The world today would function much better if we chose to create dialogue with each other rather than debate. For example, Republicans and Democrats in the United States go back and forth at each other and call each other liars rather than attempt to understand the opposition's viewpoint. Rather than fight, this country needs to actively participate in dialogue.
What exactly is dialogue? Dialogue is simply the act of listening to the stories of your enemy. As humans we often fail to understand the feelings of our opponents, and this just creates a greater divide. When we listen to stories, we gain an understanding of our opposition. It humanizes the opponent. This is the kind of discussion we need between Democrats and Republicans. To make the idea of dialogue more clear, let's look at an example in Norway. A man named Steinar Bryn decided to bring people from different baltic countries together to have a conversation. People from different baltic countries met in Norway for a long seminar. Tension ruled at first, but soon residents of the different nations learned the real story of the other side. Bryn refused to take sides, and he made sure the dialogue did not turn into debate. A man from Serbia told his story followed by a woman from Montenegro and so on. While these people may not ever like each other, they at least were able to understand each other. Fighting between the Baltic nations continued, but maybe it would have come to a halt earlier had everyone from the battling nations participated in dialogue.
While Democrats and Republicans are not involved in physical warfare, they are certainly not at peace. Member of both parties refuse to listen to the other side, citing them as racists or weak. This verbal war is only making the divide in this country widen. A refusal to listen to the opponent creates more hatred. While we do not need to always agree with each other, we need to learn to listen. When we learn to listen, we can then begin solving our problems.
This is not to say that debate cannot happen — debate is essential to every political and cultural system in the world. However, debate needs to not be the only source of information. Dialogue needs a place in society. In the words of Steinar Bryn himself, "We need to develop a dialogue culture — where curiosity and respect for each other and the ability to see things from other peoples' perspective, becomes normal."
If you want to learn more about Steinar Bryn and his work, click here.
