Dialogues

I remember having bought a book, Dialogues by Plato, it still is in my bookshelf! I read it while I was a research scholar at IIT Kanpur, some 33 years ago and not thereafter.

Today the word struck my mind, as I was pondering about lack of understanding that is very common in families, societies. I believe that people nowadays seldom engage in dialogues, may be because of their own fears. A meaningful dialogue is, I think, possible, only between two persons of similar status, whether mental, emotional, economical or power.

So a political leader can seldom engage in a meaningful dialogue with the downtrodden populace he governs, not even with a representative of its class. Someone who has not learned to love can have a dialogue with a lovelorn individual. A learned philosopher with an illiterate common person.!! So, those are the limitations of a dialogue, and hence widespread misunderstanding can be understood.But what about dialogues between a parent and an offspring, or between siblings. In case of off-springs there is often a wide age difference and hence of maturity too. Siblings not very much different in age, can be expected to have similar state of maturity, education.

May be that is a lacunae of present educational system. Which invariably relies on monologues only between the teacher and the taught, may be because of a wide difference not only in age, but also communication skills. But the main constraint in all cases, is the availability of time, im modern life styles. Rakesh Mohan Hallen