So much of what passes for conversation today is degraded. It's either about one-upmanship, or dreary trivia. Even the cut and thrust of wit and bons mots is a form of bedazzlement designed to stop conversations dead rather than broaden them.
Interpretation
Modern conversations often lack depth, focusing instead on trivialities or competition.
The quote by Theodore Zeldin critiques the current state of conversation, suggesting that many discussions are shallow, centered around competitive banter and meaningless topics. Instead of cultivating meaningful dialogue, people often engage in conversations that serve only to impress rather than enlighten, thus limiting the potential for genuine interaction and understanding.
In practice
This quote can be used to start a discussion about the quality of conversations in a public speaking event.
Conversation is a meeting of minds with different memories and habits. When minds meet, they don't just exchange facts: they transform them, reshape them, draw different implications from them, engage in new trains of thought. Conversation doesn't just reshuffle the cards: it creates new cards.
We think of speaking as something we do naturally, without any effort. But like playing music, it requires attention and knowledge and practice.
It is in the power of everybody, with a little courage, to hold out a hand to someone different, to listen, to attempt to increase, by even a tiny amount, the quantity of kindness and humanity in the world.
I think one of the most important changes of our time has been our attitude to fear. Every civilisation defends itself by keeping fears out and saying 'we protect you from fear'. But it also produces new fears and throughout history people have changed the kind of fears which have worried them.
Conversation creates a new kind of network within organizations. Current networks are used for competitive advantage, but conversation is focused on encouraging people to realize their potential.
However fascinating you may think you are, there is a limit to what you can know about yourself.
We cannot be speakers who do not listen. But neither can we be listeners who do not speak.
Why do people who consider themselves good communicators often fail to actually hear each other? Often it's due to a mismatch of styles: To someone who prefers to vent, someone who prefers to explain seems patronizing; explainers experience venters as volatile.
Language is an inadequate form of communication. If you've picked up an instrument, it's because you don't feel you are communicating sufficiently.
Self-expression must pass into communication for its fulfillment.
We communicate all the time, even when we don't realize it. Be aware of body language
If we were meant to talk more than listen, we would have two mouths and one ear.
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