There’s an endless amount of ‘chat’ on radio and TV, but how much ‘conversation’? A recent book by an American, Stephen Miller, reminds us of the difference between them, and how much we have lost by our obsession with argument, obfuscation, self-revelation, or should I say self-deception. Conversation, argues Miller in his thought-provoking book on the subject (published by Yale), used to be regarded as one of the arts. It should be an intellectual adventure, a chance to extend your experience of life, experiment with ideas, flex your wits, improve your understanding, as well as a source of pleasure and delight. It once was.
‘Honest conversation,’ says Dr Johnson, prevents the mind from being ‘empty and unoccupied’. In Finland, for instance, where ‘silence is regarded as a sign of wisdom and good manners’ and people rarely converse over dinner, it has been suggested that the high suicide rate and degree of alcohol dependency is the consequence.
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