Open Ears

Abstract

We have no ear lids. We are condemned to listen. But this does not mean our ears are always open. "The violent and the righteous are hard of hearing," said Günter Grass. In every society it is possible to detect individuals or classes of people whose ears are open and those whose ears are closed. Open to change? Open to obey? Open to criticism? Open to new ideas? Open to messages from God? Or closed to them.

So far as I know, no historian has actually ever listened to history, that is, distinguished between good listeners and bad listeners, in an attempt to deduce what was happening or about to happen as a result of the clairaudience of some and the deafness of others. This is not to imply that listeners have always had an upper hand over non-listeners. Often the situation is reversed, as it seems to be at the present time, when we are increasingly ruled by the deaf. The three questions to ask are these:

1. Who’s listening?
2. What are they listening to?
3. What are they ignoring or refusing to listen to?