Why is listening such a struggle for us in this generation?
The cold long barrel of the tactical sniper slowly peeked out from the snow covered spruce tree. The loud “BANG!” sent the night guard plummeting off the side of the ten-story watch tower.
Before his flailing body even hit the ground, the tactical squad of secret agents burst through the shroud of snow-covered pine needles. They swiftly charged the front gates of the maximum security compound. The steel doors were skillfully blown open with multiple sticks of carefully placed dynamite. The team hastily scurried into the gaping mouth of the ominous and dark cement bunker.
As they snaked their way through the labyrinth of flickering florescent corridors and hissing industrial laboratories, the team expertly neutralized each and every guard along the way. When they finally reached the central control room, they began hacking the main computer system.
When the team finally managed to temporarily disarm the electrical fences that surrounded the labor camp, the sergeant quickly snatched up the microphone. He screamed over the intercom, “Attention all prisoners of Camp 0462. The electrical fences have been shut down for the next 2 hours. Take all your belongings and escape now before it is too late!”
However, no one responded. Each prisoner continued to carry out their mundane evening chores. No matter how frequently and loudly the sergeant bellowed out his invitation for freedom, none of the prisoners heard a thing.
What the secret agents did not realize was that all the prisoners had gradually muffled and silenced their loudspeakers in their homes. The precious pieces of fabric that was sparingly cut off from their meager rations of clothing were meticulously taped over the speaker covers. It was their only means of drowning out the endless streams of propaganda that invaded their ears.
Like the prisoners who were constantly exposed to mind-numbing propaganda, we live in a society where we are constantly being bombarded with a torrent of useless and irrelevant information. The danger of constantly exposing ourselves to such high levels of information overload is that we risk unconsciously losing our ability to truly listen.
