Levels of dialogue

Learnings for the Future of Inter-Faith Dialogue (Part #5)

What does it mean when a dialogue becomes 'deeper', more profound or more significant? This can perhaps best be explored through a metaphor that clarifies possible steps in the evolution of dialogue. There may be a case, taking an Eastern martial art like aikido as a metaphor, for distinguishing different levels of proficiency in dialogue -- up to a 'black belt' -- and bearing in mind the progression of philosophical and attitudinal subtleties in responding to an 'opponent'! Shifting metaphors, perhaps there is a case for a dialogue equivalent to a 'golf handicap' to constrain the undisciplined and to provide a 'level table' (to use a phrase vital to a stage in the Middle East peace process).

Alternatively, a musical metaphor could be used in different ways. One way is to take the stages in the historical development of musical harmony as representing stages in the complexification and enrichment of dialogue as an exercise in social harmony (11). This could give rise to a sequence of levels such as the following:

Level 1: Singing in unison, based on scales (Ancient Greece)
Level 2: Use of any of 12 scale patterns of tones with characteristic functions (6th to 9th century)
Level 3: Acceptance of only simplest 'perfect' harmonic ratios, allowing the addition of one or two exactly parallel voices, that later acquired melodic independence (9th century)
Level 4: Acceptance of other intervals and the development beyond 3-part scoring (12th to 15th century)
Level 5: Breakdown of the distinction between the 12 classical modes, foreshadowing the major/minor system (15th century)
Level 6: Focus on the keynote as the point of departure and arrival in a composition (16th century)
Level 7: Emphasis on expressive melodic line harmonically underpinned by a base line generating forces upon which harmonies were built (17th century)
Level 8: Deliberate use of unresolved harmonies and of ambiguous chords (19th century)
Level 9: ...

Is it possible that the Chicago efforts towards a global ethic were trapped in an understanding of harmony that dates back to Ancient Greece?

A related approach would be to consider a metaphor based on:

Level 1: Monotone (enunciation of single pattern of values, drowning out or ignoring all others)
Level 2: Competing monotones (recognition of discordant patterns of values)
Level 3: Responding tones (contrasting volumes responding to each other in some measure)
Level 4: Runs of tones...simple melodies (highlighting of sequences of values in resonance one with another)
Level 5: Isolated chords (harmonious value complexes and combinations)
Level 6: Sequences of chords (sequences of value complexes, providing a context for those of a more discordant nature)
Level 7: ...

The focus is here on the Western concept of music. That of the East opens the ways to seeking parallels with developments in modes of awareness which can allow the presence of elements of an apparently higher degree of incompatibility.

In both cases levels are not 'superseded' through such development. Each always has its value. But at the 'deeper' or 'higher' levels there is greater richness. The context for any item included from a 'lower' level then becomes of greater significance. At the higher levels, it is how lower level contributions to the dialogue are combined with others that is more significant than the specific quality of that contribution. As with music, the power and genius of a piece of dialogue comes from the overall pattern of combinations. At the higher levels this may appear increasingly chaotic, but is increasingly capable of holding the degree of order found in nature. Lower levels of dialogue tend to be mechanistic, where the higher levels depend on aesthetic significant patterns of associations. Of course, from a lower level, any pattern connecting elements of significance at a higher level would necessarily be a challenge to comprehension.

There is learning too in the way people cluster themselves in their appreciation of music. There are subtleties to which music enthusiasts respond, even to the point of being fanatically snobbish about them. There are varieties of popular music which arouse deep enthusiasm, however much they horrify others. The varieties of dialogue will cluster groups in this way also. 'Classical' dialogue will have its place as a complement to 'Popular' dialogue -- and what of 'Hard Rock' dialogue or 'Country and Western' ? It is no coincidence, in terms of this metaphor, that the values to which the young are exposed tend currently to be most effectively articulated through musical lyrics -- and this includes the notions of peace and love so emphasized in the Chicago Parliament.