We play Mozart in the background, but the foreground is folding the laundry. It is a detriment to our understanding ourselves and one another. It is as if we are a world in a Walkman, each hearing his own song, many of us missing the symphony. There are people paying top dollar for a ticket who cannot sit still and listen. They're frantically paging through the program book, reading the ads.
People simply are unable to sit and listen as a fulltime activity.
It's actually an entire culture of not listening. We train ourselves to tune out. As the world grows more diverse, so must we grow more receptive. To be more receptive, we must actively choose to be passive, says Dr. Peter Reich, who spends much of his time listening. Listen to this.