"We Make Violence Enjoyable In Our Culture."
"By 4:30 Today, You Will Never Hear Another Insult." Returning To A Great Teacher, Who Said Our Very Language Cuts Us Off From Life, And Offered A Solution. Very Simple.
My friend Anna Powell sent me this video clip 10 years ago, and promised me I would love it.
I did indeed love it.
Many of you will know it, and many of you, maybe not.
Our habitual language, which Rosenberg called “jackal” is wounded, accusatory, obsessed with being right, and deaf to the needs of others. The redemptive language is called “giraffe,” and it never gets insulted.
Imagine that.
Rosenberg rejected compliments/rewards as well as accusations/punishments:
“Same game.”
I like the word “Rabbi,” which just means teacher.
Marshall Rosenberg grew up in a Jewish working class family, and suffered abuse as a child. That started him on his crusade against violence, and he found his answers, in every day human language.
(His grandmother taught worker’s children to dance.)
If you have not yet discovered, or listened to, this 3 hour seminar, rich with revelation and laughter, you are in for something.
Rest in peace Marshall Rosenberg.
As a young policeman, I learned not to argue with drunks, junkies, the mentally ill or the ideologically possessed. For this reason, Rosenberg's theories only apply among the sober, sane, and open-minded.
Jordan Peterson described how Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn dealt with the "ideologically possessed" Marxists who filled the Soviet gulags. Even with the time afforded by their captivity, Solzhenitsyn recognized the futility of discourse with such people: "One cannot argue with Mindi because there's no Mindi there. You'd only argue with her daemon."
While it's good to open one's mind and heart to hear others, it's just as important to dismiss them before one become's their captive. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w84uRYq0Uc8&t=2500s
My communications skills have improved by listening to Marshall's "Nonviolent Communication" seminar and putting some of his suggestions into action in my personal and business life. More things for me to untangle, but listening to this seminar has gotten my off to a great start.
Thank you for bringing Marshall's work to our attention, Celia