I don't mean to sound too crass, but maybe you should keep calm and hit the pub for a pint, read some literature... something.

"It's known" sounds a little final.

In a more level tone: there are venues for equalizing communication, because of course in society there are hierarchies that we've struggled with for ages. The charge for any individual is being willing to expose themselves to those environments and being willing to engross themselves in the mess of what that kind of interaction can turn up.

Then again, I kind of side with Bohm about the connectedness of people, and yet...

I raise you Bohm on communication problems:

>If each one of us can give full attention to what is actually ‘blocking’ communication while he is also attending properly to the content of what is communicated, then we may be able to create something new between us, something of very great significance for bringing to an end the at present insoluble problems of the individual and of society.

Scratch all the drunk talk that follows and I also raise you this:

http://www.nytimes.com/1974/02/17/archives/the-irish-pub-is-...

There traditionally (in some cultures, anyway) venues where people from various social hierarchies were equals when they passed the threshold, and communication is then wide open. They still exist -- but if you're North American don't count on finding them on the strip.

I've been in places all across the US billing themselves as Irish pubs, and this is corroborated by my experience particularly in Ohio and Houston. (Yes, I know I went from a state to a city.) I've literally been at sessions where left leaning doctors, devout Christians, gun shop owners, republican judges, wiccan radicals, Discordian internet hipsters, polyamorous librarians, liberal engineers, and libertarian programmers can all bond over a love of music and even be friends. The level of actual Irish Pub authenticity can vary. The actual communication from different points of the socioeconomic ladder and political spectrum is real. What's more, it seems to work better in red states than in blue. In Red states, there's enough left leaning in the music communities, such that a left-right balance of power occurs in such places. In Blue states, there's an overwhelming left lean, so sometimes people far enough on the right are shunned. (And the center-left is labeled "right.")

I agree with just about everything you said excepting your implication that communities that lean further left are not as welcoming to communication (shunning opposing views).

I don't argue that doesn't happen, but I don't think it's isolated to one end of the spectrum. I would bet the symptoms are the same at either extreme -- right or left.

If you mean "center-left" when you say right, I think what you're actually implying is communication is better tolerated in communities with more balance between political viewpoints, and less given to extremes.

But traditionally, outside of movements, it's been somewhat bad form to bring politics into the pub at all.

Could you expand on the "it's known" part? Any research? This sounds as a very general statement. Social hierarchies can be dynamic.

He is a Dothraki.

As far as I can trace it, this quote originates from the Illuminatus Trilogy and is actually "True communication...".

There is no such thing as being equals; one party will always have at least a little bit more power than the other.

What about when they both think they're the more powerful, or both think they're the lesser?

It is known.