Menu
header photo

Project Vision 21

Transforming lives, renewing minds, cocreating the future

Blog Search

Blog Archive

Comments

There are currently no blog comments.

The inability to dialogue ruins the present and destroys the future

For reasons related of my work, recently I had to go to the bank where I have the accounts of my business to get a certification indicating that the accounts of my business are really mine. In the past, that simple procedure was completed in a few minutes. But this time, things were very different.

I explained my request to the bank representative and his response was: “If you need the direct deposit form, you have to request it from the other company. We do not have it.”

I told the representative that I never, at any time, mentioned anything about any direct deposit form. And I asked again for a document certifying that my business account in that bank was mine.

The representative then told me that they do not give advice on job applications and that there are many places where they can help me find a job. I told him then that I was not looking for a job and that all I wanted was a certification of my account in that bank.

His next answer was that to pay state taxes I had to contact the state tax office. I mentioned that I didn't say anything about state taxes and that my request was simple: I need to verify that my account is mine. Nothing else. I then gave him my ID asked him to use his computer to see my account.

To facilitate the process, I also gave him my business credit card (issued by that bank) and my business account check that I opened there more than two decades ago. The representative began searching and searching. And then he called someone telling the other person on the phone that I was asking for information from an account he couldn't find. 

I interrupted him and, firmly reflecting my discomfort, I indicated that I had not requested any information from any account, much less from my own account, because I already have that information. And once again I explained that all I wanted was a certificate issued by the bank indicating that my account was mine, as that same bank had already done before.

A ridiculous smile and an aggravating silence dispelled any doubt about the inability of that person to maintain a fairly reasonable and intelligent dialogue. And, incidentally, it was no use talking to the assistant manager, the manager or the regional manager of the bank. They all provided unacceptable excuses and, at the end, did absolutely nothing. 

The inability to dialogue, the aggressive ignorance, the constant prejudice that leads to assume that whoever asks a question is ignorant (instead of admitting our own ignorance and learning in the process) not only prevents any dialogue, but it also corrodes and destroys, with its ridiculous smiles, all vestiges of civilization and humanity. 

When a common point for meeting and understanding disappears, when we only listen to ourselves and we no longer listen to logos (as Heraclitus asked), little, if anything, is left of being human.

Go Back