The political debater practices how not to listen: he is given his side of the question, or he is chosen to defend what is already his side, and his first task is not to listen to the other side. He marshals arguments, rehearses his own broadcast while his opponent is speaking, gets up his own story in words as sizzling as he can make them - and the audience admires the side that can jam the other broadcasting station most effectively and that shouts its own program with more kilowatts of verbal noise. Is this training for communication - or is it training for misunderstanding?
J. Samuel Bois, The Art of Awareness