The great philosopher Martin Buber described three types of dialogue:
1. Genuine dialogue
2. Technical dialogue (explanations of things)
3. Monologue disguised as dialogue
I loved that description of “monologue disguised as dialogue,” where conversation is only a pretense for making one’s self heard.
Buber writes that monologue disguised as dialogue is where “two or more men, meeting in space, speak each with himself in strangely tortuous and circuitous ways.” In other words, they are really only talking to themselves, and not with each other.
Bad sales pitches, bosses who pretend to listen but only talk, most marketing copy writing … all of this can be called monologue disguised as dialogue. Have you spotted any of this lately?