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Communication and Discourse Concerns for the Modern Age

   How are we to bring up delicate or sensitive subject matters to one another in conversation without offending people or turning them off? Society today tends to have a blanch and a blush about certain subject matters. When I consider some of my previous blogs, it is those specific subjects sometimes which cause a blanch and a blush and make conversation harder between people. The answer is to have direct and logical conversational procedures, operating upon a principle of trust, such as I have seen in the libretto (words) to Mozart's Don Giovanni, the opera I loved as a teenager, and as an adult. The Italian libretto was written by Lorenzo Da Ponte. That's a funny name for him, because the words get right to the point. Examine the following conversation between Leporello and the Don, translated to English.

"DON GIOVANNI
Come on now, hurry up. What do you want?

LEPORELLO
It's a very important matter

DON GIOVANNI
I believe you

LEPORELLO
Most important

DON GIOVANNI
So much the better, out with it.

LEPORELLO
Promise you won't become angry

DON GIOVANNI
I swear it on my honour, as long as you don't speak of the Commandant.

LEPORELLO
Are we alone?

DON GIOVANNI
It looks like it

LEPORELLO
No one can hear us?

DON GIOVANNI
Come on!

LEPORELLO
May I tell you everything freely?

DON GIOVANNI
Yes

LEPORELLO
Well then, my dear master, the life you are leading is that of a knave!

DON GIOVANNI
Racal, you dare... "

   This is how to handle it. It is very efficient and direct. It only works if there is trust, loyalty, and honor between people, which I feel is lacking these day. People are generally afraid to deal with material that has been on a tight lockdown, simply because it's been on a tight lockdown. Sometimes the material is completely benign, and it's on a tight lockdown. I feel strongly that people have to have more efficient conversational methods somehow that allow for back and forth exchange where one person is not dominating. When you look at Leporello and Don Giovanni, it has a perfect balance between the two, and Leporello is even his liege. There is an efficiency and back-and-forth which is excellent.

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