Superficial, ready-made, easy expressions are more than enough for ordinary communication. The scriptwriters of a comedy show even created a character who could easily get along with anyone in his social life without any other than these five expressions: "Right", "so", "what's up", “thanks mate" and "no problem", until a crisis or a conflict arises.
Even in times of crisis, we tend to resort to familiar expressions. To solve problems, we use common formulas we hear from our parents, teachers, and all sorts of power holders in our life, as long as we think they're working. What if they do not?
Conflict is a reciprocal verb: We all somehow become experts in judging and stereotyping, but is it possible to reach a solution without listening, thinking, and wondering?
If language is an exchange, we have to go beyond what we have borrowed from others: We need to question the discursive elements that seem to belong to us. We need to ask effective and strong questions. We need to practice in thinking, in expressing what we think in a proper way, in exploring the question itself, and in take time to grasp answers.
Power relations offer an easy solution to any problem: Whatever the power holders say goes. However, the problem and the solution demand the effective participation, communication and interaction of all parties involved. We have to make language a fair exchange. Every relationship consists of giving and receiving, so does language.
If language gets off the rails, it is hard to fix it.
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