I don’t know.

It’s a resounding thought in my head at the moment. Since Brexit. Since Trump Vs Hillary. I don’t know.

I watched the movie Arrival recently and was really impressed. I knew it was going to be an intelligent movie rather than just a bit of fun, but I found it activating brain cells that I thought I had put to bed for the night.

I don’t know. That’s what the world in the movie thought when aliens initiated first contact. I don’t know. That’s what I thought when our government asked my opinion on whether we should remain in the EU or not. I didn’t know, but I voted what felt right – I voted for remain not because I understood the politics but because I felt that we are at a point of human evolution that means we should be working together as a world race or we will fail. This is a philosophy that rang true with the ideas set out in the story of Arrival.

I don’t know. A thought resounding through my mind while reading everyone else who clearly knew they were right while expressing their opinions about Hillary or Trump. I know that Trump is one unabashed and hateful chap who we some of us are encouraged to hate even more, but I suspect that Hillary is one despicable lady with more interest in maintaining the current power structure than what is best for the people of the world but she knows to hide this behind a mask of political correctness like the majority of our western leaders. But there I go – as guilty as everyone else – generalising. Not everyone knew. In fact I believe there are a lot us who did not know, who do not know, but what is there to say that will ring louder than those from both sides that clearly do? When you don’t know, in my experience, it is best to shut up and listen, but it is hard to find amongst all the noise who it is best to listen to.

While listening carefully, the main thing that I have picked up is that there is no real dialogue. The two sides are rarely talking and the voices that are talking in non-combative rhetoric fail to float to the top of the noise.

What Arrival stirred in me tonight is that we often come up against things that we do not know. They do not match any of our individual past experience from which we learn. In that situation we are in the hands of experts who we have to trust, but they are not all going to have the same perspective – we have to listen to the right mix of opinions.

(Spoilers follow)

In the film, fear and uncertainty reach a peak and all nations stop talking to each other which makes the situation worse. It becomes clear that one bad decision by one nation could put us all at risk, just like one bad decision by one individual could put the world at risk. This is something that sensible politicians are probably aware of and it is quite possibly a debilitating knowledge.

And so, in Arrival, it comes down to language – how we understand reality comes down to how we communicate. Therefore if we stop communicating our understanding of reality falters. Shouting our opinions at others does not count as communication. The key is in the discussion – help me to understand you and please let me try to help you understand me and there’s every chance we may lose some of the crap along the way.

Communicate.

Do not be afraid to admit that you do not understand, no matter how intelligent or important you are. Be prepared to admit that the way you think and feel is just one way to think and feel. This is not just about you or yours any more this is about all of us. We know better than ever before in history that we all have a responsibility to each other and the next generation.

I don’t understand and neither do you. Keep trying to understand, but never never reach the conclusion that you do. There is always more to learn. The more alien someone’s views are to yours the harder you both need to try, and if the other party is not trying then you need to try even harder to understand them. And remember – to understand is not necessarily to agree with.

Do we really want an alien race swinging by to tell us to communicate better? I’ve never been great at being told what I should and should not be doing by my bosses or my parents. I prefer to figure these things out for myself!

I feel Arrival is a good movie with some interesting ideas. Stories have always been our primary way of teaching. Stories do not teach the way a teacher does from the front of a class. Stories invite us in to an alternative reality which jostles with our experiences and beliefs formed by our own reality, and like the main characters – you should emerge from the other side changed, as stories allow us to teach ourselves, to discover the things that we know but do not know that we know.

Happy travelling through your realms!