Tag: 2012

Usually, the dialogue is attributed to an undoubted positive connotation (dialogue is good, this is correct, it is the civilized behaviour) and a certain set of norms of etiquette that outwardly fix the behaviour of people during the dialogue. These etiquette norms include: the sequence of speaking (do not interrupt, speak by turn), the right of everyone to express their position and their opinion, the setup towards respect of interlocutors, the requirement for positions’ argumentation, as well as the minimization of personal emotional assessments and attitudes. These norms and attitudes, having been formed through the years of practice of conducting a dialogue, have become entrenched in the form of etiquette, but they often lose touch with the rational foundations which they have been grounded on. They continue to exist and regulate communication in an emasculated form and often become a means of manipulating and simulating dialogue. Thus, the above-described practices of the Belarusian authorities often use “chattering up” the essence of the issue, when, in accordance with the dialogue etiquette, each participant, regardless of their competence and their statements’ content, he or she is given a word with the condition “not to interrupt” and “let finish”. Thus, politeness begins to replace the principled encounter of different positions.