Not listening, refusing to listen, is a form of persecution. It is the beginning of fascism, the denial of the multiple (we) and the promotion of the one (me). It tends to occur when a member of a multiplicity or ecosystem becomes over-dominant and starts to put its own interests above those of the system it either belongs to or is invading. It is somewhat ironic that, over the past millennia, having achieved such fascism with the over-dominance of the rational, reasonable mind eradicating and supplanting not only a multitude of energetic dimensions within ourselves but also most of the species on the planet, that we bourgeois liberals put so much store by the beautiful concepts of democracy and peace. Peace is not a monoculture but a fine and vulnerable balance that is only possible when its members listen to and respect the interests of others, and not just other people or peoples but other creatures and other possibilities. Such peace, it should be obvious by now, is a thing of the past.