The Objective is  a kind of being which I observe and act upon.

The Subjective is a kind of being with whom I converse.

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The Objectivity provides me knowledge about things. I stand back and apart.

The Subjective shows me a different world. In seeing it, my world — self and all — is transfigured.

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If I view another person objectively, there’s no need to speak with him. I have expectations and what I observe will fall into place.

If I engage another person subjectively that means he is speaking with me and my expectations are in flux. In hearing him, things that have fallen into place before might shift, might open up new space, might make room for things that have never belonged anywhere before. In doing so, we make room for one another in the world. We share the world.

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To already know what another person is going to say… to believe you understand despite protests that you do not… to ignore pleas to listen, to declare that further conversation is unnecessary — this is the luxury of the invulnerable.

To make use of another person without needing to speak to him… to subjugate him and render him an object to observe, act upon and to utilize — this is the luxury of the powerful.

Luxury makes a person complacent and soft. He relaxes into obliviousness of everything beyond his domain of mastery. At the height of his complacency, at the apex of his power, he innocently believes subjectivity is an attribute of a certain species of object, a person. The fall is near.

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The convection current of history:

Being vulnerable makes a person deeper.
Being deeper gives a person intellectual force.
Intellectual force wins power.
Power permits the luxury of deafness.
Deafness makes a person unteachable and ignorant.
Ignorance makes a person lose power.
Loss of power makes a person vulnerable.

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To be a silenced, silent tool of another… whether escape or resistance is truly impossible or only unchosen… what sort of person are you if you believe you are obligated to cooperate?