It is awe-ful/some what kind of strawmen/women we can make of each other when we are entrenched within a point of view/regime of truth and confronted by challenging discourses. I am as guilty as any in this as we all are. In encountering strawmen/women, we encounter distorted shadows, jarred reflections of one another. In attempting to communicate in such an "encounter," we rarely find dialogue or openings to commune.
I'm meditating on Sandy Stauffer's discussion of "radical listening" and the notion of being a "friend" to a text-person-idea (in a DeleuzeoGuattarian sense, see "What is Philosophy"). I'm contemplating on how learners and colleagues (be they "teachers," "students," "peers," etc.) can foster intellectual friendships in which radical-critical-ethical listening can support genuine dialogue as a ground for mutual learning-grown-exploring