Active Thinking Topic 72 - Conflict or Harmony? Which is the Spice of Life?
December 12 2023
Any replies to the organizer
- thormay@yahoo.com
Venue: Zoom online
Talking Points
1. A meal without spice can be pretty bland. A meal that is only spice is a recipe for indigestion. Is there a bigger life message here?
2. Spectator sport is organized conflict within rules. It is relished by millions. The same people shrink from active debate, even within rules of civility. What is going on? Do our cultural practices with this need updating?
3. There used to be a social rule - maybe there still is - that conversation should avoid topics about religion, politics and money to preserve harmony. I've broken that rule all of my life because I find (respectful) disagreement interesting, and it is why I (Thor) run this meetup. However, most meetup members seem to disagree with me by avoiding a meetup which happily deals with disagreement. What about yourself? Argue your case.
4. Live and let live - what are the limits of tolerance?
5. My grandmother was fond of 'stirring the possum'. This old Australian idiom refers to mischievously sparking a disagreement or argument, just for the fun of having a (not too serious) fight on an otherwise dull day. I grew up appreciating the value of stirring the possum, but it is often hard to find willing players. What do you think of this?
6. Anglo/Irish Australian culture, and the English themselves have a long and much loved tradition of 'taking the mickey out of' friends, themselves, and often strangers'. This is a form of humorous mockery, NOT vicious, which pretends to challenge the dignity or status of the victim. The person challenged must react with good humour. It is a sort of cultural test. Now many people from Australia's 300 or so other cultures, often don't understand and think they are being attacked. What are the arguments for keeping this custom, or giving it up?
7. 'Playing the Devil's advocate' is to take on the role, often in an organization, of finding all the weaknesses in a new plan or idea or method etc. The principle is that it is better to find these weaknesses before they create a future disaster. Some people have a natural talent for playing Devil's advocate (I do), but they are often unpopular. Bosses like agreement, not challenge. What is your experience with this kind of thing?
8. It is sometimes said that Heaven must be a very boring place, with everyone sitting around forever singing praises of the Lord. Perfect harmony. Back on earth, what are the human dangers of never ending praise and assumed harmony in organizations, or in human relations generally?
9. In every population, regardless of political systems, some people are instinctively more conservative while some are more progressive. The conservative/progressive difference is aiso affected by life experience. The Australian political system claims to leverage this difference by creating a structured two-party system competing for power. In theory the opposition group can offer constructive and helpful criticism. In practice, opposition political parties now offer a sterile performance of aggression, opposing everything regardless of merit. What's a good solution?
10. Prisons are full of people who have created or reacted violently to some kind of disagreement. Usually the issues themselves were trivial. The actors in these conflicts were not too smart, had/have poor emotional control, and often have little education. Prisons are likely to make them worse. How can we re-socialize individuals like this?
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Extra Reading & Viewing
Alex Moran (22 August 2022) "The delights of mischief - Mischievousness requires humour, wit and a playful humaneness: qualities that make for a particular kind of virtue". Aeon Magazine @ https://aeon.co/essays/on-the-moral-virtues-of-mischief-and-mischievous-people
Jessica Milner Davis (January 2007) "Taking the mickey’: a brave Australian tradition". Researchgate @ https://www.researchgate.net/publication/301730608_%27Taking_the_mickey%27_a_brave_Australian_tradition
Thor May (2015) "Probing the Limits of Tolerance - Can we reconcile “live and let live” with “drawing a line in the sand”?". Thor's Unwise Ideas @ http://thormay.net/unwiseideas/unwisendx.html [[Quote: "In those dull places where no demagogue offers permission to hate the neighbours, we might do our best not to draw lines in the sand, not to warn off intruders with a threat. Sooner or later though some threshold, hidden even to our conscious selves, will surely be crossed. We lose our temper, act impulsively, do something we regret in cooler moments, but it is already too late."]
Peter Lewis (7 December 2021) "Australia’s voters hold government and the news media in contempt – and the contagion is spreading". The Guardian @ https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/commentisfree/2021/dec/07/australias-voters-hold-government-and-the-news-media-in-contempt-and-the-contagion-is-spreading
Hugo Rifkind (December 7, 2021) "Compulsion to cancel is out of control". The Australian @ https://www.theaustralian.com.au/world/the-times/compulsion-to-cancel-is-out-of-control/news-story/14b7a9e017c81efc71a3ccaae04f969c [Quote: "Cancel culture happens because we can’t help it. It is the grit in the eye that cannot be ignored, the intolerable noise that just has to end. It is what happens when one person says a thing, and another person finds the mere existence of that statement in the world to be simply intolerable."]
Alexandra Arévalo (04.09.2023) "The limits of tolerance: Popper's paradox". Freiheit @ https://www.freiheit.org/mexico/limits-tolerance-poppers-paradox [Quote: "Freedom and tolerance go hand in hand; to be a liberal is to be tolerant. Recognizing the value of each individual allows us to develop our individuality and accepting differences in ideas, beliefs and values is the first step in building open and democratic societies. However, is everything acceptable? Does tolerance come before any value or principle, even our own? If being liberalism means acknowledging the value in difference and diversity, does that mean accepting absolutely everything, including hate speech and intolerance?"]
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Conflict or Harmony? Which is the Spice of Life? (c) Thor May 2023