Saturday 13 May 2023, 1:30 to 3:30 pm
Any replies to the organizer
- thormay@yahoo.com
Venue: Zoom online
Note that this topic is also
running live on Wednesday 9 May 2023, 6:30 pm at The Elephant
British Pub, Adelaide CBD. In that venue it will be a topic for
Adelaide Shallow Thinkers (
https://www.meetup.com/adelaide-shallow-thinkers/ ).
Register separately for this. Shallow Thinkers topics are for
free conversation. They do not have talking points or a reading
list in the 'comments' section] .
Talking Points:
1. There Are Two Kinds of People in
the World ... think of some endings for that :)
2. When
are you going to say something like that?
3. How
useful/interesting would it be to have fewer kinds of people in
the world?
4. Once I worked in a TAFE where my boss was a
charming old lady. Once in a moment of (what she thought was )
bleak honesty she said, "There are just too many people in the
world. We are going to have to nuke places like Africa". How
would you answer that proposition (diplomatically - she is your
boss ..)?
5. Up until World War II Australia was almost a
monoculture. In 1947 the Australian Foreign Minister said that
Australia must 'populate or perish'. The country then had 7.5
million people. Now there are roughly 300 cultures in Australia.
What has been lost, and what has been gained since that time?
7. Are there two kinds of countries? What could such a
question mean? We often hear such an assertion in politics. What
is the reality?
8. In workplaces, public spaces, and even
marriages people often find themselves having to deal with
people who "are not my kind of person". Think of some strategies
for handling this kind of situation.
9. Changing cultural
and legal pressures may force many people and companies to put
on a public face that is radically different from their private
opinions. Think for example of racism, sexual harrassment,
off-colour jokes, environmentalism, welfare ... and so on. The
outcome tends to be personal and commercial hypocrisy (e.g.
greenwashing), and media culture wars. Not everyone will ever be
an angel. How do we keep this brew from getting too toxic?
10. Think of three jobs you would hate to do. Someone has to
do the jobs. What kinds of people would you expect to like these
jobs? How can you bring yourself to respect them?
Extra Reading
Emma Brockes (Thu 13 Apr 2023) "The BBC gazed into the
yawning chasm of Elon Musk’s sense of humour – and didn’t find
much to envy - ‘I keep telling you I’m not the CEO of Twitter,
my dog is the CEO of Twitter,’ he said. It truly was
no-holds-barred stuff". The Guardian @
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/apr/12/bbc-elon-musk-sense-of-humour-twitter
Timothy Bella (April 28, 2023) "Brawls, sex, and real
people: How Jerry Springer took on Oprah". The Age @
https://www.theage.com.au/culture/tv-and-radio/brawls-sex-and-real-people-how-jerry-springer-took-on-oprah-20230428-p5d3xb.html
Thor May (2015) "Probing the Limits of Tolerance".
Passionate Skeptic website @
http://thormay.net/unwiseideas/Tolerance.htm [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".]
Thor May (2015) "The Unexpected Power
of Stupidity". The Passionate Skeptic website @
http://thormay.net/unwiseideas/stupidity.htm [ Quote:
"Stupidity turns out to be complicated. Stupidity in its many
guises does more damage on a daily basis than generations of
clever ideas have ever been able to cope with. Human stupidity
ranges all the way from planetary destruction to self mutilation
by vengeful individuals cutting off their own nose to spite
their face. Given the scale of stupidity’s ravages, it is a
matter of wonder that it attracts so little systematic public
research under its own name".]
Thor May (2015) " So You
Love Humanity But Can’t Stand People?" The Passionate Skeptic
website @http://thormay.net/unwiseideas/collective.htm
[Quote: "Humanity, when assembled as a state, also finds it hard
to tolerate the individual. When should collective interests
(e.g. those of a state) override the interests of individuals?
Example: "Many Americans see “the right to bear arms” as a
triumph of individual rights over the collective rights of the
state".]
Thor May (2014) "Multicultures – communities of
familiar strangers". The Passionate Skeptic Website @
http://thormay.net/unwiseideas/Multicultures.htm
[Quote: "When a stranger asks “what do you do”, as he fishes for
the right stereotype to pin on my chest as a mark of admiration
or secret contempt, I am at a loss to answer. That is, I am a
man of my age, a chameleon creature accustomed to slipping
amongst a kaleidoscope of roles. This plurality of role plays
does not mean that I am "values free". I don't care if you wear
a hijab or burn incense in a Buddhist temple. I do care for a
marker such as "above all, do no harm" - not always achievable
perhaps, but at least a navigation beacon. It is of central
importance to the discussion in this article that my way is not
everyone’s way. We all make sense of the world as best we can,
then have a habit of projecting our understanding as universal
truths. The article attempts is explicit about the writer's own
experience, but tries also to establish a context for other,
more various ways in which multicultures have been interpreted,
especially in Australia".]