Saturday 5 April 2023, 1:30 to 3:30 pm
Any replies to the organizer
- thormay@yahoo.com
Venue: Zoom online
Talking Points:
1. Force can range from slapping a child to bombing a city. It
has always been there in every age. What is your general view on
when force is necessary?
2. Force can be physical
(politely called kinetic), psychological, financial ... and so
on. Societies have different boundaries to justify the use of
force between individuals, in business, between government and
citizen, and between countries. What is your knowledge of some
of those boundaries, and your attitudes towards them?
3.
What are practical alternatives to using force in various
situations?
4. In civil emergencies like Covid
governments have always controlled people, sometimes forcefully.
How do you react to this kind of enforcement? If you disagree
with the extra powers, what do you do about it?
5.
Whatever the culture or political system or religion or ideology
you still have the same animals in the forest - the same kinds
of people - and those same kinds of people tend to find the same
kinds of roles and jobs. A big proportion of the world's
leaders, regardless of ideology, have obtained their position by
using some kind of force. They also keep power by force. You
can't change that. Should you shut up, copy them, play the same
game they do or be a hero? btw, what is a hero?
6. What
are the pluses and minuses of controlling children with some
kind of physical punishment?
7. World leaders, like
everyone else, tend to believe that others think like they do.
If they are psychopaths they assume that others will act like
psychopaths too unless they are 'weak'. If you are trying to run
a country more or less decently, what should you do if one of
these psychopaths calls your bluff and ignores your 'red lines'.
e.g. Think of Obama facing Assad in Syria, or Zelensky facing
Putin in Ukraine, or many other historical examples.
8.
Day after day, year after year in every country people are
murdered, often by others they know. The triggers are often
trivial. How should be cope with murderers, and violent people
generally? Note: it costs about $10,000 per month to keep
someone in an Australian prison.
9. All countries and
some companies have events in their past which they would like
history to forget. How should history be recorded and
remembered? A few countries have attempted a public admission
and reconciliation process with conquered native populations.
How well does this work? Leaders in China and Russia (amongst
others) have justified aggression as revenge for historical
'humiliations'. When is this acceptable?
10. The use of
force is increasingly impersonal. At one extreme, wars may be
fought by robot soldiers and dueling drones. In personal terms
we are pitted often helplessly against organizations that may
run largely on AI. All this seems creepy, but is it any worse
than being persecuted by prejudiced and sometimes violent
officials? How can we protect ourselves?
Extra Reading &
Links
Liam Mannix (February 16, 2023) "‘Psychopaths get
an edge’: Half of young researchers harassed or bullied, says
study". The Age @
https://www.theage.com.au/national/psychopaths-get-an-edge-half-of-young-researchers-harassed-or-bullied-says-study-20230215-p5ckn6.html
Christopher Harris (March 23, 2023) "‘In crisis for
years’: The struggle to fix Australia’s worst classrooms". The
Age @
https://www.theage.com.au/national/nsw/in-crisis-for-years-the-struggle-to-fix-australia-s-worst-classrooms-20230323-p5cuoc.html
[Quote: "Australia has among the world’s most disorderly
classrooms, ranking 69 out of 76 jurisdictions worldwide,
according to PISA. Submissions to a Senate inquiry published
this month say the causes of bad behaviour are complex. Those
within the education sector say students have also become more
complex. School teachers and principals nationwide say Australia
has a problem nobody wants to talk about: a behaviour crisis in
the classroom".]
Geoffrey Hayes & Terry Copp (November 1,
2019) "Is war inevitable?" Legion Magazine @
https://legionmagazine.com/en/2019/11/is-war-inevitable/
Mike McCrae (9 December 2018) "Is War an Unavoidable Part of
Human Nature?" ScienceAlert @
https://www.sciencealert.com/war-might-not-be-quite-as-ingrained-in-human-nature-as-we-think
David Smith 7 Sep 2019) "Pentagon seeks 'ethicist' to
oversee military artificial intelligence". The Guardian @
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/sep/07/pentagon-military-artificial-intelligence-ethicist
Roger Boyes (10 December 2020) "The era of AI
assassinations has arrived". The Australian @
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/world/the-times/the-era-of-ai-assassinations-has-arrived/news-story/de829ed211cf128d37a056d834a0cbb2
Toby Walsh (August 13, 2021) "Killer drones decide who
lives and dies. Humanity is letting drones and robots decide who
lives and dies in modern warfare".
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/technology/killer-drones-decide-who-lives-and-dies/news-story/3b8628a1275ff8440ec04ffcdecacf3e
Benjamin Haas (5 April 2018) "'Killer robots': AI
experts call for boycott over lab at South Korea university.
Academics around the world voice ‘huge concern’ over KAIST’s
collaboration with defence company on autonomous weapons. More
than 20 countries have already called for a total ban on killer
robots ahead of a UN meeting next week on autonomous weapons".
The Guardian @
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/apr/05/killer-robots-south-korea-university-boycott-artifical-intelligence-hanwha
Jason Beaubien (December 20, 2018) "Is Genocide
Predictable? Researchers Say Absolutely". National Public Radio
@
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2018/12/20/675582639/is-genocide-predictable-researchers-say-absolutely?utm_source=quora&utm_medium=referral
Kate Lamb (11 Oct 2019) "South Korea is to enact
legislation that will ban men with a history of domestic
violence from marrying foreign women, the justice ministry has
confirmed. The ministry said the change was prompted by national
outcry over footage that emerged in July showing a 36-year-old
South Korean man physically and verbally assaulting his
Vietnamese wife in front of their young child ...Anyone
sentenced to a sexual crime against a child will also be subject
to South Korea’s new marriage law tackling domestic abuse.". The
Guardian @
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/11/south-korea-bans-men-with-history-of-abuse-from-marrying-foreign-women
Wendy Tuohy (September 9, 2022) "National Children’s
Commissioner Anne Hollonds has called for smacking to be made
illegal as data shows children who have seen and experienced
physical abuse are more than nine times more likely to use
violence in the home". The Age @
https://www.theage.com.au/national/new-data-prompts-call-to-abolish-australia-s-ancient-smacking-laws-20220908-p5bgcu.html
[Quote: "Her comments came in response to new research that
showed children who are smacked are more likely to use violence
against their family, mainly their siblings and mothers, in
adolescence. Other recent research has shown smacked children
face increased risk of mental health conditions or self-harm. ..
One in five of 5021 young people (aged 16 to 20) surveyed by the
national women’s safety research body, ANROWS, said they had
used violence against a family member. Of those, 89 per cent had
experienced abuse, including smacking. ... Australia’s
Children’s Commissioner has called for laws permitting the
smacking of children to be repealed". [Thor, comment: The reader
comments on this are pretty divided. Many point out the
difference between a quick slap of a naughty child and habitual
or systematic beating]
Sonia Sodha [6 March 2022] "Male
violence against women is about so much more than toxic
masculinity. It is safer and more effective to disrupt dangerous
men rather than trying to fix them". The Guardian @
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/mar/06/male-violence-against-women-much-more-than-toxic-masculinity
[Quote: "This difference between men has also been elided when
it comes to perpetrator programmes. One of the most effective is
a UK project called Drive, developed by two domestic abuse
charities. It has shed once and for all the feminist attachment
to the idea that the key to reducing serious violence is
teaching men to be better. It works with the highest-risk
domestic abusers. They are all assigned a case manager, who can
help them access the support they need, such as housing or
mental health services. But it also functions as a surveillance
system for dangerous men: they are monitored on an ongoing basis
and case managers bring in other agencies such as the police and
social services to disrupt their violent behaviour. The results
are stunning: an 82% and 88% sustained drop in physical and
sexual abuse respectively. But just 1% of serious domestic abuse
perpetrators get funnelled into targeted interventions"]
Vlad Vexler Chat (8 April 2023) "The Politics of Ukraine's
Spring Offensive". Youtube @
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_QcvT6CEAQ [Thor, comment: As a
Russian analyst, Vlad Vexler has a better insight into Russian
thinking than most other commentators. In this video, he
summarizes possible outcomes of Putin's war in Ukraine. His
conclusion from the history and psychology of Putin is that
Putin won't stop until he is stopped, and he won't be stopped
until he is dead. In Putin's mind this is an existential war
against 'the West'. He sees himself as 'Russia'. Any negotiated
compromise will just be a lull in the aggression until Russia
restocks. The best solution for Ukraine and its allies in this
instance is maximum force against the Russian invaders as soon
as possible ]