Here are the Dallas Institute Salon discussion topics for February 2, 2007:
1. The Declaration of Independence states that mankind's "unalienable Rights" include "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." How should we understand the last of these--"the pursuit of Happiness"?
2. To what extent is a non-racist society possible?
3. What are the role and function of a presidential library?
What's your input?
10 comments:
I'm excited about these! Number 2 will be especially interesting.
Jamie and I signed up today. :)
1. In our arrogant society? It means my wants mean more than yours. It's sad, and not what the writers intended, I am sure. However, I am also sure society today will take that one way the hell out of context and it's original meaning.
2. Impossible. Again, arrogance, pride, and a whole lot of ignorance. Look at history, there will always be racism. Whether or not it's acted upon, that is also a matter to deal with. Sad, but true. Too many are being raised to believe the color of a man's skin is the only factor in determining who he is and what he can become.
3. To read of course...hahahahahaha
Did I mention I am currently on drugs for a cold?!?!
1. The pursuit of happiness should by definition mean pursuit of any goals that do not directly harm others sane individuals, though I'm sure many people don't care about breaking a few eggs. . .
2. In a perfect world, racism wouldn't exist anywhere, but there's no such thing. Consider the following- "Nearly six-in-ten adult Americans (57%) favor requiring all US citizens to carry a national identity card at all times. A new Pew poll also finds the same percentage favoring allowing airport personnel to do extra checks on passengers who appear to be of Middle Eastern descent." Source
3. To make us look good.
Glad you enjoyed the comment, only here to serve and make the world a better place...one laugh at a time.
1. in my experience the ideal of "pursuit of happiness" is a sure fire path to never getting it as happiness only appears to arrive when i stop looking for it, maybe that's one reason why western societies aren't very happy ones
2. racism is linked to competition, the idea that we are all involved in the human race: to be the best, most secure, most righteous, richest, brightest, most powerful, whatever.
&, without wanting to minimise the many hardships imposed by it historically i think that we tend to use any supposed difference between us, based on [among other things] skin colour, gender, sex orientation, to justify avoiding intercultural dialogue, and, worse, projecting our fury at the world/God/life/ourselves [when things don't work out as we want them to] onto, whoever is at that moment, "the other" - and this is what is often perceived as racism. but really it's all a form of classism.
AFTER the salon:
1. A distinction was made concerning the difference between pleasure (gratification) and happiness; and a question was raised about whether or not moderners know the difference or if this statement is misinterpreted (and therefore misunderstood) as the former. We talked a lot about the founding fathers and that they probably meant (when talking about the "pursuit of happiness") the ability to form a government apart from the crown, a government in which they could choose a course of action for their countrymen.
Also, some suggested that because the founding fathers would have been in a more classically educated mind frame, they probably meant happiness as in Aristotelian happiness - the idea of fulfillment, joy, and duty. This idea was more forward thinking than simply the pursuit of pleasure.
We mused about the irony of the ones who wrote the statement which originally read, "life, liberty, and property" (Hobbs?) and that the reason it was changed was so that the declaration wouldn’t only apply to the landed class.
We recognized that the statement at the time (1776) was in fact a treasonous one, and someone postulated that the reason this was one of the only successful Revolutions in all of history was because it wasn't a switching of power from one unaccountable regime to another, but that it gave power to the masses.
We questioned what would happen if Thomas Jefferson came back and saw the world today, and we wondered what he and the others would think about how we’ve handled their game plan. Were we successful or would they be disappointed?
2. This one was tricky. First of all we discussed the difference between racism and prejudice. We wondered if racism included gender, sexual preference, religious affiliation etc. Someone even asserted that he hoped that racism - as in the belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability – would continue since the world would be homogenous and boring without it. (!) (?)
Classism was introduced as a possible foundation or forerunner to racism.
We talked about how people mistake a grievance by an individual as a cultural lapse of some sort and that we assign consequences to an entire race based on that one person’s foul, an easy thing to do blindly, even unintentionally. (Though that does NOT excuse either behavior!)
We talked about our schools and how each class is a little community of people being color-blind, but we also recognized that outside of the classroom, the kids still segregate themselves.
We discussed “white flight” and border issues (which got dangerously close to a debate and not a sharing).
We looked around the room and realized that we need more representation from other races in order to fully understand what we were talking about.
3. We didn’t get there.
i think it was life liberty and the right to property, and that it was JS Mill, but then again it might have been Locke
either way, it's a lie unless you're rich
if Jefferson came back I suspect he'd be [1] pleased that slavery got abolished [well, sort of] so that his eternal guilt might be assuaged [2] pissed that the constitution had got so stuck and that people hadn't listened to his exhortation to rebel and rethink the constitution every generation [as in nature, with the regular forest fire, clearing all the dead wood, evening out haves and have nots and allowing fresh growth to take place: a kind of jubilee] [3] i like to think he'd advise a special unprecedented sunset clause, to go in all future revolutionary constitutions, so that the same mistake wouldn't be repeated. sunset clause meaning: if sufficient people in large numbers don't ratify the constitution, or vote to change it in new ways, it lapses, as in constitution goes kaput, or shazam, say once every 15 years ?? that would put the fear of God into everyone and force everyone to get politically literate instead of fat, lazy wall mart shoppped out TV dinnering zombies
[don't worry, i'm not being racist, we have the undead here too]
race/other class exclusion you experienced in your salon group is, i think just about the biggest challenge we all face in building a new world from the ground up..
our small meeting group in North London [which has yet to do outreach] is made up of one czech [who is head of our military wing as she regularly starts fights at Mcdonalds and being czech has pretensions to the throne of 'o' [small independent bohemian state that we recently founded, located in my back garden allotment, but which used to be between what is now czech [republic] and slovakia but was cruelly annexed [we're not sure which state got it but either way we're stealing it back. there will be an 'o' flag soon, i trust]]one [delightful, the true queen of 'o'] moroccan, one inglesi [no prizes for guessing], one [savvy, musically minded, pro/alter capitalist] indian, one [anti-capitalist world socialist] greek, one diamond irish diamond and a chilean bodhisattva [with cold feet as really she's only interested in the meditation] also, a few kids.. so we're doing all right but to be really meaningful we need to make out group totally intercultural, based on locality of living and working and most definitely NOT socio economic class, racial or religious group as that is what we've already got, and a major reason we've got racism, ott individualism etc [the old divide and rule]
ok enough waffle\ciao for now// how about you set up a people in common group in Arlington ?
my people in common are either on medication for anxiety or they are in a padded room somewhere. uh, except for you guys –the ones reading this right now. none of you are delusional… nope. none of you..
actually, i had thought about trying a picnic here, but i am not sure where to start.
i LOVE the personalities in people in common (and actually counted myself as one among them), but i have to figure out why i love them before i rock any boats or rattle any chains. and yous guys have to figure out what makes you people in common, too, especially if there is dissention.
my world is small, mark. if i tried to be like you, and do what you do, i would only prove myself a hypocrite.
[1] what makes us people in common is the fact that we are all people!
[2] underneath all the anger there is grief, an ocean of tearful suffering. this is the link to compassion, the grief we must touch in with to grow. it is something that we all carry with us, often it's just the remembered grief of the small child who finds him or herself alone, and very small, in a huge & impersonal world, full of uncertainty and trickiness: a universal grief, both ours and the whole world's, both personal and not-so too.
but underneath that grief, beyond worldy forms is something much much better..
what might be called a deep, still and ever present peace: the peace that passeth all understanding, beyond all duality and contradiction, in truth the greatest freedom.
[3] don't know about others in e-group [e-list members don't live near me, i don't know them all personally, we are scattered, decentralized and disorganised, a very creative potentiality] but it is local group about whom i am now referring, and we are campaigning to build local community sovereignty, free of state control - eg for a people's building, a community centre [principle being that independent people space should exist, as of right in every high street] in accordance with the tenets of people power at the local level, and in particular the new constitutional design project so far set out by the People In Common/A World to Win Intergalactic Collective:
C421 Project
But for your ease of reference, [local] People in Common group that I am involved with are focusing, in particular, on the bits that say:
"How you can become part of the project
1. Set up a Peoples’ Assembly in your area"
and
"The right to set up independent People’s Assemblies with decision-making powers and control over resources"
and
"moving from a .. [whatever] .. to a constitutional democracy. This new constitution should have as its guiding principles:
..The right to set up independent People’s Assemblies with decision-making powers and control over resources"
and, centrally
"Our goals
We propose the goals of [1] building a new, independent and decentralised democracy, from below, [2] creating an inclusive written constitution that serves to protect and enhance our liberty and embraces the aspirations of the powerless majority. To reach these goals we aim to:
1. encourage the building of a new, nation-wide democratic tradition from the ground up through, for example, independent Peoples’ Assemblies, as a means of transforming the state"
Of course these ideas are not peculiar to England, rather they are relevant anywhere, and in particular in late capitalist society, where progressive nature of capitalism [compared to what came before it] is now overshadowed by the fact that it's past its sell -by-date, & therefore has become socio-pathological [=opposite of progressive, namely reactionary]
[4] the idea for the newsletter is that it will promote these kinds of globally relevant ideas, co-written by interested parties [we could do it on line, so it could be printed out anywhere] while also leaving room for local news to be inserted by individuals and groups in each locality [the first local-global paper, just two sides of A4 to begin with.. interested?]
[5] if we all waited to be perfect, not hypocritical, & without dissension in our ranks, we'd never start anything at all!
ok, that's all from me today. over and out for now
:-)
M
you're killin' me, Smalls...
and I love ya' for it.
(and yes, i know, it's not all about me.)
design a newsletter prototype and we'll see. (if this is indeed a newsletter - as opposed to a blog or something virtual - you'll need to consider programs, format, layout, font cohesiveness, etc. it all has to be coordinated and universal, otherwise the layout will go wonky.) will you be creating the original layout with open spaces for local articles? if not, who? maybe i should just call you..
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