[FRIAM] Up and Out vs Down and in

Wed Feb 12 12:24:45 EST 2020

Thanks for the good advice, Dave.  I missed the Hubbard one, but Bellamy
and Heinlein are deep in my memory.

On Tue, Feb 11, 2020 at 12:21 AM Prof David West <profwest at fastmail.fm>
wrote:

> Hi Merle,
>
> I am sorry, but the curriculum is long buried on a Zip drive somewhere in
> a container in Utah.
>
> An idea for your science fiction writer consortium: write a novel that was
> mostly utopian with enough conflict to make it interesting and readable
> that could be a point source for something like the Bellamy clubs. There
> are three SF novels that I know of that prompted significant social action:
>
> Bellamy's Looking Backward of course;
> Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land, which led to the founding of the
> Church of All Worlds - still extant; and
> Hubbard's Battleground Earth, which gave us Scientology.
>
> The latter one points out the dangers of such an effort, but the first two
> were pretty positive.
>
> davew
>
>
>
> On Mon, Feb 10, 2020, at 7:38 PM, Merle Lefkoff wrote:
>
> Very interesting and a great idea, Prof. West.  Do you still have a copy
> of your curriculum for the honors course?
>
> I'm just back from Ottawa, where I met with the Board of the Canadian
> Institute for Conflict Resolution.  I discussed our (CED's) new generative
> dialogue process based on "the adjacent possible", and we now have a new
> partnership with them to develop facilitator training for leading community
> dialogues on climate impacts and survival strategies.  I am also meeting in
> Seattle next month with a science fiction writer who is part of a
> consortium of the best current science fiction writers, offering courses to
> help aspiring sci/fi/fantasy writers think about the future.  I have a
> feeling that their curriculum might help our facilitator training.
>
> On Mon, Feb 10, 2020 at 11:26 AM Prof David West <profwest at fastmail.fm>
> wrote:
>
> Nick,
>
> A model for the kind of enlightened discussion / social action of the type
> you might want to see put in place.
>
> The Bellamy Clubs. Several thousand were formed in a loose confederation
> across the US — all inspired by Edward Bellamy's book (Science Fiction by
> the way), Looking Backward. They were a kind of socialist-utopian society.
>
> I taught an honors course on "Utopian and Dystopian futures in literature
> and Film" with Edwards grandson, Michael Bellamy.
>
> davew
>
>
>
>
> On Mon, Feb 10, 2020, at 7:00 PM, thompnickson2 at gmail.com wrote:
> > Glen, Marcus,
> >
> > Thank you for your always surprising suggestions, for your thoughts
> > outside the box.
> >
> > I confess to being attracted to the pristine hypocrisy of
> HireAThug.com.
> >
> > Speaking of Thuggs, I wonder how many of you know about the Wide
> > Awakes.  These were a paramilitary organization that paraded in the
> > streets of Northern Cities for Lincoln during the 1860 election.  Black
> > capes and torches and staves.  Wikipedia has a lovely entry,
> > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wide_Awakes
> >
> > Here is their banner:
> >
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wide_Awakes#/media/File:Wide_Awakes_Banner.tif
> FRIAM mentalists should go for the slogan, "mind, eye" and the animal
> behaviorists amongst should endorse the rampant ferrets.
> >
> > It seems like a bad idea whose time has come
> >
> > I wonder if the New Wide Awakes could become the youth organization of
> > the Lincoln Project (https://lincolnproject.us/, that organization of
> > centrist republicans that has dedicated itself to electing an
> > anti-trump senate and president, even though, they concede, that
> > requires them to vigorously support democrats in the current cycle.
> >
> > Nick
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Nicholas Thompson
> > Emeritus Professor of Ethology and Psychology
> > Clark University
> > ThompNickSon2 at gmail.com
> > https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/
> >
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Friam <friam-bounces at redfish.com> On Behalf Of u?l? ?
> > Sent: Monday, February 10, 2020 9:04 AM
> > To: FriAM <friam at redfish.com>
> > Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Up and Out vs Down and in
> >
> > You've hidden the most important part of your question at the very
> > bottom: "in the next year". As always, the system contains feedback
> > loops. And each loop has its own speed. There are lots of things you
> > can do in the next year that won't show any impact *within* the year,
> > but may show impact beyond the year. If you're worried about the next
> > president, or the next, etc., then those are viable answers to your
> > question. There are *some* things you can do during the year that
> > *might* show impact within the year. But just as there's a temporal
> > scope to any action, there's also a *spatial* scope to any action. I'd
> > argue that the actions you might take this year that might show impact
> > within the year, will have limited spatial scope.
> >
> > So, I'll treat you like one of my clients and answer your question with
> > a question. 8^) What do you *want* to see happen within the year? And
> > your stated objective can't be vague like "reverse the authoritarian
> > pandemic". What does that even mean? No, you have to state a particular
> > and specific objective in order to answer my question.
> >
> > For example, one action *I* can take this year, that may show some
> > impact this year, but more likely in the coming decades, is to support
> > https://fairvotewa.org/, which I'll be doing this evening. You already
> > have that option in Santa Fe, I think. Ideally, RCV should help protect
> > against either your worry of right-wing authoritarians or Dave's worry
> > of left-wing authoritarians.
> >
> > Another example from left field might be to help start/run an After
> > School Satan club <https://afterschoolsatan.com/> near you. The
> > elevation of the Adversary is critical to fighting group-think of all
> > kinds. If your particular and specific objective is to make those
> > around you deeper thinkers, then that sort of action will have
> > immediate *and* long-term impact.
> >
> > Yet another answer is to join Antifa. Put on some body armor and
> > protect the [counter]protesters from the (actual) fascists roaming our
> > streets with guns, chains, and bats. (Contrary to Dave's conjecture
> > that left-wing fascism is more likely, we have self-described
> > right-wing fascists *actually* roaming our streets as we speak.) It
> > doesn't matter if you're old or fat. What matters is to put some active
> > MEAT between the fascists and the [couter]protesters. Or at least buy
> > an Iron Front bumper sticker. 8^)
> >
> > There are sooooo many possible actions. But without a particular and
> > specific objective, you're relegated to hand-wringing.
> >
> > On 2/8/20 9:04 PM, thompnickson2 at gmail.com wrote:
> > > I have a friend who reads a lot of history and thinks HARD about what
> > > he reads.  For months he has been reassuring me about the state of
> American democracy because, as he said, Trump wasn’t a well focused
> dictator like Hitler.  But I saw him last Monday and he asked me, with an
> air of genuine panic, “What do I do?”  The reason for his new panic was his
> realization that Hitler had not always been a focused dictator, but had
> been entrained, over his career, to play just those themes that would rouse
> the German people to War.  The impeachment process had convinced him that
> Trump was gradually developing the focus of a proper Hitler.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > So I passed the question he asked me onto the group on Friday.  “What
> > > do we do?”  What struck me was that many of us took the question to
> be, “where do we best escape to?”  Options included New Zealand, Costa
> Rica, Bermuda, Canada, Italy, etc.  These answers startled me, because, of
> course, the question I meant to be asking was, how do we use our
> considerable talent, skill, knowledge, resources, and technical knowhow to
> do everything in our power to reverse the authoritarian pandemic that is
> sweeping the world.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Now some of you, perhaps many, that we in any kind of an emergency, or
> even if we are, that there is anything we might do about it, or even that
> there is any particular reason to save American democracy.  I am happy to
> have that discussion, too.  However, from those of you who share my panic,
> I would love to hear suggestions about what I (and others) might do in the
> next year .
> > >
> >
> > --
> > ☣ uǝlƃ
> >
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> >
> >
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>
> ============================================================
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
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>
>
>
> --
> Merle Lefkoff, Ph.D.
> President, Center for Emergent Diplomacy
> emergentdiplomacy.org
> Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
>
> merlelefkoff at gmail.com <merlelefoff at gmail.com>
> mobile:  (303) 859-5609
> skype:  merle.lelfkoff2
> twitter: @Merle_Lefkoff
> ============================================================
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
> to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
> archives back to 2003: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/
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>
>
> ============================================================
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
> to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
> archives back to 2003: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/
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>

-- 
Merle Lefkoff, Ph.D.
President, Center for Emergent Diplomacy
emergentdiplomacy.org
Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
merlelefkoff at gmail.com <merlelefoff at gmail.com>
mobile:  (303) 859-5609
skype:  merle.lelfkoff2
twitter: @Merle_Lefkoff
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