Cultureplaces
Insights into Cultureplaces provide
meaning, significance and purpose which contribute to our happiness.
Observations that we accumulate not through
“knowing more and more about less and less,” as scholars do, but just by living
a cosmopolitan life in the Bay Area. These intellectual perambulations equip us
to form opinions that deserve to be explored by others who share an interest in
the deeper significance of events.
We
emphasize dialogue among participants of our salon not passively watching
lectures or panel exchanges. As the great polymath Sir David McKay wrote in his
book on sustainable energy Without Hot Air, "Convictions are
stronger if they are self-generated, rather than taught"
Rafting the Cultural Currents of the New
Millennium
"To enter the current of this poem is to hurtle
downstream through history on a flood of eloquent and passionate language that
is in turn philosophic, satiric, tender, angry, ironic, sensuous, and, above
all, elegiac.”
~Yale’s
Helen Vendler on “A Treatise on Poetry” by
Czeslaw Milos
Rather
than try to tackle complex national and international issues and institutions
that affect the entire U.S., we concentrate on place-based trends and research
that more directly reflect our everyday experiences in our own neighborhoods,
workplaces, and other closer connections. We seek to grapple with ideas that
stem from and have immediate implications for our personal ties and
intellectual enjoyment. We deal with those grassroots issues not to influence
public policy or resolve differences but to gain an understanding of the way of
the world-- in order to sort out the chaos and thereby increase our pleasure.
We start from the
premise that changing the body politic at the state and national level is
becoming increasingly difficult for citizens of the 21st century in the way
that the power structure was able to do at the start of the 20th century, when
American Progressivism was imbued with a strong reformist optimism. “I propose
that we lead” declared Edward Adams in the paper delivered at the
organizational dinner of the Commonwealth Club of California in 1907. That
determination has long since been replaced by anger or apathy, cynicism or
irony. Were it not otherwise, the Commonwealth Club would still be engaged in
“public service” i.e. attempting through their long standing “Study Sections”
to help shape California laws and regulations. Now only specialists attached to
policy institutes and politicians’ offices can comprehend such complicated
issues, not to mention offsetting the power of money.
We therefore put
aside debates over broad public policy matters such as “the media”, health
care, diplomacy, climate change, and immigration policies that require a level
of expertise that defeats all but the most determined policy wonk. Or they
happen in our everyday interactions but devolve into heated rants. That said,
however, certain patterns of actions associated with racial, gender, and
employment relations, for instance, have various impacts affecting human
activity around the world including strong influence over our own daily lives.
These human tendencies, we believe, can best be examined as they emerge in
particular contexts which we call Cultureplaces.
By culture we
mean the normative order, grounded and manifested in specific places, explained
by the behavioral sciences, and illuminated and animated by the arts and
humanities, which allows us to comprehend ourselves, others, and the world
around us, and through which we make sense of our experience. We probe what is often bcalled
the Human Condition with an emphasis on societal trends and artistic
expressions that we experience in our own lives and provide texture and insight
leading to pleasure. In short, culture is shared meaning.
For places of
culture to be more than divertissements, they must be pertinent to the
formation of our values and bonds of friendship, what has come to be referred
to among academics as adding to our “social capital”. Social capital is the
aggregate of the actual or potential resources which are linked to a durable
network of relationships of mutual acquaintance and recognition – or in other
words, to involvement in a closeknit group.
One of the most
prominent figures in this field, Harvard professor Robert Putnam, has described
social capital as: “…features of social life – networks, norms, and trust –
that enable participants ... to pursue shared objectives…" Having fewer
social relationships to lean on will have implications for boomers’ quality of
life. As Putnam notes, “[s]ocial isolation is widely recognized as a strong
predictor of morbidity and mortality, especially among the elderly.” That said,
however, we also accept that perspectives will vary. We expect and encourage differing
opinions. But there is a commonality of rules of engagement--ways of behaving
in our exchanges.
Insights into Cultureplaces
provide understanding significance and purpose which contributes to our
happiness. Observations that we accumulate not through “knowing more and more
about less and less,” but just by living a cosmopolitan life in the Bay Area
equips us to form opinions that deserve to be explored by others who share an
interest in the deeper significance of events and related information.
We emphasize
dialogue among participants of our salon not passively listening to lectures or
panel exchanges. As the great polymath Sir David McKay wrote in his book on
sustainable energy Without Hot Air, "Convictions are stronger if they are
self-generated, rather than taught"
Clearly, one’s
genes as well as class, gender, age, race, sexual orientation and the numerous
other distinctions that seem so wrapped up in our identity these days, lead to
our personal points of view. The Cultureplaces Salon provides more
opportunities to compare these views on the ramifications of the changing
social landscape constrained or enhanced by our biological influences.
(nurture/nature)
We have found
that understanding the implications of our experiences emerges best through
discourse, not absorbing more information. All that is required is a curious
and probing mind and the capacity for dialogue (attributes that are too often
missing in conversations around the water cooler or at the dinner table). And while
we may wrestle with weighty matters that can ignite strong emotions, we want to
be able to treat them playfully and with a disinterested passion for clarity
that avoids partisanship, ad hominem arguments, grandstanding, or ax
grinding. Such a mental exercise results in pleasure and reduces the pain of
confusion and discord that too many conversations devolve into.
This
conversational skill is not easily acquired. Cultureplaces Salonistas
have demonstrated that they have the wherewithal to participate in our
roundtables.
We avoid the
“sage on the stage" format. Instead a presenter might offer some
preliminary remarks to launch our exploration and then serves as a kind of
“river guide” to keep the discussion on course.
For a few of our
discussion programs, we invite someone, often an advocate or practitioner
involved in some aspect of an issue, to join us as a resource person. In most
other get-togethers we utilize an author's talk, movie, play, article, podcast
or video found on the Internet to spark our discussions. TED itself has finally
launched TEDxSalons which allow attendees to discuss a TEDxTalk
face to face, though most TEDx sites treat TEDx Salons as briefer
versions of TEDx gatherings. The administrator may send out a list of
some timely articles or upcoming 3rd party activities, like a talk at the
Commonwealth Club, as a potential springboard to provide focus, which are then
voted on via the Internet. Alternatively, we may select a topic at the start of
our gathering.
Diversity has
become the holy grail of our times. but we consider that diverse groups can
either add to or reduce the enjoyment of our get-togethers. Clearly political
differences, thanks to our President, have grown more acrimonious making good
conversation ever more elusive.
It is a truism
that people prefer to associate with others like themselves. Except for some
fraternal and religious organizations, both membership in affinity groups and
trust have declined, coinciding with increases in immigration and the rise of
ethnic, racial, and gender distinctions. This decline in group memberships is
mostly explained by one variable: greater heterogeneity. In place of
traditional organizations, more and more people have constructed silos of
ideological homogeneity which have become echo chambers.
History and Culture
A community,
region or nation’s social capital is stable over time when one looks at the
large regional differences in social capital across the USA today which tend to
correspond fairly closely to the differences in social capital among the
nations from which the ancestors of today’s Americans came.
For example, the
area around Minneapolis and St. Paul – the area of highest social capital in
the USA – was populated with Scandinavians. Something has persisted over more
than five generations, and separated by thousands of miles and different
political structures, to explain why both the residents of Minnesota and the
Scandinavian nations today remain so connected and trusting. This continuity is
recently threatened by the immigration of Somalis into the Minneapolis region;
and accounts for the rise of right leaning parties throughout Scandinavia and other
European countries
Ethnic and Social Heterogeneity
There is
considerable evidence that social and ethnic heterogeneity is associated with
lower levels of social capital, not only between groups but within them. Data indicate
that this may be one of the most powerful explanations of local and regional
variations in social capital.
This finding is
difficult to interpret. After all, the bridging among groups that eventually
reduces long-term conflict cannot easily occur if we lack empathy. What really
needs to be established is what factors facilitate the growth of social capital
in contexts where the starting point is characterized by strong ethnic and
social fissures but which hold out the possibility of an enriched community; acculturation
not just assimilation. In other words, how do we go beyond the alienation that
led to Trumpism.
One of our goals
is to encourage more participation of those who may have stayed on the sidelines
but possess the educated qualities that would enhance our dialogues. We want to
invite them to our intellectual gatherings where all participants can bring
their own unique ideas and questions to the table.
Clearly, one’s genes as well as class, gender, age, race,
sexual orientation and the numerous other distinctions that seem so wrapped up
in our identity these days, lead to our personal points of view. The CulturePlaces
Salon provides more opportunities to compare these views on the
ramifications of the changing social landscape constrained or enhanced by our
biological influences. (Nurture/nature).
We have found that understanding the implications of our experiences emerge
best through discourse, not absorbing more information. All that is required is
a curious and probing mind and the capacity for dialogue (attributes that are
too often missing in conversations around the water cooler or at the dinner
table). And while we may wrestle with weighty matters that can ignite strong
emotions, we want to be able to treat them playfully and with a disinterested
passion for clarity that avoids partisanship, ad hominem arguments,
grandstanding, or ax grinding. Such a mental exercise results in pleasure
and reduces the pain of confusion and discord that too many conversations can
devolve into.
This conversational skill is not easily acquired. CulturePlaces
Salonistas have demonstrated that they have the wherewithal to participate
in our round tables.
For
a few of our discussion programs, we invite someone, often an advocate or
practitioner involved in some aspect of an issue, to join us as a resource
person. This individual doesn't give a presentation, like a TED Talk, looking
down on the audience as the "sage on the stage", but instead offers
some preliminary remarks to launch our exploration and then serves as a kind of
“river guide” to keep the discussion on course.
In most other get-togethers we utilize an author's
talk, movie, play, article, podcast or video found on the Internet to
spark our discussions. TED itself has finally launched TEDxSalons which allow attendees to discuss a TEDxTalk face to face,
though most TEDx sites treat TEDxSalons as briefer versions of TEDx gatherings. The administrator may send out a list of some timely
articles or upcoming third party activities, like a talk at the Commonwealth
Club, as a potential springboard to provide focus, which are then voted on via
the Internet. Alternatively, we may select a topic at our meetup.
The Threat and Promise of Diversity
Diversity
has become the holy grail of our times. but we consider that
Diverse groups can either add to or reduce the
enjoyment of our get-
togethers. Clearly political differences,
thanks to our President, have grown more acrimonious making good conversation
ever more elusive.
It is a
truism that people prefer to be with others like themselves. With the
exception of fraternal and religious organizations, both membership in affinity
groups and trust have declined, coinciding with increases in immigration and
the rise of ethnic, racial, and gender distinctions. This decline in group
memberships is mostly explained by one variable: greater heterogeneity. In
place of traditional organizations, more and more people have constructed silos
of ideological homogeneity which have become echo chambers.
Demographics
A
community, region or nation’s social capital is stable over time when one looks
at the large regional differences in social capital across the USA today which
tend to correspond fairly closely to the differences in social capital among
the nations from which the ancestors of today’s Americans came.
For
example, the area around Minneapolis and St. Paul – the area of highest social
capital in the USA – was populated mostly by Scandinavians. Something has
persisted over more than five generations, and separated by thousands of miles
and different political structures, to explain why both the residents of
Minnesota and the Scandinavian nations today remain so connected and trusting.
This continuity is recently threatened by the immigration of Somalis into the
Minneapolis
region.
Ethnic and Social Heterogeneity
There is considerable evidence that social and ethnic
heterogeneity is associated with lower levels of social capital, not only
between groups but within them. Data suggest that this may be one of the most
powerful explanations of local and regional variations in social capital.
This finding is difficult to interpret. After all, the bridging among groups
that eventually reduces long-term conflict cannot easily occur if we lack
empathy. What really needs to be established is what factors facilitate the
growth of social capital in contexts where the starting point is characterized
by strong ethnic and social fissures but which hold out the possibility of an
enriched community. In other words, how do we go beyond the alienation
that led to "Trumpism".
One of our goals is to encourage more participation of those
who may have stayed on the sidelines but possess the educated qualities that
would enhance our dialogues. We want to invite them to our intellectual
potlucks where all participants can bring their own unique ideas and questions
to the table.
ADDENDUM
Throughout human history, people have tended to live and die
in the same place, or at least the same region, in which they're born. Place
is an important part of one's identity.
Recently,
we joined Philosophy Talk's John Perry and KenTaylor
in Berkeley whose guest was India born UC Berkeley English Professor Bharati Mukherjee, author
of Miss New India and other novels exploring migration, 
alienation, and identity. Afterwards, we
walked over to the Jupiter restaurant for THE MAIN EVENT--our
discussion--accompanied by pizza (voted best in the East Bay) and some
brewskis. We broke into smaller groups so all could participate and hear
each other.
What
psychological effects must many immigrants, exiles, and expatriates endure? Do
we risk losing an important part of human life? Or do we gain freedom from the
lottery of birth and assimilate into an unfamiliar environment
The ethnic and racial diversity were both irrelevant and
advantageous for enhancing our discussion because of a diversity of experience.
Miss New India (2011), in which Anjali leaves her
traditional family in Bihar and moves to Bangalore. A woman determinedly
pursuing personal happiness is a revolutionary – a threatening concept for her
traditional parents.”
Another
Facet of our Salon
On
several occasions we combined our discussion with the rating and ranking of a
select group of wines, resembling a co-ed ancient Greek symposium without the
inebriation. Click on this link for a
description of a vino taste-off and conversation focusing on a presentation by
SF Chronicle's urbqan design critic John King.
wsj
For several
group gatherings we incorporated a wine component in the form of a mini
people's choice wine taste-off. This added dimension reflects our populist
times as well as my own anti-expert bias. We
assessed a mixed case of wines--the kind with a more attractive Qualilty Price
Ratio (QPR) that you would have with Tuesday dinner at home. They come
from nonNapa appellations for obvious reasons of cost.
We
share the perspective of Fred Franzia, who championed affordable wine and fathered
“Two Buck Chuck” telling a group of journalists: “no wine should cost more than
$10 including wines from Napa” In the future, we will also judge Napa vino
which are normally offered for sale at a much higher price with only a few
exceptions. We’ll see if Fred was right
“Our culture evolves around the acquisition of material
goods, and that turns out to be a pretty dissatisfying pursuit. It is very
important for people to have meaning and purpose in their lives and connection
to other humans.”
-Dr Dan Shapiro who defeated
cancer and counsels other patients, in conversation
with Jane Brody, New York Times.
For
another event we considered the following questions raised by the Oscars.
After the questions I have listed some links that provided more
background..
Fully
two-thirds of white voters without college degrees voted for Donald Trump, as
did over 80 percent of white evangelicals. Are we locked in class
warfare? Will the election season ever really end?
Do we
live in a bubble producing a generation of liberals and progressives
narcissistically unaware of conditions outside their self-defined groups, and indifferent
to the task of reaching out to Americans in every walk of life as the Oscars
proclaimed?
Can
there be assimilation without resorting to a “whitelash” in Van Jones term, or
“whitewash?
Can we achieve creating a sense of being in this together going beyond group
identities or are we speaking different languages?
How do
we bridge the chasm between classes and education levels?
At the
Oscars it was mentioned that women do it better-- Opposing without hatred.
Might this lead to a bias against women because, on average, they
are less combative than men?
Do you
agree that women approach the world differently?
Do
those who argue for differences in gender and race deserve to be
challenged or are these differences a starting point?
Christina Hoff
Sommers recently defended herself against charges of misogyny
and sexism for emphasizing how small average differences between the sexes at
the ends of Bell Curve might lead to substantial differences in career choices
and social interests.
Should
Lawrence Sommers, a tireless advocate for equal treatment of women, be
considered a sexist and fired as President of Harvard for asserting that
men seem to have a greater capacity for doing advanced mathematics?
Should
we accept that men and women are different in some of their proclivities in part
because of evolutionary pressures that shaped
those differences in our species?
We know
that STEM majors at
elite universities are far more often men than women;
conversely low-skilled men
are becoming less employable than women, and are dropping out of the workforce
at higher rates in industrialized countries ? Any
suggestions for improving these trends beside GE’s committment to adding 20,000
more women to their tech labor force. Or Hyatt’s “Love Sweet Love”
Do you
agree with this quote from Steven Pinker: ”The desire to work with people
versus things. There is an enormous average difference between women and men in
this dimension…And this difference in interests will tend to cause people to
gravitate in slightly different directions in their choice of career. The
occupation that fits best with the “people” end of the continuum is “director
of a community services organization.” The occupations that fit best with the
“things” end are physicist, chemist, mathematician, computer programmer, and
biologist.
Should
we encourage people to sort themselves into college majors and job occupations
that they’re reasonably good at and enjoy doing.
Is
upholding orthodox Christian views of marriage and human sexuality not an act
of hate? Is not expressing concern about the effect of large-scale immigration
on wages and job opportunities an act of racism?
------------------------------------------------------
"Homeplay"
Assignment:
The
titles below are also links that will take you to several short essays on our
theme of 'isms' .
The End of
Identity Liberalism
How
should this diversity shape our politics? The standard liberal answer for
nearly a generation now has been that we should become aware of and “celebrate”
our differences. Which is a splendid principle of moral pedagogy — but
disastrous as a foundation for democratic politics in our ideological age. In
recent years American liberalism has slipped into a kind of moral panic about
racial, gender and sexual identity that has distorted liberalism’s message and
prevented it from becoming a unifying force capable of governing.[click on
the title to access the rest of the piece]
Like
“racist”, the definition of “sexist” seems to have ballooned in such a way as
to include any claim about average differences between males and females from
the neck up. Some feminists, in particular, fear that assertions about
differences between men and women threaten the social progress we’ve made over
the past few centuries. Perhaps they have a point (as we discuss below). But we
should consider whether such an expansive definition of sexism is helpful, or
whether it actually represents a hindrance to moral progress.
[click
on the title to access the rest of the piece]
Is Wonder Woman being Forced into Early Retirement
It's
come to light this week that the comic superhero's controversial tenure as the
United Nations' honorary ambassador for the empowerment of women and girls will
be coming to a close this Friday.
That's
less than two months since the character
was unveiled as the face of a U.N. social
media campaign to promote women's rights via tweets and
facebook callouts. The decision sparked protests both in and out of the
organization, with nearly 45,000 people ultimately signing an online
petition that called the choice of a fictional character with
"an overtly sexualized image" to represent gender equality
"alarming" and "extremely disappointing."
What is a Racist? Why Moral Progress Hinges on Getting the
Answer Right
The
charge of “racist” represents a scalpel that has been substantially
dulled in recent years. The result is an inability to cut
cleanly around the cancerous tissue of racism. The term has
been co-opted by well-meaning social justice advocates, and is no
longer reserved for people who treat members of other groups as inherently
inferior to members of their own group. Nor is it used to identify people who
fail to treat members of other groups as the individuals that they are.
Instead, “racist” is casually hurled at anyone who expresses ideas that have
been emblazoned on an intellectual “no-fly list.”[click on the title to
access the rest of the piece]
Progressive Orthodoxy Narrows Choices and Minds
DAVID
FRENCH, NATIONAL REVIEW
Millions
of Americans are furious with the scolding progressive impulse that’s branded
“political correctness.”
‘Identity Politics’ Address Real Problems of
Discrimination
IMANI
PERRY, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
We have
a long history of responding to the suffering of “working class whites” by
maintaining their status above others.
Political Correctness Reflects Crises More Than It Causes
Them
JIM
SLEEPER, YALE UNIVERSITY
Legitimate
criticism of overreactions to racism needs to account for other real concerns
that have angered and frightened some groups.
Declining Status Leads to Resentment of P.C.
ROBB
WILLER, STANFORD UNIVERSTIY
Even
people who harbor consciously negative views of minority groups rarely see
themselves as racist.
An Identity Politics Where ‘Victims’ Vanquish Others
MICHELLE
GARCIA, DIRECTOR, "AGAINST MEXICO"
A
culture of siege produces victims, and victims will sacrifice anything for
their survival, even democracy itself.
An email sent to Kristin
Jacobson, Assistant Professor, University of Chicago Medical School Dear Prof.
Jacobson, I was just leafing through my University of Chicago Magazine this
evening when I came across the article summarized
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