A WEEKLY DISCUSSION SERIES

MEMBER MONDAY

THE ARCHIVE NARRATIVE:

Member Monday grew out of Highland's book club which began in May 2006 and ran sporadically through 2013. We certainly had some fine evening discussions though it became clear participants were drawn more to the respective topics than they necessarily were to the underlying books. Some were put off by the time commitment these books demanded, especially in the earlier days, when we ran one session per month.

A new format was thus instituted in mid-2016, stepping up the frequency to change it from the previous monthly evening session format into a weekly lunch discussion and to replace a full book as the discussion catalyst into a more approachable article (or two) with an introduction to help set the stage.

Member Monday held its first session on Monday July 5, 2016. The topic for that inaugural session was, in fact, a spillover from the very last session of the previous book club, centered around A People's History of the United States, by Howard Zinn. Instead of an article, though, a more extensive introduction was prepared to capture the essence of Zinn's book and to frame the discussion. There had been some thought given to breaking down his lengthy work into bite-size chapters as the basis for a series of future Member Monday discussions but, in the end, we decided to stick with the original plan and serve up a new topic each week…continue reading…

Envisioning A Post-Work World

These words by my favorite essayist, Lance Morrow, on the question What Is the Point of Working?: "When God foreclosed on Eden, he condemned Adam and Eve to go to work. Work has never recovered from that humiliation. From the beginning, the Lord's word said that work was something bad: a punishment, the great stone of mortality and toil laid upon a human spirit that might otherwise soar in the infinite, weightless playfulness of grace."

Hardly a day goes by without yet another prediction of robots or at least some manifestation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) supplanting humans in the work world. Allow ourselves to take that on as a thought experiment: would we soar or sour in a world without the element of work as a central component of a meaningful life. That is the subject of the discussion article below (click on title to open). It is largely a question addressed at the personal level.

Steve SmithJune 5, 2017Comment

Ayn Rand / Atlas Shrugged

Let's wrap up the first full year of Member Mondays with a subject guaranteed to start a food fight i.e. capitalism in America. First, though, there is little question about how it powered our post-WWII economy. No, that's not the discussion.

The subject is the role of capitalism in today's reality of resource constraints, global interdependence, deepening income disparity, regulatory capture, and a distorted monetary system. Consider these words written in 1957:

"You may know society is doomed when you see that, in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing; when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors; when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them from you; (and) when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice." (Atlas Shrugged, 1957)….

Steve SmithMay 22, 2017Comment

The Brain

Our next Member Monday (5/15) discussion will be second and last installment of the Neuralink series we started this week (5/8) . . . . Dr. David Torres will help us achieve a basic understanding of this organ of almost incomprehensible complexity, making us who we are . . . . an appreciation of such will certainly help us to better explain all things human, from love to political convictions.

Steve SmithMay 15, 2017Comment

Neuralink

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Academy (DARPA) in early 2016 set its sights on the holy grail of the data world i.e. bridging the Bio-Electronic divide:

"A new DARPA program aims to develop an implantable neural interface able to provide unprecedented signal resolution and data-transfer bandwidth between the human brain and the digital world. The interface would serve as a translator, converting between the electrochemical language used by neurons in the brain and the ones and zeros that constitute the language of information technology. The goal is to achieve this communication link in a biocompatible device no larger than one cubic centimeter in size, roughly the volume of two nickels stacked back to back."

This $60 million so-called Neural Engineering System Design (NESD) would initially fund the integrated breakthroughs across the numerous necessary disciplines including neuroscience, synthetic biology, low-power electronics, photonics, medical device packaging and manufacturing, systems engineering, and clinical testing. It would host the collaborative "pre-competition" sharing of research and information technology among industry participants enabling them to transition into later application spaces…

Steve SmithMay 8, 2017Comment

Schizophrenia / A System Gone Mad

The lunch talk by Susan Klebold a few months back was probably the most affecting presentation our club has witnessed. Sue projected an almost Buddha-like serenity as she told her story.

Her story: sending her son off to school one morning. Good-bye, honey. See you tonight. There would be no tonight as her son, Dylan, along with his friend, Eric, a few hours later let loose the black bats at Columbine which resulted in not only their deaths but those of at least a dozen other students and a teacher.

John Donvan's review of "No One Cares About Crazy People," by Ron Powers (the title derived from a quote by Scott Walker's aide assessing the political influence of this particular contingent i.e. none) (https://www.wsj.com/articles/when-your-sons-are-schizophrenic-1490994144) reports on the author's view that few of us care about the challenges of mental illness until the emergency is inside our own home. But it's probably also a safe bet that, among each of our extended families or that of a friend, there lurks some sort of mental illness -- schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or acute depression.

Steve SmithApril 17, 2017Comment

Kludgeocracy in America

"Kludgeocracy in America"

(link: http://www.nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/kludgeocracy-in-america) is a highly readable and concise article teaching you more about government today than all the civics classes, political speeches or, indeed a close reading of the Constitution ever could. It lays bare the perverse incentives that drive the complexity and incoherence in the system. The accumulation of all these distortions results in a modern democracy that is but a funhouse mirror reflection of anything our Founding Fathers had originally envisioned.

The root -- kludge -- comes from a well-known reference to those clumsy inelegant patches that may address temporary problems but which collectively and inevitably lead to system compromise or even breakdown. One of the ironies is that the very nature of the phenomenon blinds us to the cause.

Steve SmithMarch 27, 2017Comment

The Fourth Turning

Sometimes it takes a grand unifying theory – say, for example, quantum mechanics to explain the laws of physics beyond that which Newton could teach – to really make sense of the world. The ambition of The Fourth Turning is no less profound: to discern and explain the evolutionary patterns of America’s culture to describe her past, understand her present, and anticipate her future…

Steve SmithMarch 20, 2017Comment

Evolutionary Dialogues

“How did it happen that, when the dregs of the world had collected in western Europe, when Goth and Frank and Norman and Lombard had mingled with the rot of old Rome to form a patchwork of hybrid races, all of them notable for ferocity, hatred, stupidity, craftiness, lust, and brutality — how did it happen that, from all of this, there should come the Gregorian chant, monasteries and cathedrals, the poems of Prudentius, . . . . St. Augustine’s City of God . . . ?”

How did it happen that, when the American trajectory nosedived into self-doubt, paranoia, and internecine political warfare — how did it happen that, from all this, there should come . . . . ?

Steve SmithMarch 13, 2017Comment

Escaping Our Skull-Sized Kingdom

The focus piece for our next Member Monday (3/6) discussion is a commencement speech delivered to the Kenyon graduating class of 2005 titled "This Is Water." (Pdf, below) The audience was perfect for two reasons. First, the members had just received the benefit of a top-flight education. Second, they knew nothing about the world.

They were taught the purpose of education was learning how to think. A key David Foster Wallace message: no, the key to life is learning what to think about. Otherwise, one is condemned to a life lived in a default condition. One becomes totally alone, the total center of the universe, hardwired to experience the world as nothing more than communication that has to be filtered through the lens of the self to be real.

Dustin SimantobMarch 6, 2017Comment

Masters and Johnson Revisited

We last encountered the subject of sex a mere decade ago at our book club (double) session where we discussed Jared Diamond's "Why Is Sex Fun?" and pondered the following:

The book title begs the question. Sex. Is it? Fun? It certainly runs the cosmic gamut from the most sublime to the punchline of a dirty joke.

Is the subject simply the sum of all those things, or even greater than the sum: a gestalt of every fantasy, release, anticipation, pursuit, seduction, rejection, reptilian urge, and candlelight cliche; the sum of all fears animating every Portnoy complaint and Woody Allen anxiety; from bell-ringing ecstasy to the ultimate source of profound loneliness; a cruel biological trick to propagate the species; the very concept of oneness yet sometimes the mere substitute for talk; faded memories of past loves, both requited and unrequited? All that, is all that, rolled into the word "fun?"

Steve SmithFebruary 27, 2017Comment

Culture of Spin

There are reports of dystopian novels flying off the shelves these days. People see those old works in terms of life imitating (literary) art. Member Monday regulars already understand this. After all, we covered the use of of language as a mechanism of totalitarian control months ago (11/14) in our discussion of Orwell’s 1946 classic essay, “Politics and the English Language”.

In the political world it's called spin, a term that's spin itself. On campuses it's sometimes labeled political correctness. Whatever the term, it's the intentional use of language to create a new reality through the elimination or distortion of a discarded truth. Today's easy example, of course, is in the citation of 1984 as the warning of a Trump-driven threat to our Republic ( Why '1984' Is a 2017 Must-Read - The New York Times)…

Steve SmithFebruary 13, 2017Comment

What Science Says About Race and Genetics

We're all familiar with the Nature/Nurture debate i.e. how much of an individual's attributes is the product of inherited (genetic) biological factors and how much is a function of one's post-conception environment. Our focus article, “What Science Says About Race and Genetics” (http://time.com/91081/what-science-says-about-race-and-genetics/?iid=sr-link1) applies that question to culture itself.

Advances in human genome decoding over the past ten years provide some new insights that update the widely-accepted theories of natural selection set forth in Darwin's 1859 Origin of the Species.

Steve SmithFebruary 6, 2017Comment

Sleep, Insomnia, and Dreaming

Our next Member Monday discussion centers around a topic that the more fortunate among us manage to do over one-quarter of their lives. The "others," not so much. The first portion of our discussion will be dedicated to them i.e. the ones who can't count on six hours of uninterrupted sleep. The topic: Sleep, Insomnia, and Dreaming. The remainder of the session, somewhat more whimsical, will then embrace everyone as we flirt with the subconscious.

We'll start things off with a nod to the poets and their various sleep-related idiosyncrasies, featured in the focus article Staring Into The Soundless Dark” (click to open link, then click again). Poets are particularly qualified to speak on the subject of insomnia. First, they are over-represented in the sleep deprivation department. Second, poetry itself has been characterized as a form of sleep.

Steve SmithJanuary 30, 2017Comment

Religion's Role in a Democracy

Our next Member Monday(1/13) discussion topic may test the club’s safe-space boundary i.e. what is the proper place of religion in a functioning democratic society.

James Chappel sets up the matter in his very readable article, “Holy Wars: Secularism and the Invention of Religion” from the Boston Review (link: http://bostonreview.net/books-ideas/james-chappel-secularism-religion). The piece synthesizes four recent books in such a way that it avoids pedantry and abstractions as it frames the issue(s).

Our next Member Monday(1/13) discussion topic may test the club’s safe-space boundary i.e. what is the proper place of religion in a functioning democratic society.

James Chappel sets up the matter in his very readable article, “Holy Wars: Secularism and the Invention of Religion” from the Boston Review (link: http://bostonreview.net/books-ideas/james-chappel-secularism-religion). The piece synthesizes four recent books in such a way that it avoids pedantry and abstractions as it frames the issue(s).

At its heart is the question: How can people live together in a democracy if they have fundamental, irreconcilable beliefs about the nature of the universe? Think in terms of the impulse to limit/ban/vet Muslim immigration to view the matter at the wholesale level. Think in terms of Kim Davis (the Kentucky county clerk who refused, on grounds of violating her Christian faith, to issue a marriage license to a gay couple) to see it at the retail level. Per one of the cited philosophers, what a conversation-stopper: if someone claims to be acting for religious reasons, what is there to say?

Steve SmithJanuary 16, 2017Comment

Global Dialogue Project

Let's just say the group worked its way through denial, anger, and bargaining as we discussed David Loy’s “Bodhisattva Path in the Trump Era” at today's Member Monday (12/12) session. The depression stage was a draw and acceptance drew a salute with the middle finger. There was the whiff of existential dread.

But consider the words of St. Thomas Merton speaking of an evolution that survived, thrived, and ultimately blossomed through a different sort of existential dread:

Let's just say the group worked its way through denial, anger, and bargaining as we discussed David Loy’s “Bodhisattva Path in the Trump Era” at today's Member Monday (12/12) session. The depression stage was a draw and acceptance drew a salute with the middle finger. There was the whiff of existential dread.

But consider the words of St. Thomas Merton speaking of an evolution that survived, thrived, and ultimately blossomed through a different sort of existential dread:

“How did it ever happen that, when the dregs of the world had collected in western Europe, when Goth and Frank and Norman and Lombard had mingled with the rot of old Rome to form a patchwork of hybrid races, all of them notable for ferocity, hatred, stupidity, craftiness, lust, and brutality — how did it happen that, from all of this, there should come Gregorian chant, monasteries and cathedrals, the poems of Prudentius . . . . St. Augustine’s City of God . . ?”

Steve SmithDecember 19, 2016Comment

Looming Trump Era

It’s been almost a month now. Our upcoming Member Monday (12/12) discussion will address the looming Trump era. What does it mean?

There are a number of ways to address the topic. The analysis of David Brooks in the NYT OpEd “The Future of the American Center” (http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/29/opinion/the-future-of-the-american-center.html) speculates on possible political realignments in the aftermath of a guy who enters the room and starts to throw all the furniture around. Nothing can be taken for granted in this environment e.g. deference to our traditional two-party system; respect for the old caucuses; and, for that matter, regard for the separation of powers.

Steve SmithDecember 12, 2016Comment

Generation Hand-Off

The end-times crowd is fond of the clunky acronym — TEOTWAWKI — but, when you think about it, every single instant is The end of the world as we know it. Per Heraclitus roughly 500 B.C., “no man steps into the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.” The river of time as we know it ends with each next step. It’s this . . then this . . and now . . . .

And so it is with each rolling generation. Our next Member Monday (11/28) session will focus on the generation hand-off, from the Boomers (and before) to the GenXers to the Millennial GenYers (and later). This pass-the-torch-to-a-new-generation discussion will neither sentimentalize the past nor prejudge the future.

Steve SmithNovember 28, 2016Comment

Is the Going Still Good?

Our discussion group shares the Monday lunch slot with Marty’s travel series. It is fitting, then, to devote our next Member Monday (11/21) discussion topic to the question: why travel?

Let’s start with the observation of 17th century French philosopher Blaise Pascal, “The sole cause of man’s unhappiness is that he does not know how to stay quietly in his room.” That is the lead-in quote to our focal essay, another one plucked from the mists of time yet as fresh (with some minor reference updates) and relevant as if it were written today, “Is the Going Still Good?” article link: http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,925448,00.html?artId=925448?contType=article?chn=us

It begs the question, of course, compared to what? Were the motivation primarily education one could make the case the vast library of off- and on-line resources represents a far more efficient means to that end. The sounds and sights of the world may soon become available virtually in 360-degrees. The smell of the local cooking may not be far behind.

Dustin SimantobNovember 21, 2016Comment

On Language

The inspiration for our next Member Monday (11/14) discussion came from an off-hand remark by member Michael Kosacoff that journalistic writing today seems to have become flat, uninspiring and almost formulaic. Our discussion piece will be that classic 1946 George Orwell essay, “Politics and the English Language.” (attached below as Pdf file).

Read it and smile in recognition. Orwell’s central complaint about "modern" English i.e. the reinforcing cycle of sloppy thinking and deteriorating language, is perhaps even more evident today. Remember, of course, his reference to modern English is in the context of a piece he wrote at the time many of our club's elder statesmen were still youngsters.

Steve SmithNovember 14, 2016Comment

The Sexes

“After God cast Lucifer and his followers into darkness, all the fallen angels came straggling on the plains of hell — to recriminate, to console themselves and to discuss their new identities as devils. . . . . It may be time for men to hold a convention for the same purpose”.

Thus begins a Lance Morrow essay http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,980115,00.html?artId=980115?contType=article?chn=us written twenty-two years ago (“Men Are They Really That Bad?”, Time, Feb. 14,1994) that serves as the focal piece of our Member Monday (11/7) discussion as we eye our own convention on the subject of: The Sexes.

So be it. Let us gather in a gender-balanced forum to compare and contrast today’s environment with that of two decades ago. A good place to start would be with the smoldering sexual theater on this day before of the Presidential election as it flares with the latest accusation or leaked video, often overshadowing serious policy debate…

Steve SmithNovember 7, 2016Comment