Dialogue Matters

"Why should ye be stricken any more? ... the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. ... the calling of assemblies, I cannot ... Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. Come now, and let us reason together." ― Isaiah

“If you don't get what you want, you suffer; if you get what you don't want, you suffer; even when you get exactly what you want, you still suffer because you can't hold on to it forever. Your mind is your predicament. It wants to be free of change. Free of pain, free of the obligations of life and death. But change is law and no amount of pretending will alter that reality.” ― Socrates

"When Judge Douglas says that whoever, or whatever community, wants slaves, they have a right to have them, he is perfectly logical if there is nothing wrong in the institution; but if you admit that it is wrong, he cannot logically say that anybody has a right to do wrong." ― Lincoln

What are the critical elements, purposes, and consequences of dialogue in our psychological and sociological lives?

The notion of "dialogue" comes to us from the combination of two Greek words:

• dia - across, through
• logos - oration, reason, speech, word ... the link between rational discourse and the world's rational structure.

A graphic depiction of it might look something like skilled archers shooting arrows to identify the boundaries as well as the center of an otherwise invisible target. It is often time consuming [alot of arrows] ... and humbling [alot of misses] ... and requires the archers to work together from their different vantage points to reveal the target with a significant degree of clarity. But even though the work is never easy ... it is usually [if not always] rewarding for somebody.

There are many good questions we might try to answer about the presence and role of dialogue in our lives. Here are just a few.

• Does dialogue differ from and/or relate to dogma, debate, propaganda and compromise?
• How have historical forms of social media [in education, economics and politics] utilized dialogue ... and has that significantly changed today?
• Are students learning the art of working through a complicated topic?
• Are citizens losing the bigger picture in the narrowness of party politics?
• Given the dynamic complexity of many personal and social problems, can we realistically hope to formulate comprehensive solutions without broad-based dialogue?
• Solutions notwithstanding, are there still ways our psychological health and sociological lives can be improved by simply promoting dialogue?

When, Where and a Flyer

Tuesday, Sep 25th,  7:00 to 8:45 pm at Friends University, William Penn Hall, Room 100 [west of Riney Fine Arts Bldg].  Click FLYER above and [if we have it] you will get a flyer which you can print and post appropriately to alert others about the upcoming meeting.

Panelists and Moderator 👥

Please welcome our generous and accomplished panelists and moderator. Click a name to see a bio [if we have it]. And remember, they have busy lives so we do NOT require them to provide a position statement or suggested readings in advance ... but if they do, we have provided links to those materials following their name/bio below ... and we encourage you to review these links to get to know our panelists and moderator better.

Bill Coleman - A former teaching fellow at Harvard University, Bill is entering his fifteenth year as a teacher of literature, composition, and drama at Northfield School of the Liberal Arts. Bill is a longtime NSS member.

Laura Lombard - among her many accomplishments and pursuits, Laura was a primary candidate for U.S. Congress in Kansas’ 4th district in 2018. We are glad to welcome her back from politics! She is currently building a workforce development company in Wichita called ImEPIK.

Vicki Ronn - an associate professor of English at Friends University. We are always privileged to have Friends represented on our panel.

Joel Ybarra - a Marriage and Family Therapist at Real Life Counseling in Wichita who finds meaning coming alongside others and helping them see things in new ways. We look forward to listening to Joel ... something he does everyday for others who need to speak.

Russell Fox [moderator] –  Political Science Professor and Director of the Honors Program at Friends University ... a valued addition to our society whenever he is available.

The Evening's Format

The first half of the evening will consist of each panelist presenting an 8-9 minute opening position statement. In the second half of the evening, the audience will help our panelists by asking questions.

And for those of you who are inclined to get some questions out in the open for consideration BEFORE the evening's meeting ... feel free to join the liberales ... and blog your COMMENTS and REPLIES below as needed/wished to build some trains of thought for us.

Epilogue

With great teamwork by our panelists and a thoughtful audience, we learned important things about dialogue ... including the thought that real dialogue always requires us to do three things "together" [com]:

converse - "turn, bend" [versare]
contemplate - "place to take auguries" [templum]
confide - "trust" [fidere]

As it says in the old Quaker verse: 
"When true simplicity is gained,
To bow and to bend we shan't be ashamed,
To turn, turn will be our delight,
Till by turning, turning we come 'round right."

For those who missed [or just want to relive] this stimulating evening at Friends University, here is the link to the AV recording on "Dialogue Matters" ... again with thanks to Paul Soutar at Graphic Lens ... or you can just go to YouTube and search for us under "New Symposium Society Dialogue Matters".

We welcomed alot of old and new friends ... and hope YOU will stay in touch with New Symposium Society in the future. And if you have some ideas to share about ways to improve or expand our work ... just let us hear from you with a COMMENT below ... or an email to NewSymposium@gmail.com.  Goodbye until our next meeting and stay tuned to our blogsite for further info about our last 2018 meeting in November.

NSS  Suggested Readings [with links]

Dialogue, Wikipedia
I and Thou, Martin Buber
Attention, a Necessary Condition of Spirituality, L'Osservatore Romano, Isabella Adinolfi
Vatican II

The Council was instrumental for renewal in the self-understanding of the Church and its inner life by engaging in its relationships with other Christian traditions, with other religions and with the world.

Major Sociological Theories,  www.ThoughtCo.com
Dialogical Self Theory, Wikipedia
What Is Shared Inquiry?, Great Books Foundation
To Know as We are Known/A Spirituality of Education, Parker Palmer

"truth is communal ... seeking truth by keeping troth ... relationships [not facts and reasons] are the key to reality"

Dialogue as Interaction, Social Psychology Journal
Open Dialogue: A New Approach to Mental Healthcare, Dr Tom Stockmann, Psychology Today

"They decided to free themselves from searching for a non-existent truth, concentrating instead on curiosity and improvisation. Linked to this, they incorporated the recognition that language shapes our reality, and that one’s language, and thought, is dependent on seeing the world through a personal ‘lens’. The main aim of clinician involvement became the creation of a shared understanding of the problem, through a shared language."

The Role of Political Dialogue in Peacebuilding and Statebuilding