Language Matters

"In a large community we choose our companions, [but] in a small community our companions are chosen for us. The man who lives in a small community knows more of the fierce varieties and uncompromising divergences of men ... [for it is] a place where he can have a noisy argument [and still] be sociable ... [and] sociability, like all good things, is full of discomforts and dangers ...

  
"... A big society exists in order to form cliques ... to make a man comfortable [which is] to make him the opposite of sociable... to guard the solitary and sensitive individual from all experience of the bitter and bracing human compromises. It is, in the most literal sense of the words, a society for the prevention of Christian knowledge." Heretics, GK Chesterton, 1905

"Honor is a description of a particular kind of relationship between individual identity and communal authority ... [in which] the claims of the self are constantly reflected in the mirror of communal opinion, and those reflections are the building blocks of individual identity." The Sacred Mirror, Robert Elder, 2016

Out of John Brown's strong sinews the tall skyscrapers grow,
Out of his heart the chanting buildings rise,
The genie we have raised to rule the earth.
So, when the crowd gives tongue
Or fall in worship there,
Let them applaud the image or condemn
But keep your distance and your soul from them.
[And] if you at last must have a word to say,
Say neither, in their way,
"It is a deadly magic and accursed,"
Nor "It is blest," but only "It is here."
excerpted lines from John Brown's Body, Stephen Vincent Benet, 1928

--------------------------------------------------------

During the American Revolution "post" implied a cursive hand-written parchment communication carrier by horse and rider over rough roads to exchange important, but by no means comprehensive,  information. Townhalls, churches and printing presses were the only forms of broadcasting ... but their spatial and temporal constraints did not matter because MOST of the knowledge a person needed to live life had been passed along for generations ... was carried secure in the mind and heart ... and was remarkably constant and common across the generations and communities [just in case you forgot something].

By the time of the Civil War, honor was still on the minds of the South. But it had become a worthless relic to some Northerners like Big Jim Fisk who, when he defaulted on his massive debts after the collapse of his grand scheme to corner the gold market, said "Nothing lost save honor." After all, the telegraph was "etherealizing" the word and railroads were spanning the continent ... and there was money to be made. As John Brown's body lay smoldering in the grave, ancient agrarian living was giving way to modern urban dwelling.

And then came the wars which covered the whole world while reducing much of it to rubble. But the technology to fight them gave rise to increasingly sophisticated forms of photography, analog broadcasting networks, digital computers ... until today we have the worldwide web ... the internet with vast clouds of information, massive data and surveillance centers, instantaneous information searches and increasingly complex and vulnerable social and cellular networks.

And yet ... in the face of all this "progress" ... some are turning back and looking for something that was lost ... unsure even what to call it ... wholeness ... civility ... polity ... kindness ... grace?

Has technological change been good for mankind's communities and communications? Or has "dis-communication" and incoherence become the new normal in the modern [now digital] age? If so, what can be done? And what is the future of politeness in our politics?  Is our way of life and the modes we use to communicate poisoning what's left of our conversation?

If some of these questions [or ones like them] have crossed your mind from time to time ... or even if this is the first time you have thought about them ... we hope you will join us soon as the New Symposium Society spends an October evening with a fantastic panel in a VERY wide ranging discussion titled Language Matters.

When, Where and a Flyer

Tuesday, Oct 15,  7:00 to 8:45 pm at Friends University ... Room 100 of William Penn Hall.  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.

Dion Lefler - journalist
Bob Weeks - publisher
Bill Coleman - linguist
John Brungardt -  philosopher
Russell Fox - moderator

The Evening's Format

The first half of the evening will consist of each panelist presenting an 8-10 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

The evening's symposium was [in terms of numbers] "poorly" attended ... but [in terms of ideas] so very "richly" endowed ... and for those who came, it was a veritable feast of deep thought and refreshing candor we will not soon forget. Our panel was individually stellar and collectively comprehensive ... and the smaller number in the audience [as we gathered near the front of the auditorium] allowed us to "feel" intimate in our participation with them as they shared so generously. Thanks again to Friends University for providing such a welcoming space for us to gather.

With 2 new panelists [John Brungardt and Dion Lefler] and 2 returning panelists [Bill Coleman and Bob Weeks], the mixture of "friends" brought new insights as well as enduring assurances. We saw that technology is merely a "tool" which both extends and limits the human species' inherent tendency to use/abuse [even curate] language. But we also learned ways we can [and must] discipline ourselves [as well as teach others] to compensate for technological distortion while we enhance our native abilities to undertake communal dialogue around the logos we share with each other and all nature.

It was obvious that we could only begin to scratch the surface in our examination of the "communication" which is critical if we are to place and keep our individual lives in what the panelists called "context" in a changing world. I think everyone felt a sense of reluctance to see the evening end.

We have an AV recording of the evening for those who missed out ... or for those who just want to return to some of the satisfying moments experienced first hand. We hope each panelist and attendee will return to a New Symposium Society evening again soon ... as a contributing symposiast ... whether on the panel or in the audience.

Suggested Readings

"The Significance of Language as a Tool of Communication", Anca Sirbu, Naval Academy Scientific Bulletin, Volume XVIII – 2015 – Issue 2

"Research has revealed the fact that the blind develop their intellectual propensities better than the deaf. Although deprived of their sight, they can hear, which enables them to acquire language, by means of which they can “see” better than with their own eyes. The  deaf, on the other hand, compelled to silence, hence unable to access language freely, develop more difficultly on an intellectual level and do not attain all the instruments of  a complex abstract thinking process."

"Save Your City: How Toxic Culture Kills Community & What to Do about It", Diane Kalen-Sukra
[interviewed on  Global News]

"The causes or triggers of incivility in the face of disagreement seem to come from one or more of the following four factors:

• a lack of skills in healthy debate, productive political discourse, and constructive disagreement;
• a feeling that incivility is justified when you have been aggrieved;
• the existence of a toxic culture encouraging others to get their own way through uncivil methods; and
• a loss of shared vision or sense that we are in this alone, rather than in this together."

"Technology can have positive and negative impact on social interactions", Human Kinetics

"Perhaps overcoming a sense of isolation is one of the greatest features of online communities and virtual worlds."

"Reaching Out", Henri Nouwen, 1975

"The spiritual life is that constant movement between three poles of

• loneliness and solitude - our relationship with ourself,
• hostility and hospitality - our relationship to others and
• illusion and prayer - our relationship with God.

The more we come to the painful confession of our loneliness, hostility and illusions, the more we are able to see solitude, hospitality and prayer as part of the vision of our life."

"What Are the Symptoms of Autism?", Autism Speaks

"Autism involves social communication challenges. Children and adults with autism have difficulty with verbal and non-verbal communication. For example, they may not understand or appropriately use:

• Spoken language (around a third of people with autism are nonverbal)
• Gestures
• Eye contact
• Facial expressions
• Tone of voice
• Expressions not meant to be taken literally."

"There Is a New Link Between Screen-Time and Autism", Richard E. Cytowic M.D., Psychology Today, 2017

"A child psychiatrist asked parents [of autistic children] to take them away from screens for a while, to go outside more and engage in outdoor activities, read books together, talk face-to-face, and simply play. He wanted affected children to engage in more day-to-day social interactions given that socialization is the primary challenge for anyone on the autism spectrum. Could pulling them away from their screens of solitude relieve some of the symptoms? Yes, he reports, symptoms resolved, leading the doctor to identify something entirely new: what he calls Virtual Autism, or autism induced by screens."

"We Are All Ahmarists Now", Michael Warren Davis, Crisis Magazine, Sep 10 2019
[follow up "You Can’t Separate Politics and Theology", Emile A. Doak,  Sep 10, 2019]

"Civility isn’t a synonym for charity — quite often, the demands of charity compel us to be positively uncivil. ... Whatever our political creed—whether we’re left-wing or right-wing, liberal or illiberal—this is wrongheaded, and dangerously so. ... Indeed, 'Civility' strikes me as one of those silly pseudo-virtues you could buy for a nickel in the 19th century. It’s part of that cloyingly bourgeois moral code adopted by the Victorians, which stood the old Christian morality on its head. ...

"There’s a political crisis in these nations once blessed to be known as Christendom; there’s no doubt about that. ... [But] before we can begin to address the political crisis, we must address the crisis of alienation.... Christians feel alienated from atheists. Progressives feel alienated from conservatives. Northerners feel alienated from Southerners. Workers feel alienated from employers. Blacks feel alienated from whites. Smartphone addiction, social media, hook-up apps, and pornography are only driving us further apart. We live in something very much like the Grey Town in C.S. Lewis’s Great Divorce: each of us dwells in our own private Hell, stewing in our own arrogance, fear, distrust, loneliness, hatred."

Capitalism and Socialism

 “The few own the many because they possess the means of livelihood of all [CAPITAL] ... The country is governed for the richest, for the corporations, the bankers, the land speculators, and for the exploiters of LABOR. ... The majority is ground down in order that the small remnant may live in ease.” ― Helen Keller

 “Socialism ... pulls down wealth ... destroys private interests ... kills enterprise ... assails the preeminence of the individual ... exalts the rule ... attacks capitalism ... is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.”
― Winston Churchill

 "The argument for collectivism is simple, immediate, [direct and] emotional. The argument for individualism is subtle, sophisticated, indirect [and] rational. [But] the emotional facilities are more highly developed in most than the rational ... especially [among] intellectuals. It is only a little overstated to say that we preach capitalism and practice socialism.”
― Milton Friedman
 

"CAN  capitalism  survive?  No.  But  ... what counts in any attempt at social prognosis is not the Yes or No that sums up the facts and arguments which lead up to it but those facts and arguments themselves."
"CAN  socialism  work? Of course it can."
Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, Joseph Schumpeter, 1942

It would appear that America and the world are nearing the point at which we may soon discover the truth or falsity of Schumpeter's WWII vintage prophesy that CAPITALISM is unsustainable and that, with its final demise, SOCIALISM [ala democracy] will be left standing alone as the only way forward for individuals, humanity and the planet as a whole.

Come and help us lay out what Schumpeter calls the "facts and arguments" for and against capitalism and socialism by asking and discussing these 5 questions !

1. What is capitalism? ... this definition is a start ... but let's add to it.
"[O]ur civilization depends, not only for its origin but also for its preservation, on what can be precisely described only as the extended order of human cooperation [which] constitutes an information gathering process, able to call up, and put to use, widely dispersed information that no central planning agency, let alone any individual, could know as a whole, possess or control ... an order more commonly, if somewhat misleading, known as capitalism.”
"The Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Socialism", FA Hayek, 1988

2. Many have predicted the demise of capitalism before ... and after the revolutions of 1989 it looked like capitalism had finally triumphed over all other forms of sociological organization. Is that prognosis still valid? If not, what changed?

3. What is socialism? ...  here's a possible start ... but let's flesh it out.
Socialism is an economic system where the primary criterion for production is collective use-value [not individual profit] and where production is coordinated through centralized economic planning while the distribution of products is made to each according to some socially weighted blend of his contribution and/or need.
Socialist Mode of Production, Wikipedia

4. If capitalism does fall, can socialism "work" ... or is its historical record of apparent failure so long and consistent as to preclude it from being a viable long term solution?

5. What [if anything] do capitalism and socialism have in common ... and where do they fundamentally differ ... and can this knowledge help us understand their respective strengths and weaknesses in a way that might allows us to rely on them both [albeit in different areas] so that neither one is expected to bear the full burden of sociological regulation alone?

When, Where and a Flyer

Tuesday, August 20,  7:00 to 8:45 pm at Friends University Rooms 101-102 Marriage and Family Therapy Building [SE corner of campus].  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.

The Evening's Format: RAT [rough and tumble]

Our audience will be our panel for the evening ... and we hope everyone comes ready to share a thought that helps us dig into these topics.

Mike Witherspoon will moderate by introducing each of the 5 questions and then allowing time for us to probe some answers. And while he will attempt to preserve both motion and civility, he will give us wide latitude to see where we end up for the evening. It can be quite exciting and enlightening to see what we feel individually and collectively is important. It will be fun for all. Why not come ... and bring a friend !!

Please try to send us an email in advance at NewSymposium@gmail.com if you plan on coming so we can be roughly sure to have enough chairs ready. We look forward to a stimulating evening of total participation.

Epilogue: Who Stole the People's Money?... 'Twas him.

In an exciting and revealing evening of role playing and stark candor, a diverse [we need more youth!] and thoughtful group of symposiasts worked together to consider capitalism and socialism and appeared to come to a few important conclusions ... which I will risk trying to summarize.

• Commonwealth socialism is stable because it performs vital political and economic functions [with both privileges and responsibilities] in areas where the commonwealth activities and resources in question cannot be easily or justly allocated, exchanged and managed in a decentralized private property paradigm with individual free choice and fair competition. The challenge is accurately and legitimately identifying the boundaries of our commonwealth which may change as our sociological environment changes.
• Partisan socialism is unstable because it goes beyond the commonwealth to divide us into groups then tempts EVERY GROUP to use its political power to secure an economic advantage at the expense of those outside the group ... but there are hidden "strings attached" which can be harmful even for those in the favored special-interest group.
• Non-crony capitalism is stable because it uses decentralized information, private property, sound money, price discovery [via fair competition and free exchange] and the promise of profit to impersonally incentivize individuals to bring their CAPITAL and LABOR together to manage and allocate non-commonwealth activities and resources on a massive scale in a way which, although almost always unequal in resulting income and wealth, can still be both generally equitable and broadly desirable for every individual whether they participate as CAPITAL or LABOR.
  
• Crony capitalism is unstable because it divides us by allowing limited-liability CAPITAL and BANKING elites to use political power to secure economic advantage at the expense of LABOR [or vice versa] through the institution of perverted monetary, fiscal and other public policies.
• Political corruption is prevalent and destructive ... and it destabilizes and adulterates both commonwealth socialism and non-crony capitalism by allowing political power to be used [both inside and outside the commonwealth] to personally enrich the corrupt politician and his/her partisan constituents at public expense ... always leading to the same painful question and evasive finger pointing answer ... "Who stole the people's money?".

But ... don't take our word for it. You can listen to an audio recording courtesy of John Todd [NSS Trustee] and Bob Weeks [www.wichitaliberty.org] ... right here ... and draw your own conclusions!

Thanks to EVERY SYMPOSIAST for the wonderful [if warm] evening ... the dialogue could not have happened the magical way it did without YOU. We hope you will come back soon and often to join us at the New Symposium Society.

>>> Appetizers anyone? >>>

[send us some "thought-starters" of your own so we can add them here]

Books & Articles
Socialism Sucks: Two Economists Drink Their Way Through the Unfree World, by Robert Lawson and Benjamin Powell, 2019
Capitalism must work for Labor, FROTH blog, August 2019

Videos
"Why Democratic Socialism Is Gaining Popularity In The United States", #cnbc
"The Real Adam Smith: Morality and Markets", Free to Choose Network, 2016

Hour One, Morality & Markets, explores Smith’s life and role in the Scottish Enlightenment, his thoughts on empathy and how we distinguish right from wrong. French wine, Scottish whiskey, and freshly-baked scones all illustrate Smith’s economic principles. True wealth is defined. We discover Smith’s thoughts on the government’s role in markets, his distaste for monopolies/crony capitalism in the form of the East India Company, and his thoughts on the American colonies.

Quotes
“I believe in competition! But we need to make capitalism work for your family and we need to make democracy work for your family. A rising stock market is not helpful to the half of all America who own not one single share of stock. Rising productivity that doesn’t translate into rising wages for the people who actually do the work is not building a better future for them.”—Elizabeth Warren

“You can't just continue capitalist growth for the sake of capitalist growth in a world in which we are struggling with climate change and all kinds of environmental problems. All right? You don't necessarily need a choice of 23 underarm spray deodorants or of 18 different pairs of sneakers when children are hungry in this country.”—Bernie Sanders

Alternative definitions: 
"A society is called capitalist if it entrusts its economic process to the guidance of the private businessman.  This may be said to imply,

1. first, private ownership of nonpersonal means of production, such as land, mines, industrial plant and equipment; and,
2. second, production for private account, i.e., production by private initiative for private profit.
3. But, third, the institution of bank credit is so essential to the functioning of the capitalist system that, though not strictly implied in the definition, it should be added to the other two criteria."

Joseph Alois Schumpeter, Encyclopedia Britannica, 1946, Vol. IV, 801-897.

Cities Matter: Quality of Life

Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, ... For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. ― Moses

Time is a game played beautifully by children. ― Heraclitus

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up. ― Pablo Picasso

The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. ― Jesus

"Quality of life is experienced in so many different ways. Does Wichita offer sufficient spaces, places, and activities to satisfy that diversity?

Culturally speaking, what projects and identities have helped or could help us feel more connected with and trusting of one another?

Is quality of life a function of government? Does private enterprise and philanthropy play a part?

Bored?
Nothing to do?
Does all work and no play really make Jack a dull boy?

Come and join us to discuss your "quality of life" ... specifically as you experience it [or not] in Wichita. What are the secrets that explain why some feel more abundance and others more dearth in the quality of their life experiences? How is "quality" defined and then measured? How is "work" different from "leisure"? Is it something inside us [as humans] or outside us [such as technology] that makes the difference between higher and lower quality? Can we do it alone or must we do it together ... and who decides for whom?

When, Where and a Flyer

Tuesday, April 30,  7:00 to 8:45 pm at Friends University ... Room 100 of William Penn Hall.  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.

Renee Duxler – is the Executive Director of the Douglas Design District and Project Coordinator of Dress for Success
Andrea Knighton – is the founder of Wichita Area Sustainability Initiative
WASI universe of "Networks and Nested Systems"
Phil Nelson – is Director of the Wichita Area Metropolitan Planning Organization
Matt Riedl – is a writer for the Wichita Eagle Arts & Culture
Dr. Russell Arben Fox - Moderator, Political Science Professor and Director of the Honors Program at Friends University.

Epilogue

If you missed our symposium on "Quality of Life" in Wichita, you missed a panel of truly quality individuals who worked together in dialogue ... seemingly without letting ego or previous positions get in the way ... to encourage one another to draw out thoughts and ideas that could help us all understand how cities and groups within cities can work to improve their own lives and those of others. The evening had a balance and harmony that was uplifting in addition to being enlightening in ways that encouraged further thought ... an excellent example of what dialogue can be.

We will certainly want to have these panel members back as subjects and their schedules permit in the future ... and those of you who missed hearing them will want to come.

To relive this dialogue at Friends University and enhance the quality of your life, use this link to a quality AV recording on "Cities Matter: Quality of Life" [thanks to Paul Soutar at Graphic Lens] ... or you can just go to YouTube and search under "New Symposium Society".

Summer is slowly but surely heading to fall. We will gather one last time this summer on August 20. We 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 upcoming meetings in 2019.

Suggested Readings

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Happiness_Report
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Most_livable_cities
https://ratical.org/co-globalize/popsicleIdx.html

"We can expect … that the circuits woven [in our brains] by our use of the [Inter]net will be different from those woven by our reading of books and other printed works."
Is Google Making Us Stupid?, Nicholas Carr, 2008
Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman, 1985

Cities Matter

"And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth." ― Gen 11

Historians are not agreed ... [but] some tell us that fugitives of Troy obtained ships, were carried to the Tuscan coast, and cast anchor in the Tiber. There the women, who had suffered much from the sea voyage, were advised by one accounted for wisdom and noble birth, Roma by name, to burn the ships. At first the men were angry at this, but afterwards, ... they fared better than they expected, as they found the country fertile and the neighbours hospitable; so they paid great honour to Roma, and called the city after her name. ― Plutarch

Abba Isidore went to see the pope of Alexandria and when he returned the brethren asked him, 'What is going on in the city?' But he said to them, 'Truly, brothers, I did not see the face of anyone there, except that of the archbishop.' Hearing this they were very anxious and said to him, 'Has there been a disaster there?' He said 'Not at all, but the thought of looking at anyone did not get the better of me' At these words they were filled with admiration, and strengthened in their intention of guarding the eyes from all distraction. ― Sayings of the Desert Fathers

“The man who lives in a small community lives in a much larger world. He knows much more of the fierce variety and uncompromising divergences of men… In a large community, we can choose our companions. In a small community, our companions are chosen for us. Thus extensive and highly civilized society groups come into existence founded upon sympathy [then, as they grow,] shut out the real world more sharply than the gates of a monastery. There is nothing really narrow about the clan; the thing which is really narrow is the clique.” ― G.K. Chesterton, Heretics

"Cities" mean people and people need sociological order [even across generations]. But people and cities are dynamic which means disorder or reorder [at least temporarily] ... as generations come and go.

So what are the essential characteristics, the benefits and the costs of those collections of people we call "cities"? What are the alternatives? And how has technology changed these over time?

Then again ... here are some less abstract, practical questions about cities which our panelists feel will help make the important sociological issues surrounding them more relevant to our everyday lives.

• What should cities build? How much should they build? Who should build it?
• Should buildings be regulated, and if so, how much?
• How should buildings be paid for? And who should decide who should pay for those buildings?
• Should private builders be obliged to respect history? The popular will? Common spaces? The environment? If so, should incentives alone be used to accomplish those ends—or should use more direct means (taxes, zoning, eminent domain, public ownership) be used as well?
• ... more questions as they are posed.

When, Where and a Flyer

Tuesday, Feb 26,  7:00 to 8:45 pm at Friends University ... Room 100 of William Penn Hall.  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.

Dr. Chase Billingham – Assistant Professor of Sociology at Wichita State University with emphasis on urban sociology especially research examining gentrification, economic development, education, and stratification in U.S. metropolitan areas.

Mary Beth Jarvis – As President and CEO Wichita Festivals, Inc. she works to enhance the region’s quality of life by producing a world-class annual community celebration. She is the chairwoman of the Century II Citizens Advisory Committee.

Robert Layton – has served as Wichita’s City Manager since his appointment in 2009. He reports to a seven-member City Council and oversees 3,000+ employees, a $573 million annual budget and a $1.9 billion Capital Improvement Program.

Bob Weeks – writes the “Voice For Liberty” blog focusing on community and public affairs in Wichita and throughout Kansas. He fills in as guest host on talk radio shows, serves as a panelist on public affairs television programs, and hosts his weekly television program WichitaLiberty.TV.

Dr. Russell Arben Fox - Moderator, Political Science Professor and Director of the Honors Program at Friends University, will moderate.

Epilogue

Thanks to our excellent panelists for an evening of different perspectives from which to view ... and with which to engage ... the complex, dynamic and often confusing world  of cities in the process of physical change to accommodate the swelling ocean of desires by individuals and groups that have the money, influence, power and/or opportunity to make things happen.

• Chase Billingham talked about sociology in a comprehensive way that made room for us to see that we have various options in how we regulate ourselves and that the different options we choose have different consequences.
• Mary Beth Jarvis reminded us that attempting to identify and articulate a collective preference without individual decision-making [in the form of actual purchases] is not a task for the easily discouraged or impatient.
• Robert Layton wisely steered us back to basics reminding us that we need to agree on definitions to be sure the thoughts we exchange compare apples with apples.
• And Bob Weeks repeatedly demonstrated how well free markets and competition work as a decentralized-but-not-chaotic method for sociological regulation across a wide range of factual and resource settings [Russell's reservations notwithstanding].

Thanks to each of our panelists for a unique contribution to our dialogue. 👏👏

For those who missed [or just want to relive] this stimulating evening at Friends University, use this link to watch a quality AV recording on "Cities Matter" ... thanks to Paul Soutar at Graphic Lens ... or you can just go to YouTube and search for it under "New Symposium Society".

We welcomed old friends and some VERY EXCITING new friends !!! Special thanks to our local political representatives for coming and contributing. We 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 upcoming meetings in 2019.

Suggested Readings

Civics 101
"Four Essential Attributes of a State",  Ja Teline, Dec 2010

The state is the result of social instinct in man. One cannot think of the state without human beings as one cannot conceive of cloth without yarn.

The Law, Frederic Bastiat, 1850

Here I encounter the most popular fallacy of our times. It is not considered sufficient that the law should be just; ... Instead, it is demanded that the law should directly extend welfare, education, and morality. This is the seductive lure of socialism. And I repeat again: These two uses of the law are in direct contradiction to each other. We must choose between them.

"Process of evolution of the State from the primitive times to the modern Nation State", Preserve Articles

Rome began as a city-state like the city-states of Greece. ... But before democracy could reach the final stage Rome found herself involved in wars with her neighbors ... [and] soon she subjugated [them] and turned westwards and southwards, bringing all the countries round the Mediterranean under her sway. ... The democratic city-state turned into an autocratic empire. The Greek ideals of liberty, democracy and local independence were subverted by the Roman ideals of unity, order, universal law and cosmopolitanism.

"The Road to Serfdom" [in cartoons], FA Hayek, 1946

Socialism has persuaded liberal-minded people to submit once more to that regimentation of economic life [centralized economic planning] which they had overthrown because, in the words of Adam Smith, it puts governments in a position where "to support themselves they are obliged to be oppressive and tyrannical."

The Delusion of Economic Development
"North Texas cities turn incentives arsenals against each other in fight for businesses & jobs", Dallas Morning News, March 29, 2018

University of Chicago Booth Business School professor, Anil Kashyap, said in the survey that the competition between cities and states for jobs is “almost entirely zero-sum.” Nevertheless, a recent report by the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research’s Timothy J. Bartik found that the use of business incentives nationwide tripled from 1990 to 2015.

"Why Don’t the 20 Cities on Amazon’s HQ2 Shortlist Collectively Bargain Instead of Collectively Beg?", The Intercept, Jan 22, 2018 

Rohit Ro Khanna, U.S. Representative for California’s 17th congressional district as a member of the Democratic Party, told The Intercept: “The cities should not compete against each other in a race to the bottom. It’s absurd for the taxpayers to offer subsidies to one of the richest companies in the world.”

"The Amazon Deal Was An Outrage From the Beginning", Veronique de Rugy, February 15, 2019, American Institute for Economic Research [AIER.org]

"You won’t hear me say this often, but in this case AOC got it right! It was indeed an outrage for the city to extend to Amazon over $3 billion in subsidies. In fact, there is never any good reason for government to subsidize a private company. Such handouts are appalling in their cronyism, in addition to being a sign of economic ignorance."

Intergenerational Equity 

Intergenerational equity is the concept of justice across generations [living and unborn]. It is often discussed with regard to transition economics, social policy, and government budget-making where, for example, the present accumulation of massive public debt or other obligations like pensions will burden future generations. Wikipedia

The Declaration of Interdependence And Jefferson’s ‘Brilliant Statement Of Intergenerational Equity Principles’, Joe Romm, ThinkProgress, Jul 4, 2013 

“The question [w]hether one generation of men has a right to bind another … is a question of such consequences as not only to merit decision, but place also among the fundamental principles of every government…. I set out on this ground, which I suppose to be self-evident, ‘that the earth belongs in usufruct to the living’ … Turn this subject in your mind, my dear Sir, and particularly as to the power of contracting debts.” T. Jefferson letter to J. Madison, Sep 6, 1789


The Logic of Public Irresponsibility 

"It is easier to obtain votes for appropriations than it is for taxes ... to consume than to produce ... to borrow than to save ... [and] faced with these choices between the hard and the soft, the normal propensity of democratic governments is to please the largest number of voters. The pressure of the electorate is normally for the soft side ... [which] is why governments are unable to cope with reality when elected assemblies and mass opinions become decisive ... when there are no statesmen to resist ... but only politicians to excite and exploit. There is then a general tendency to be drawn downward ... towards insolvency."
Walter Lippmann, Essays in the Public Philosophy, Book One: The Decline of the West, Chapter IV: The Public Interest, Section 2: The Equations of Reality, 1954

"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." ― H.L. Mencken

Crisis and Leviathan, Critical Episodes in the Growth of American Government, Robert Higgs, 1987


"While traditional public choice generally maintains that democracy fails because voters'  views  are  rational  but  ignored,  the  Mises-Bastiat  view  is  that democracy  fails  because  voters'  views  are  irrational  but  heeded.    Mises and  Bastiat  anticipate  many  of  the  most  effective  criticisms  of  traditional public  choice  to  emerge  during  the  last  decade  and point  to  many avenues for future research."
"Mises, Bastiat, Public Opinion, and Public Choice: What's Wrong with Democracy?", Bryan Caplan & Edward Peter Stringham, Review of Political Economy, Vol. 17, No. 1, pp. 79-105, January 2005

Wealth Matters

 Now no plant [natural resources] had yet sprung up on the earth ... and there was no one to work the ground [human labor] ... So God created mankind in his own image ... and said "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth ... and to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky I give every green plant for food." ― Genesis

Our technology, our machines [tools], is part of our humanity. We created them to extend ourselves, and that is what is unique about human beings. ― Ray Kurzweil





Every nation [except America] has folk traditions of men who were poor but extremely wise and virtuous, and therefore more estimable than anyone with power and gold. [But in America everyone mocks the poor by] asking this cruel question: "if you’re so smart, why ain’t you rich?" ― Kurt Vonnegut


With the "fall of communism" as part of the Revolutions of 1989, the planet's preeminent remaining system for producing and allocating wealth became capitalism ... which appeared to be the no-brainer, default answer to the world's problems. But as promising as it seemed to be, the last four decades have shown us that, even in the absence of viable alternatives, capitalism has not been able to avoid serious and threatening problems such as

• the failure of popular movements to remove oligarchs and dictators,
• endless military and now trade wars,
• a degraded and potentially deteriorating global environment,
• mass migration to avoid hardship provoking nationalism to protect lifestyles and
• exploding economic inequality that is unstable if not unsustainable.

To help us better understand the issues at stake, we will consider the following three questions:

1. How does material wealth arise from combining natural resources, human labor and tools [including all forms of technology]  ... and how do capitalism and socialism justify the different ways they produce and allocate wealth among the members of society? Does this equation help or hinder your understanding of the issues and relationships:

Man's Material Wealth = Natural Resources + (Human Labor x Tools)

2. Is capitalism working as anticipated in America and globally? If not, why not? And how accurate is the claim that Republicans want capitalism while Democrats want socialism?

3. Can capitalism and socialism be "mixed" and if so how should this be done to preserve the benefits while avoiding the pitfalls of each system? Does this thought help or hinder your understanding of the proper dividing line between capitalism and socialism:

"There are, finally, undoubted fields where no legal arrangements can create the main condition on which the usefulness of the system of competition and private property depends: namely, that the owner benefits from all the useful services rendered by his property and suffers for all the damages caused to others by its use. ... In all these instances there is a divergence between the items which enter into private calculation and those which affect social welfare; and, wherever this divergence becomes important, some method other than competition may have to be found to supply the services in question. ... But the fact that we have to resort to the substitution of direct regulation by authority where the conditions for the proper working of competition cannot be created does not prove that we should suppress competition where it can be made to function." FA Hayek, 1944, "The Road to Serfdom", Chapter 3: Individualism and Collectivism

 When, Where and a Flyer

Tuesday, Nov 13,  7:00 to 8:45 pm at Friends University in the President's Dining Room on the 1st floor of Casado Campus Center.  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.

... and if you are inclined and able to say THANKS to Friends for the serious hospitality extended to NSS during 2018, please consider making a tax deductible gift payable to "Friends University" noting "New Symposium Society" on the memo line of your check.  You can give the check to us and we will get it to them ... or just mail it yourself.

The Evening's Format: Breakout Groups

We will be testing a new breakout group format for the evening. You can read more about it on the Breakout Groups page of this blog.

• Symposiasts will be divided into groups of 10-15 each with its own moderator.
• The members of each group will spend 20-30 minutes discussing each question.
• At the end, we will all regather to adjourn for the evening ... and the year.

Send us an email in advance at NewSymposium@gmail.com if you plan on coming so we can be sure to have enough breakout group spaces and moderators. We look forward to a stimulating evening of total participation.

Epilogue

WOW is the only way to describe our evening discussing why Wealth Matters. With 20+ persons around a table ... in a very comfortable and productive setting in the Friends President's Dining Room ... which included Friends students as well as professors Russell Fox and Malcolm Harris ... and with Mike as our moderator ... WE became co-panelists for the evening as we worked together to articulate and examine various aspects of our topic which arose from our personal experiences and thoughts. We surprised ourselves at how productive and rewarding honest and respectful dialogue can be.

And while there was no AV recording of our dialogue due to the dispersed nature of the conversations, we did end the evening with a brief tally of what those in attendance would like to see most in our society and its leaders if they had to choose only one thing. The hands-down majority answer was expressed in two ways [positively and negatively]:

• more freedom
• less regulation.

Accordingly, we will begin work on a 2019 symposium on "Regulations Matter" at which we can discuss individual freedom and collective regulation as two distinct ways to "organize" ourselves sociologically and see if we can better discern the strengths and weaknesses of each and the proper, dynamic dividing line that can help us determine "how much" of each we need.

We welcomed old and new friends alike. We would especially like to thank the Friends University students who joined us ... they have so much to contribute! And we hope YOU will stay in touch with New Symposium Society in 2019. 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 2019.

NSS  Readings [with links]

Required
Buddhist Economics, EF Schumacher, 1966, Schumacher Center for a New Economics

Universal Basic Income Is Silicon Valley’s Latest Scam: The plan is no gift to the masses, but a tool for our further enslavement, Douglas Rushkoff, Medium, 2018

Suggested
A Review of Buddhist Economics and Universal Basic Income, Bob Love, Nov 2018 

Adam Smith on the Crisis of Capitalism, Machinery of Politics, 2012 [the desire for and danger of monopoly]

Founding Finance: Against the consensus account of America's formative years, review of Hogeland's book [see below] by David Skeel, Christianity Today, 2012

Founding Finance: How Debt, Speculation, Foreclosures, Protests, and Crackdowns Made Us a Nation, William Hogeland, 2012

Key Terms
Fascism [wikipedia]
Mixed Economy [wikipedia]

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