Meerbrook Discussion notes
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CHARITY
Lazy Trout, Meerbrook Feb 6th 2012-02-05
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity. First Letter to the Corinthians chapter 13
1. What do we think of this passage from the King James version of the bible?
2. What is your understanding of charity in the religious sense?
3. "Charity sees the need not the cause."
German proverb
"One of the serious obstacles to the improvement of our race is indiscriminate charity."
Andrew Carnegie - US businessman.
Are these quotations conflicting?
4. Why do you think we are charitable as a species?
5. On the whole does religious faith make us more charitable?
"Hold your beliefs lightly." – Grayson Perry
6. There are around 180,000 registered charities in England and Wales. Their total annual income is over £20 billion (=£20,000 million).
Why are there so many?
7. Charities receive support from society in many ways and the public have the right to expect charities to be open and accountable. Public trust and confidence in charities is high - we want to make sure it stays that way. – The Charity Commision.
In general do we trust the charity sector?
8. It is not just giving money, giving time is just as important. Why is there so much less publicity for this side of charities?
9. "Charity begins at home!" Mean or true?
10. Some people despise the homeless. Why?
Arab Spring
Discussion Circle Lazy Trout 23 Jan 2012.
Based on Blue Mugge notes ‘The Arab revolt is changing the World’
http://www.oddc.org.uk/discussion%20notes.html , Wikipedia and www.opendemocracy.net
The Arab Spring is a revolutionary wave of demonstrations and protests occurring in the Arab world that began on Saturday, 18 December 2010. To date, there have been revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt; a civil war in Libya resulting in the fall of its government; civil uprisings in Bahrain,[ Syria, and Yemen, the latter resulting in the resignation of the Yemeni prime minister; major protests in Algeria, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, and Oman; and minor protests in Lebanon, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Western Sahara. Clashes at the borders of Israel in May 2011 and the Palestine 194 movement were also inspired by the regional Arab Spring.
It was sparked by the first protests that occurred in Tunisia on 18 December 2010 following Mohamed Bouazizi's self-immolation in protest of police corruption and ill treatment.
1. What are the implications globally and for Britain?
2. Why have these revolutions only taken place in Arab countries when so many other countries are repressed?
3. David Cameron finds the uprisings in the Arab world ‘hugely inspiring’. Do we?
4. Ed Milliband agrees on this, adding ‘All western governments have been taught a lesson – democracy has been shown to be valued by ordinary people in the Arab world as much as it was in eastern Europe in 1989 or in the western world before’. Did we feel that the Arab world was happy with autocracy?
5. How do we feel the internet and technology has helped the uprisings?
6. Has the Arab Spring shot it’s bolt?
7. Wajahat Qazi thinks that Islamists in different permutations and combinations, they are likely to come to power in most Arab Muslim countries. Do we agree? Would it be a bad thing?
8. An election for a Constituent Assembly was held in Tunisia on 23 October 2011 following the Tunisian revolution. The new Assembly has 217 members. It was the first free election held in Tunisia since the country's independence in 1956, as well as the first election in the Arab world held after the start of the Arab Spring. A moderate Islamist party won the most seats. Green shoots or signs of blight?
9. Should the West intervene in Syria?
10. The USA has been unusually quiet. Why?
How would we change the capitalist system? – Occupy?
Based on Wikipedia – “Capitalism” and also “The Long and the Quick of Revolution” by Anthony Barnett . http://www.opendemocracy.net/anthony-barnett/long-and-quick-of-revolution
This might also be of interest - http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/02/opinion/krugman-nobody-understands-debt.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all
And this - http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2011/11/28/maximizing-shareholder-value-the-dumbest-idea-in-the-world/
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category. There is general agreement that elements of capitalism include private ownership of the means of production, creation of goods or services for profit or income, the accumulation of capital, competitive markets, voluntary exchange, and wage labor.
Economists, political economists and historians have taken different perspectives on the analysis of capitalism. Economists usually emphasize the degree that government does not have control over markets (laissez faire), and on property rights. Most political economists emphasize private property, power relations, wage labour, class and emphasize capitalism as a unique historical formation. Capitalism is generally viewed as encouraging economic growth. The extent to which different markets are free, as well as the rules defining private property, is a matter of politics and policy, and many states have what are termed mixed economies.
Have we anything to add to this?
1. Is capitalism broke?
2. Should we change the capitalist system?
3. What alternatives are there?
4. Can we grow forever? Where does sustainability come in?
5. What does the stock market do?
6. What do we know about the Occupy movement?
7. Is the Occupy movement likely to bring about revolution?
8. In Tent City University they are grappling with researching the reasons for economic failure and what can be done. Will they run out of stream?
Christmas and propects for 2012
Lazy Trout 12 Dec 2011. A light hearted approach to discussion. Bad jokes will be rewarded by a hearty cheer.
The precise day of Jesus’ birth, which historians place between 7 and 2 BC, is unknown. In the early-to-mid 4th century, the Western Christian Church first placed Christmas on December 25, a date later adopted also in the East. Theories advanced to explain that choice include that it falls exactly nine months after the Christian celebration of the conception of Jesus,[ or that it was selected to coincide with either the date of the Roman winter solstice or of some ancient winter festival.
The earliest evidence of the celebration on December 25 of a Christian liturgical feast of the birth of Jesus is from the Chronography of 354 AD. This was in Rome, while in Eastern Christianity the birth of Jesus was already celebrated in connection with the Epiphany on January 6.
1. What do we like about Christmas?
2. What is bad about Christmas? (Bah humbug)
3. Any idea why we should be celebrating Christmas on Jan 7?
4. In the 15th century, it was recorded that in London it was the custom at Christmas for every house and all the parish churches to be "decked with holm, ivy, bays, and whatsoever the season of the year afforded to be green". The heart-shaped leaves of ivy were said to symbolize the coming to earth of Jesus, while holly was seen as protection against pagans and witches, its thorns and red berries held to represent the Crown of Thorns worn by Jesus at the crucifixion and the blood he shed.
The Puritans banned Christmas should we?
5. Will we have a white Christmas in Meerbrook. Is Jason taking bets?
6. Will the Euro really collapse or is it just a Daily Mail dream?
7. Will the LHC find the “God particle” or will Brian Cox become a Saint?
8. Will the UK government do anything about the riots or will the bankers just continue looting?
9 Will the Cambridges have children in 2012 or just a litter of corgis?
10. Will Big Brother run for ever?
Taboos
Lazy Trout 28th Nov 2011
Extracts from http://www.creefoxreports.com/page2/assets/Taboos%20sample.pdf
The use of taboo in English dates back to 1777 when English explorer, Captain James Cook, visited Tonga. Describing the cultural practices of the Tongans, he wrote:
"Not one of them would sit down, or eat a bit of any thing.... On expressing my surprise at this, they were all taboo, as they said; which word has a very comprehensive meaning; but, in general, signifies that a thing is forbidden."
I wonder what ol’ Jimmy was feeding them?
1. Going round the group what taboos can you think of?
2. “Taboos are not the same as morals. It is not about distinguishing right from wrong. Taboos are repellent, not merely undesirable”. What do we think?
3. Acting out a taboo is not the same as talking about it. There is a difference between doing and discussing – isn’t there?
4. “People may enjoy talking about taboos generally, because it appeals to their need for a sense of the forbidden. However, they are likely to remain quite private about their own personal taboos. Thus taboos have a social function for the group, and they also have a personal function by shaping identity, and the kinds of tribes to which individuals choose to belong. This is the power of taboos in human life”. Do we dispute the power of taboos?
5. “Taboos disgust and excite –the paradox of taboos is they are very often forbidden fruit”. Really?
6. “At least one way of measuring the freedom of any society is the amount of comedy that is permitted, and clearly a healthy society permits more satirical comment than a repressive, so that if comedy is to function in some way as a safety release then it must obviously deal with these taboo areas. This is part of the responsibility we accord our licensed jesters, that nothing be excused the searching light of comedy. If anything can survive the probe of humour it is clearly of value, and conversely all groups who claim immunity from laughter are claiming special privileges which should not be granted.”
Eric Idle
Is this true?
7. “Democracy is based upon so childish a complex of fallacies that they must be protected by a rigid system of taboos, else even half-wits would argue it to pieces”
Henry Louis Mencken
What does/could this imply?
8. “Taboos set limits. There is no taboo without authority – the new authorities are broadcasters, media personalities, fashion, or individuals. We are more educated, more aware, less reverential of certain expert sources”. We are more stroppy then?
9. “Many taboos are created because we are not all the same. For example, children, old people or animals need more protection because they are more vulnerable. Beliefs that men and women were different from each other led to old taboos, such as single parenting, menstruation, or women having careers. However, beliefs that we are all the same appear to be eroding taboos.”
10 “However, beliefs that we are all the same appear to be eroding taboos, but also eroding eccentricity. The old colourful characters in music, sport, politics are on the decline. It may even be that brands are reducing eccentricity, because of the way that non-use of brands increasingly defines someone as uncool, or not part of the group”. Its those marketers again!
Aesthetics and the Golden Ratio
Discussion Circle Lazy Trout 31 Oct 2011
References Wikipedia – “Beauty”, also “Aesthetics”
Aesthetics (also spelled æsthetics or esthetics) is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and with the creation and appreciation of beauty. It is more scientifically defined as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste. More broadly, scholars in the field define aesthetics as "critical reflection on art, culture and nature."
1. According to Kant, beauty is objective and universal; thus certain things are beautiful to everyone. Others say “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder” Is it or is it intrinsic?
2. The Age of Reason saw a rise in an interest in beauty as a philosophical subject. For example, Scottish philosopher Francis Hutcheson(Irish philosopher 1694-1746) argued that beauty is "unity in variety and variety in unity". The Romantic poets, too, became highly concerned with the nature of beauty, with John Keats arguing in "Ode on a Grecian Urn" that
Beauty is truth, truth beauty ,—that is all.
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know
What?
3. Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it. - Confucius. How true?
4. It is amazing how complete is the delusion that beauty is goodness. - Leo Tolstoy(1828-1910).
People who appear ugly to others suffer well-documented discrimination, earning 10 to 15 percent less per year than similar workers, and are less likely to be hired for almost any job, but lack legal recourse to fight discrimination.
Does beauty have a dark side?
5. How do we think taste differs from beauty?
6. What’s inner beauty? Is it really beautiful?
7. Music stirs the soul. Is music just aural beauty or is there something fundamentally different?
8. In Town and Country Planning the answer to the universe and everything is 1.61803399….not 42. The Golden Ratio.
Which do you think is the most pleasing shape?
9. Raphael's Crucifixion. Golden All sorts? Does it look good to us?
10. Galileo Galilei is reported to have said, "Mathematics is the language with which God wrote the universe.”
Paul Erdős (Hungarian Mathematician 1913 -1996) expressed his views on the ineffability of mathematics when he said, "Why are numbers beautiful? It's like asking why is Beethoven's Ninth Symphony beautiful. If you don't see why, someone can't tell you. I know numbers are beautiful. If they aren't beautiful, nothing is. Was this man mad?
Anti Matter – Does it matter?
Lazy Trout 17th Oct 2011
Taken from
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/8560935/Cern-Alpha-and-antimatter-storage-why-antimatter-should-matter-to-us.html
and http://www.particleadventure.org/index.html
1. Paul Dirac(1902-1984) a very prominent English scientist predicted the existence of the positron the anti particle to the electron in 1928. It was discovered in 1932. What do we know about anti-matter 79 years after its initial discovery?
2. Very recently scientists have stored anti- matter for about 16 minutes. Time enough to measure possible differences between it and normal matter.
Anti-matter is the stuff of Science Fiction. It is what drives the starship Enterprise to warp speed. Have any of us read science fiction?
3. Throughout history we have wondered what the fundamental building blocks of the Universe are. Air, Fire, Earth and Water were thought to be fundamental by many cultures.
By convention there is colour,
By convention sweetness,
By convention bitterness,
But in reality there are atoms and space.
-Democritus (c. 400 BCE). How did they come to this conclusion so long ago?
4. By 1900 the atom was thought of as a squishy ball with bits of electric charge in it. Rutherford(1871-1937) at Manchester proved otherwise. Over the 20th century the fundamental particles have become smaller and smaller, and 100+ subatomic particles have been discovered and for every particle there is an anti particle. These are all made up of the most fundamental particles which, at the moment, are 6 quarks, 6 leptons, 6 anti-quarks, 6 anti-leptons. The vast majority our universe is made up of only 4 particles the up-quark, the down-quark, the electron and the neutrino. How well have we all kept up with the advance in knowledge in this area? Do we need to keep up?
5. Particle accelerators like the Large Hadron Accelerator (LHC) have given us much of the knowledge on subatomic particles. The LHC is expected to cost £6+bn.
Prof Hawking says that the LHC project is one of the most important in the history of scientific endeavour. Asked to choose between it and the space program, he said: "That is like asking which of my children I would choose to sacrifice. Both the LHC and the Space program are vital if the human race is not to stultify and eventually die out. Together they cost less than one tenth of a per cent of world GDP. If the human race can not afford this, then it doesn't deserve the epithet 'human'." Do we agree with him?
6. The theory which predicts quarks etc is called the “Standard model” which predicts to enormous precision many properties of matter and force. However it does not embrace gravity. The 2 other big theories are Quantum theory and the Theory of Relativity.
The Standard Model is under threat if the LHC does not find a Higgs boson – the God particle - a particle which assigns mass to all other particles What do we think will happen if the God particle is not found?
7.Towards a “Theory of Everything”. Anti particles were predicted to solve the problem generated by classical theory that an electron which should be a point charge in space was calculated to be at least as big as an atom. Similarly a further theoretical doubling of particles is proposed in the “Super symmetry theory” because of an inconsistency in the Standard model. It is these inconsistencies that drive knowledge on. Science tends to embrace failure as a positive thing why is this not the case in other walks of life?
8. What do we know about Time?
9. String theory, Other dimensions, Multi-verse, Dark Matter and Dark Energy…. What?
10. Why is Science not exciting?
Understanding and Forgiveness – old fashioned values?
Lazy Trout 3rd Oct 2011.
Based in part on http://www.pbs.org/thisemotionallife/topic/forgiveness/understanding-forgiveness
1. The World religions almost all see forgiveness as a power for good.
The Hindu leader Vidura said, “Forgiveness subdues (all) in this world; what is there that forgiveness cannot achieve? What can a wicked person do unto him who carries the sabre of forgiveness in his hand? Fire falling on the grassless ground is extinguished of itself. And the unforgiving individual defiles himself with many enormities.
Jesus said. “But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you.” Luke 6:27
How effective is this doctrine?
2. Can you forgive unilaterally?
3. Is reconciliation the same as forgiveness?
4. Can/Should you forgive and forget?
5. Does understanding someone’s motives make it easier to forgive?
6. “Don’t look for malice when incompetence/conceit will do”?
7. Should our Justice system enable forgiveness? Does it?
8. How does a blame culture improve the lot of those involved?
9. Self forgiveness – what is it and why is it necessary?
10. Is there really such a thing as an accident at work?
10. After WW2 they had the Nuremberg trials after Apartheid they had The Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Which was the most effective I wonder?