I am happy to report that we had a successful Braver Angels Red/Blue workshop regarding the first 100 days of the Trump administration here in NYC. Given our location, we had a bit harder time recruiting Reds, but the NYC Braver Angels Alliance has a good connection with the NYC Young Republicans, so we were able to recruit some young Reds. This particular workshop involved having each group sit together to respond to the prompt “What are your hopes and concerns about the Trump administration?” while the other group sits around them to observe (we refer to this as a fishbowl), then the groups swap and the other one answers the prompt. We then have them get together in Red/Blue pairs to share what they learned (we suggest talking about insights, surprises, and commonalities they saw with the folks on the other side), and then they all come back into the big circle to talk about what they learned and are taking out into their daily lives from the workshop.
I had some challenges with the person doing logistics for me (like not having everyone signed up in time, arriving late, and starting us 15 minutes late, with my having to still deal with a hard stop at the time originally agreed upon with the venue), but it otherwise went really well. I had a hard time prying the pairs apart to return to sharing learnings in the big circle, and unfortunately, I had to cut people short with all the great things they wanted to share because of the time constraints. I was thrilled about the evaluations (especially how many felt better disposed toward the other side), and I wanted to share below the comments some people wrote in their evaluation about what they had learned. (Oh, I want to add that it was amazing that we had 50 to 60 observers in addition to the fishbowl participants, the vast majority of whom were Blue.)
1. Discussion is the base from which policy should grow
2. We all love America, we just disagree on how to help fix it.
3. Don’t let politics control a life that you have more control over
4. Both sides are worried about corruption
5. Unity is possible, but it is a shared responsibility
6. We can find things to agree on
7. Bringing back empathy and dismantling our echo chambers will solve our political crisis.
8. We all yearn for unity and leadership
9. Humor helps
10. Bond issuance by the Fed is only understood by a small minority of people in Finance and Public Policy.
11. The other sides opinions are not as radical as I thought.
12. Maintain composure and an open mind
13. Lots about national debt, and about the points on which Blues and Reds converge.
14. The systems are designed to keep us out of conversation but it’s extremely important to put faces and names to “the other side” so you can stay engaged and not get shut down and overwhelmed.
15. There is commonality between both groups to a degree
16. That there are ideas and language that could be used effectively to address differences between reds and blues.
17. Listening
18. That we can have civil conversations.
19. There is a desire to have a common American culture.
20. So long as we all love America there is hope.
21. Reds made sense
22. You all do amazing work
23. The red side has legitimate issue concerns and also some concerns about how the administration is dealing with them
24. There’s room to reach the other side
25. Improve civics for all ages and political orientations
26. At least some Reds’ views aren’t as extreme or illogical as I’d believed.
27. That nearly all people define their political views in terms of good that can be done.
28. There are common concerns that can be the focus of exploration to building common ground for legislation.
29. The need for a common an accurate news source is a requirement of improving our intrractions
30. We want very similar things, but define them very differently. Don't know how to bridge that. "Finding a fact source we can agree is reliable "
31. I think we need to find a way to share stories and talk about values with people whose politics are so different from our own. It seems that the end of the conversation last night should lead to something deeper, perhaps with some of the same people.
32. Importance of the having conversations with those who have different opinions
33. We have many common wants and core values for national unity, freedoms
34. Good to come with written speeches.
35. The value of these conversations because our ultimate hopes and vision are the same.
36. We have more in common as a collective
37. That we all want the same
Hi everyone, I haven't been active in Solid Ground for a while, but I am still alive and kicking! I now work as personal assistant to a mind-bendingly weird and diva-esque artist-lip-syncher-performer named Fiona Blueberry. She is blissfully clueless about politics and seems to be completely unaware of the culture wars. Working with her is a breath of fresh air. If you need a mood lift, I encourage you to watch this video we made together. Happy 4th, everyone! Wishing you fun/love/peace on this holiday. :) www.fionablueberry.com
Our very own @YayRain (after having imbibed some golden nectar), shares with us yet one more problem with CRT....
Disclaimer: I am an unabashed fan of Mary Harrington's. Something about her perspective just knocks me out. So, apologies in advance for gushing yet again about her latest piece. But it's a stunner!
Too many angles to easily summarize, but special note to @dofaresol bc HRH Harrington touches on how our current culture is, in some ways, a direct result of society's attempt to stay away, far away, from the A bomb. That our current fetish for re-inventing what a human being is (from social engineering to literally surgically altering our bodies) is a result of turning engineering "inward," away from the "splitting the atom" direction. (There are hints of Lewsis's Tao here, as well as the earlier article posted by @Sephira about the aspiration toward human-centered tech.)
Some random samples (the piece is a speech she recently gave at a family formation event in Budapest):
"...the Pill was the first mass-market transhumanist technology. It said: we are entitled to break normative health in the name of ...
This weekend’s a special one here in Utah. This is one of my favorites we’ll be singing…mostly for the arrangement, but also the words.
While I know we all might have different “anchors” to help us get through the madness around us, mine is Jesus, as imperfect as I am.
Hey, Boyce's most recent episode is worth sampling, even just the first ten minutes. Very rough quote below. The guest, a professor at a school that's managed to fend off anti-Western canon efforts, talks about the PC push in the 90s, and how "defeating" that led to a false sense of complacency among "classical liberals."
My instinct (and deep fear) is that that's part of what we're experiencing (and talking a lot about) right now. That swinging our focus to the admittedly shocking moves coming out of the US executive is a critical error. Not wrong to keep an eye on it, to oppose it, to discuss and monitor it. But to view it as an equal/replacement threat is a potentially mortal error.
The violent, missionary, zealotrous "Left" is going nowhere, per various entries here about their redoubts in academia, K-12, and in big business, among other places. They have secured a beachhead, and they will be happy to wait there until this "New Right" push is swept out of office, starting with the ...
