April 13, 2014 5:00 PM Brandon’s Home

Brandon, Michael, Jennifer, Laurent, and Sergio,

Notes by Michael and Brandon

Brandon announced his successful grant application -- YEAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!

Discussion of the history of the application process and next steps

Advertising and Medicine Discussion (Laurent initiates discussions)

I. HPV

Value of information being considered in full context

Dangers of skewed data or selectively framed data

Question to ask: Who wins if you believe this data?

When does data become propaganda, profiteering, or lying?

At what point does the Car Salesperson Archetype emerge?

II. Single Payer Healthcare

What questions do I need close at hand?

Who has power?

Who has no voice?

What is the bottom line of the reasons to do this?

What kind of thinking/teaching/living can makes us quicker reactor to bullshit of empire-building?

What mythology is he/she in and how can I speak to him/her using their belief system?

What kinds of habits of thought do we need to be cultural martial artists?

III. Truth in Advertising

What’s at stake to demand truth in advertising?

Reality control, mutual dialogue, the unknown, fear of change, feeling uncomfortable, actual change in ideas, people, and belief systems (myths)

Ideas for starting places for discussions:

“Just like you, I value ….”

“So it’s clear we like the same things … kids, education, air, food, a home, so we share the same starting point”

“I try every day to get bigger so I’ll be more ready tomorrow to talk about this in a bigger way”

“I want to nuance my thinking more each day – is that a value for you too?”

“Can I ask permission to continue this conversation?”

“I’m feeling really uncomfortable here. Can we talk about it more? Is this a good time? If not now, let we know when would be a good time?”

“When I hear/see________, I feel/think _________, and I don’t want to feel/think that, so I wanted to let you know I’m not going to feel/think that any more and I wanted to let you know I’m going to be trying to change my behavior.”

Breathe and slightly bend your knees when you hit a stuck moment – change the physicality of confrontation or difference.

Sit on the same side oar face the same direction (side-by-side) with the person as you talk to change the physicality.

“Let’s agree to disagree, respect each other, and commit to more communication”

Use ‘yet’ and ‘and’ and let go of ‘but’ in your sentences

Ask for moments of reprieve

Move it back to a discussion about meaning-making, soul-food, and what makes us human

Potential topics for future roundtables:

Reality Control

Liberal Arts as Reality Control, the window to understanding RC, and Pathway to Mutual Dialogue

Housekeeping

Please set p a recurring donation to ABC to help cover the small expense of the food and drink we enjoy t the tune of $10 or more – O Dana, O Dana

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The category of potential discussion topic we discussed for the next meeting was very much like the following:

** How Does Change Work? **

Subcategories of inquiry:

"Conservative" ("Traditional") vs "Liberal" ("Progressive") "mind"

archetypal roles and temperament

Win-Lose Arguments often feeling like obfuscation and dialogue feeling mutually educative

question to ask--What change is feared?

How to change a/my mind? Good people have bad habits of thought and action. What are mine?

individualism

making a religion of change

communication styles

projective (you always) vs first person speech (I feel/think/wonder)

going first (to change a feeling/sense)

** Reality Control **

(As developed before)

Seems like an ongoing concern.

Let's work with it soon but not next time?

We agreed to back-burner our Education topic

Subcategories of inquiry:

Liberal Arts as a series of rehearsals in learning how to participate in Reality Control

Reward and Punishment?

Equity

a dilemma -- underscoring (most often kids with fewer resources) leads to remediation and no electives or enrichment

leads to a spike in the drop-out rate

leads to kids with money getting electives and becoming more likely to succeed in general

this is a class issue