Host a Text, Talk, Act Mental Health Conversation this April 14th & May 7th!

In case you missed our previous post, we want to remind you again that Text, Talk, Act  is back! This April and May, thousands of people, especially young people, will have a nationwide conversation on mental health and how to help a friend in need, and you should join!

Here’s how it works: Through text messaging, small groups will receive discussion questions to lead them through a conversation about mental health – how to take care of their own and how to help a friend in need. The conversation will last for about 45 minutes and all that’s needed is a smart phone and few people to participate.

The next two conversations for Text, Talk, Act will take place on Tuesday, April 14th (in collaboration with Active Minds’ Stress Less Week) and on Thursday, May 7th (in partnership with SAMHSA’s National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day). We strongly encourage our NCDD members to consider signing up to organize a Text, Talk, Act event in your communities. We know these events are helping make a difference in the lives of young people across the country, and we want to support this innovative way to engage young people in dialogue!

Also don’t forget about the great contest where TTA participants can win $1,000 for their schools or organizations!

If you want to participate but can’t make either date, you can still take part anytime between now and the end of May by following the same instructions. We encourage you to learn more about Text, Talk, Act by visiting www.creatingcommunitysolutions.org/texttalkact.

Looking for more opportunities to dialogue about mental health in you community? Everyday Democracy, one of our key NCDD organizational members, has a number of resources that can help you organize a community conversation around mental health as part of the National Dialogue on Mental Health. If you are interested, please visit www.everyday-democracy.org/national-dialogue-mental-health.

You can also learn more about the process for organizing a mental health community conversation, as well as access some free resources, here: www.creatingcommunitysolutions.org/resources.

The Terminator and Free Will

The Terminator franchise does some really interesting things with time.

Seriously.

Every storyline centers around time travel. Around events being changed, or perhaps not changed, as a result of time travel.

(The fourth movie is an exception to this, but I think we can all agree that movie was just terrible.)

I’m particularly intrigued by the Terminator movies as an argument for – or perhaps against – predestination.

At its heart, the struggle against the robot uprising and ensuing apocalypse is really an exploration of the questions can the future be changed? Is our fate already written?

On it’s face, the Terminator seems to argue against predestination.

In the eponymous 1984 movie Kyle Reese famously – yeah, that’s what I’m going with here – argues, “the future is not set. There is no fate but what we make for ourselves.”

That phrase is repeated in various incarnations by human heroes throughout the franchise. It gives them the strength and determination to keep fighting.

There is no fate but what we make for ourselves.

But while our characters want to believe in their free will, while they need to believe in their ability to effect change, the actual events of the story don’t necessarily support that view.

The very words that Kyle says were told to him by John Connor – the man who sent Kyle back in time. The man who only exists because Kyle fathered him in the past.

Kyle Reese, who so strongly believes there is no fate, was apparently fated to travel back in time to father the son who would later send him back in time.

And if that wasn’t enough, there is every indication that Skynet, our nefarious robot consciousness, can also trace it’s origins to 1984.

Terminator 2 argues that Skynet exists in the future only because the technology was reverse-engineered from the robot which it sent to the past.

Skynet is its own grandpa.

If the Terminator hadn’t gone back in time, if Kyle Reese hadn’t gone back in time, neither Skynet nor John Connor would ever exist.

Yet our characters cling to the notion that there is no fate.

Of course, this sort of temporal paradox isn’t enough to resign ourselves to predestination. A paradox is a paradox…it doesn’t mean that everything is meant to be.

And yet, the most important point in human history seems to be fixed.

Judgement Day, as it’s called. When the machines rise up against man and the world as we know it is destroyed.

There is no fate but what we make for ourselves, the humans say.

Judgment Day is inevitable, reply the machines.

The date may change. The details may change. But the end always comes. Fight against it as they will, it certainly seems our heroes are helpless. It certainly seems as though, indeed, Judgement Day is inevitable.

And if that fate is sealed, the details hardly matter. Perhaps we have a sort of nominal free-will; perhaps we can make a choice, but not over anything that matters.

And yet, despite this seemingly inevitable impending doom, despite the fact that evidence seems to point to significant events being preordained, the humans keep soldiering on. Keep fighting the good fight, desperate to change the outcome and convinced that there is no fate.

And perhaps there is cause for this hope. After all, while humanity fights to alter the timeline, Skynet is altering the timeline as well. Judgement Day may not be inevitable, but rather just the most probable outcome in this temporal tug-of-war. Perhaps the future can be whatever humanity can make of it.

Or, perhaps, it is fate. Perhaps whatever we do – Judgement Day is inevitable.

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A New Commodity Is Born: Breast Milk

It’s not everyday that we get to see great masses of people alter their attitudes as a cherished act of motherhood is converted into a lucrative market. That’s what is happening these days with breast milk, as recently reported by the New York Times. Biotech firms want to capitalize on the rich therapeutic potential of breast milk by turning it into high-tech medical products that can fight infections, improve blood clotting and deal with intestinal and infectious diseases. 

This keen commercial interest in acquiring breast milk – an intimate part of the human body associated with maternal love and nourishment – raises all sorts of troubling new questions.  Who will have privileged access to breast milk in the future – biotech firms backed by the deep pockets of venture capitalists, or premature babies who need the milk, especially from their own mothers?  Will the emerging big business of breast milk lead to the closing of “milk banks” that provide donated breast milk to hospitals and nursing mothers at cost (i.e., the costs of donor-screening and pasteurization)? 

The rise of a new market for breast milk brings to the fore the fundamental issue of inalienability – the idea that certain things are so valued that it is not ethically appropriate to exchange them for money in the marketplace. This is a topic that is near and dear to commoners, of course, who are constantly trying to prevent and reverse market enclosures that commodify everything from water and the atmosphere to the human genome and childhood.

Years ago, I learned a lot about inalienability from Margaret Jane Radin’s book Contested Commodities:  The Trouble with Trade in Sex, Children, Body Parts and Other Things (Harvard University Press, 1996).  She argues that liberal societies have a recurrent problem caused by a philosophical conundrum:  It values freedom and individual choice, but it also values the dignity of personhood.  So what happens when our “freedom of choice” in the marketplace runs over our integrity and dignity as human beings – such as having intimate aspects of our bodies converted into market commodities?

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how public opinion on social spending has changed: a generational approach

Education spending is pretty popular. In 2012, three quarters of American adults told the General Social Survey that our nation spends too little on education. If you look at that question over time, you’ll find an interesting generational pattern. The three generations born (respectively) before 1926, before 1946, and before 1966 have each held successively more favorable views of education spending. I’d understand that as a story of economic growth and development. Young people have needed increasing amounts of education to flourish in our increasingly complex society. That need became increasingly evident to adults who came of age later in the 20th century. Generation-X, however, has held the same opinion as the Baby Boomers; and the limited data on Millennials suggests they are also in the same camp. The upshot: support for education spending is stable at a high level, buoyed by the majority opinion of everyone born since 1926, and not subject to much short-term change.

education_trend

Welfare is different story. In 2012, almost half of adults (47.6%) told the GSS that we spend too much on it; one third thought welfare spending was about right, and just 19.1% said we should spend more. I have run a graph showing the “liberal” opinion (we should spend more), but I find the opposite graph more illuminating: see below.

Here we observe the oldest generation only toward the end of their lives, when they (alone) disagree with the conservative argument that we are spending too much on welfare. All the subsequent generations have moved pretty closely together. There have been spikes of concern about excessive welfare spending in the 1970s and the early 1990s. In those upticks, one can see the political opportunity for Ronald Reagan and Newt Gingrich. But there really hasn’t been a significant generational pattern to beliefs about welfare. The changes seem more correlated with short-term economic circumstances and/or government policy. For instance, when Reagan began cutting social spending and when Clinton declared the end of “welfare as we know it,” concern about over-spending fell. The implication: welfare spending is a constant political debate, and who wins at a given moment depends on policy and circumstances.

welfare_trend

Finally, Social Security. One might expect that people nearing or in retirement would be the strongest supporters of spending money on this program, whereas younger people would be more reluctant. But the pattern of change over time for each generation is quite subtle, if one can detect it at all. Members of the “Greatest Generation,” for example, have held the same view of Social Security expenditures for the past 30 years. Likewise, Generation X has felt the same since they were young, even though they are now in middle age. The key pattern is a general increase in felt need to spend money on Social Security during the 1970s and 1980s, followed by a plateau. But if anything, the strongest supporters since 1990 have been relatively young adults.

social_security_trend

The implication is that Social Security remains very popular (no surprise there), but also that it’s not an old-person’s issue. X-ers and Millennials are actually more supportive than members of the Greatest Generation today.

The education and Social Security graphs look very similar. That is interesting because education is presumed to benefit the young. whereas Social Security focuses on the aged. Yet opinions about spending money for these two purposes track closely.  It would appear that the driving force is one’s general view of the role of government, not a calculation of one’s own needs and interests.

The post how public opinion on social spending has changed: a generational approach appeared first on Peter Levine.

LGBT-Religious Conservative Dialogue Yields New Utah Law

We were inspired by this wonderful piece from NCDD supporting member Dr. Jacob Hess of All of Life and Political-Dialogue.com on a controversial but promising development in Utah legislation that was brokered by long-term intergroup dialogue. Jacob’s piece explores how dialogue between religious conservatives and LGBTQ advocates created unlikely collaborations, and it holds a lot of insight for us in our work. You can read Jacob’s article below or find the original here.


Did Something Really Good or Really Bad Just Happen in Utah?

Leaning back in his chair, Jim Dabakis – an openly gay state senator from Utah – quoted one columnist who recently called him a “quisling” for his efforts to explore potential common ground with Mormon legislators.

He added with a wry smile, “I’m not even sure what that word means…but it doesn’t sound good!”  (He’s right! quisling = “a traitor who collaborates with an occupying enemy force.”)

Depending on your perspective, something emerged from Utah’s 2015 legislative session last week that is either a “landmark,” a “watershed moment” and even a “miracle” – or a bill variously called “pathetic,” “shameful” and “the baddest of bad ideas.”

Disagreements aside, almost everyone might agree on how surprising it was to see Jim Dabakis hugging a Mormon apostle, Tom Perry, at the bill’s signing ceremony.  What’s up with that?!

Background.

After the extensive Mormon support of California’s Proposition 8 in 2008, relations between the LGBT community and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were anything but tranquil. A year later, Church security detained a gay couple kissing on Temple Square in an incident that became another touch-point for hostility – ultimately compelling leaders from both the LGBT community and the church to begin meeting in person.

The first of these meetings, summarized in the L.A. Times and Salt Lake Tribune, was described as “awkward” and “quite uncomfortable” – until, at least, people began to share details of their personal journeys. Alongside surprising tears and laughter, one participant reflected that ultimately, “what everyone found is that we really liked each other.”

A second meeting was organized – then a third.  They began to happen regularly. One Mormon who participated in these early conversations described them as “defined by feelings of love and respect and a desire to make things better.” Dabakis stated, “Both sides found out they had plenty to learn about each other, and both sides have come a long way in their mutual understanding.”

By the time Christmas season rolled around, the LGBT activists involved in the conversations were invited with their same-sex partners to be special guests at the popular Mormon Tabernacle Choir’s Christmas concert. Dabakis recalled,We met in church headquarters, hugged, introduced all our partners. As they were taking us to the VIP seats, we walked across the plaza where the kissing went on. And a church elder said laughing, ‘Anyone want to kiss? No problem.’”

Reflecting on the significant change in atmosphere from these earlier years, Dabakis said, “there was a hostility and a bitterness and a disdain and a disrespect for each other, and we have gotten through that… Without those conversations, we’d still be two camps ensconced in the mountains shaking their fists at each other.” One participant said the discussions “reaffirmed for me the power of people talking to each other – even if you have incredible differences. You start to see the humanity.”

Embracing common ground. 

Once actual relationships began to form, some basic common ground quickly became obvious. In a move that surprised many (if not the dialogue participants), the Church formally voiced public support for a 2009 Salt Lake City ordinance on housing and employment nondiscrimination for the LGBT community. “The issue before you tonight,” LDS Church spokesperson Michael Otterson said at the city meeting, “is the right of people to have a roof over their heads and the right to work without being discriminated against… In drafting this ordinance, the city has granted common-sense rights that should be available to everyone, while safeguarding the crucial rights of religious organizations.”

This event was the beginning of what some have tried to characterize as the church being “swayed” and experiencing a “change of heart” or even some contrition for earlier political involvement. Church leaders have described it much differently – as a continuation of action consistent with core beliefs in a changing political environment.

Apostle D. Todd Christofferson clarified, “This is not a doctrinal evolution or change, as far as the church is concerned,” the apostle said. “It’s how things are approached.”

Senator Dabakis agrees.  In a 2013 interview exploring the ongoing dialogues, he emphasized that there are still many points of disagreement: “I don’t think the church has given one iota on gay marriage – maybe they never will – and neither have we. On the other hand, we have found a lot of commonalities that we can work on” – highlighting a joint efforts to help homeless kids.

In recent years, Church leaders have also increasingly encouraged members to follow the example of Christ in working with disagreements. Apostle Dallin Oaks encouraged Latter-Day Saints in 2014 to respond with “civility” when their views are not upheld in judicial or legislative decisions: “When our positions do not prevail, we should accept unfavorable results graciously, and practice civility with our adversaries.”  He also encouraged members to reject persecution “of any kind, including persecution based on race, ethnicity, religious belief or nonbelief, and differences in sexual orientation.”

The message has been that Church members can practice this respect without compromising their own theological convictions.  As general women’s leader Neill Marriott explained at an early 2015 press conference, the Mormon belief in the traditional family “comes from sacred scripture and we are not at liberty to change it.”

At the same gathering, Dallin Oaks and others encouraged further exploration of balanced “legislation that protects vital religious freedoms for individuals, families, churches and other faith groups while also protecting the rights of our LGBT citizens in such areas as housing, employment, and public accommodation in hotels, restaurants, and transportation.” In a subsequent interview, he clarified the Church’s broader argument that neither religious freedom nor non-discrimination were “absolutes” – and that limitations and exceptions needed to be acknowledged for each.

Shortly after this press conference, legislators in Utah began meeting with gay rights and conservative leaders in extensive deliberations to explore potential policies that brought together both nondiscrimination and religious freedom elements into one bill (SB 296). Describing the experience, Senator Dabakis said, “I think it’s the most exhausting thing I’ve ever done in my life.”

Out of these deliberations, leaders and legislators gathered to announce a bill (SB 296) that represented common ground that both sides felt they could agree upon, as well as (slight) compromises [1] each were willing to make at this time. What exactly to make of this simultaneous policy initiative is a matter of widely diverging interpretation.

Best or Worst of Utah?

Some observers have insisted that what subsequently unfolded is simply another reflection of Mormon prejudice. “It is just another scheme, you watch,” one person said.  Others called it “a PR stunt and nothing more” and “a craftily crafted crafting of crafty exemptions.” [2] Nancy Wilson from Metropolitan Community Churches (MCC) argued that local gay leaders had become “pawns in a global strategy of placing religious rights over all other constitutional and civil liberties.”

Those most closely involved in the actual deliberations, however, almost universally saw the experience and outcome very differently. Equality Utah Executive Director Troy Williams called the action a “monumental day” and suggested that “This vote proves that protections for gay and transgender people in housing and the workplace can gracefully coexist with the rights of people of faith. One does not exist at the expense of the other.”  Bill sponsor Steve Urquart stated, “LGBT rights and religious liberties are not opposite; they are not mutually incompatible.”

One legal consultant stated the bill gave “great assurances to religious believers that extending LGBT rights does not have to wash out the character of their faith communities.” Apostle D. Todd Christofferson agreed, describing the bill as a mechanism for protecting the LGBT community “in a way that was not threatening to other things that we hold precious.”

Senator Dabakis summarized, “It’s incredibly important in our community that we make sure that religious liberties are protected, and I think that [this bill] does that and it does it very, very well. It also protects the LGBT community against discrimination. That’s what we set out to do. I think that’s what we do.”

The LDS Church also issued a statement: “In a society which has starkly diverse views on what rights should be protected, the most sensible way to move forward is for all parties to recognize the legitimate concerns of others. While none of the parties achieved all they wanted, we do at least now have an opportunity to lessen the divisiveness in our communities without compromising on key principles.”

‘Compromise’ a good thing?

Recent surveys show the general public increasingly wants the U.S. Congress and other elected officials to find pragmatic compromises that diverse communities can live with. In our winner-take-all political atmosphere, however, the word “compromise” still retains a pejorative sense for many. As Washington Post journalists point out, citizens have mixed feelings about ‘working together’ on certain issues:

Everyone likes the idea of compromise – both in politics and in life more generally. We all like to think of ourselves as reasonable people who are always looking for the common-sense middle ground on a given issue and we want our politicians to reflect that approach. But, our desire for compromise goes out the window when it’s an issue that matters to us and/or where we are convinced we are right.

Some members of both communities reflected this kind of resistance. For instance, one person argued that when it comes to nondiscrimination, “‘balance’ or ‘compromise’ is not applicable here. You don’t compromise where the protection of your civil rights are concerned. You don’t beg and cajole for it. You don’t even ask politely…You demand it as your right as an American citizen.” Another said, “How about just saying you can’t discriminate for any reason. Period.”

Translation:  When it comes to nondiscrimination, there are no exceptions, no limitations, and no compromises that should be considered.

Similar sentiments were heard from citizens on the right: “As a religious practicing Christian I can’t help but feel we just struck a deal with the devil to allow a little more wickedness to be accepted into society. Right is right and wrong is wrong… I feel like good Christians have just been pushed a little more out of the way for the LGBT movement’s agenda.” Southern Baptist Convention leader Russell Moore cautioned that proposals to address discrimination against gay people in employment or housing “inevitably lead to targeted assaults on religious liberty.”

Translation:  When it comes to religious freedom, there are no exceptions, no limitations, and no compromises that should be considered.

Those involved in the Utah dialogues, by contrast, came to see win-win solutions by working together: “Both sides need protection under the law,” one person wrote. “I am glad to see compromise. We all want freedom to live and function under our convictions and life choices, religious or otherwise.” Senator Steve Urquhart stated, “That’s what we do in America – we balance rights.  We balance liberties.  And I think we’re doing a fine job of that in this legislation.”

Fred Sainz, a vice president with the Human Rights Campaign, agreed:  “This is all upside. The fact that employers will be prohibited from discriminating, and the fact that the LDS church could work towards common ground should be a model for common ground.” He continued, “Legislation is about compromise. The idea is, were you able to preserve principles important to your [religious] community, and the principles most important to our [LGBT] community were preserved and strengthened.”

Remaining questions.

Both sides in the deliberation also agreed there is more work to be done. Kent Frogley, with the Utah Pride Center, called the bill a “huge step forward” – adding, “It’s not perfect, but there are still lots of opportunities to work together and continue to evolve.” And a summary from the Mormon Newsroom acknowledges the problem that to this point, no current bill yet addresses “the provision of goods and services in the marketplace” – noting this as “an area that is simply too divisive to find a middle ground at this time.”

As both communities take future steps towards additional common ground legislation, it will be helpful to acknowledge basic differences in how both discrimination and religious freedom are interpreted and viewed. For instance, there is not wide agreement concerning to what degree religious freedom is under threat – and what appropriate limits ought to be pursued or allowed. One commenter asked, “Religious freedom is already protected, so why go to such lengths?” Another said, “Religion needs no more protection. They have far too much protection as it is.”

The religious side, by contrast, points to public sentiments that highlight their own desire to affirm protections for open religious expression – e.g., comments such as “Keep it in [worship service] and no one will care. Share it in public and you get what you deserve.”/ “Leave your religion at home or at church where it belongs.”

When it comes to the meaning and limits of nondiscrimination, similar differences in perspective exist.  Some, for instance, see Utah’s legislative compromise as simply a “license to discriminate” or “legalizing discrimination.”  Others label the bill as “sidestepping discrimination laws” or “trying to justify discrimination in the name of god” or “freeing religious people to discriminate at will.”

By contrast, religious authors who advocate some practical benefits of the law, suggest that “the better view is that it is not discrimination for a religious organization to require behavior consistent with its religious doctrines.” Senator Dabakis himself also explained why he felt the bill’s protections were “even handed” in protecting “people in expressing their religious opinions – but also their expression of marriage and sexuality.”

These and other disagreements remain to be explored and considered in future deliberation, between both citizens and their representatives. The difference now is that people in Utah see a way forward that both sides can support.

Looking forward.

Robin Fretwell Wilson, a University of Illinois law professor who helped draft the “Utah compromise” legislation, stated prior to the bill’s passage, “If Utah can get this balance between religious liberty and gay rights right, I really think it will be the pivot moment for the country.” She described the legislation as “détente” and a “truce in the culture war”:  “We have to find a way to live together. We just can’t endlessly be litigating against each other. We can’t endlessly be in culture wars.”

Senator Dabakis reflected, “We’ve found a way where people who have totally conflicting ideas, that were at the edge of war in 2008, have rolled up their sleeves, worked together, and built bridges rather than blow them up… Then we have walked across that bridge together.” He continued, “Oh, if the country could be like this.  This bill is a model – not just of legislation, but more importantly of how to bridge the cultural rift tearing America apart… I know that, together, we can build a community that strongly protects religious organizations, constitutional liberties, and, in addition, creates a civil, respectful, nurturing culture where differences are honored and everyone feels welcome… I’m so proud of our state.”

Since every state is different, clearly the details of law won’t apply everywhere.  But as stated by one journalist, perhaps it isUtah’s path to newly passed legislation that… might be more of a template for the nation than the law itself.This includes a long-term process of seeking understanding, combined with a willingness to act together. As former Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt stated at a panel discussion at the Brookings Institution, “I think a key element of the secret sauce here is moving to meet the needs of both simultaneously. It has to happen at the same time because the other side will not trust that you will come back and protect them later.” [3]

Despite these intentions and hopes, Troy Williams, Jim Dabakis, and other gay rights leaders in Utah continue to be accused by some observers of being “sell-outs” – people who got “played” by Utah religious leaders.

These critics are wrong. The open-hearted approach Dabakis, Williams, and others (like Kendall Wilcox, with Mormons Building Bridges) have taken has been crucial in galvanizing a legitimately fresh and vibrant dynamic of good will and respect in Utah. Spend time with any of these leaders and you will learn for yourself the courage and grace these deliberations have required.

Even though none of these leaders are entirely happy with the legislation, there is a sense of empathy and appreciation that it represents the common ground Utahans are ready to stand on right now.  As that empathetic spirit continues to shape the conversations ahead, this author believes that the LGBT community will find many in the Utah religious community willing to substantially compromise on public accommodations – even as other, more basic areas of free religious expression continue to be protected.

Even those who disagree on the ultimate worth of this legislation might agree that there’s something intriguing about the surprising degree of good will that characterized these events. In a spontaneous moment of celebration at the signing ceremony last week, Senator Jim Dabakis and Mormon apostle L. Tom Perry pointed at each other in appreciation and affection, “You did it!” “No, you did it!”

What’s up with that?!

You can find the original version of Jacob’s article on his website at http://political-dialogue.com/2015/03/20/did-something-really-good-or-really-bad-just-happen-in-utah.

The Fall

I recently finished reading Albert Camus’ The Fall – a book I may have scared someone off of because when I was more than halfway through I still wasn’t sure what it was about.

…And I’m still not sure what it was about.

Unlike his earlier works of the Stranger and the Plague, the Fall doesn’t have much of a plot. Not really.

It’s about a man.

It’s about a man’s fall from grace – or rather, man’s fall from grace.

Or, perhaps, his rise to power.

It’s entirely unclear.

Its a book that seems, at least in English translations, to be full of backhanded jabs at Nietzsche.

We meet our hero after his fall. As he recounts the highlights of his life.

He was perfect, he says. He was happy. He pursued the highest attainable position in life, and was fulfilled by natural attributes which allowed him to achieve those ambitions.

I enjoyed my own nature to the fullest, and we all know that there lies happiness, although, to soothe one another mutually, we occasionally pretend to condemn such joys as selfishness….To tell the truth, just from being so fully and simply a man, I looked upon myself as something of a superman,” Camus writes.

He was at the height of his life, he says. But in that height it is clear he is empty.

That exemplary perfection may as well be destruction. He is self-absorbed out of self-loathing. Cavalier out of over-caring. His presumed height is actually his deepest depth.

“Thus I progressed on the surface of life, in the realm of words as it were, never in reality. All those books barely read, those cities barely visited, those women barely possessed! I went through the gestures out of boredom or absent-mindedness. Then came human beings; they wanted to cling, but there was nothing to cling to, and that was unfortunate – for them.”

And then he falls.

Through nondescript tales of an ignored slight, of a spurned lover, our hero tells of his descent into further and further rungs of despair. Mapping his story as the journey through Dante’s Inferno.

At last, he is in the final circle of hell.But there, at the center of hell, at the depth of despair, there he is saved. There he finds perfection.

And in this wretched state, Camus ends the story: But let’s not worry! It’s too late now. It will always be too late. Fortunately!

And perhaps that is why I find Camus so compelling: he is a man who insists on salvation in damnation; who finds glory in despair.

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empathy: good or bad?

I am speaking next week on a panel about empathy:

“Generative Empathies” (Rabb Room, Lincoln Filene Hall, Tufts University, March 30, 12 pm) with …

  • Amahl Bishara, Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, Tufts
  • Doris Sommer, Ira Jewell Williams, Jr. Professor of Romance Languages and Literature and Director, Cultural Agents Initiative, Harvard University
  • Peter Levine, Associate Dean for Research, Tisch College

I don’t know quite what to say yet, but I am inclined to raise the following points.

First, for a very long time, writers have argued that sad stories generate empathy and improve the character. From his dismal exile on the shore of the Black Sea, the poet Ovid addresses a soldier friend in these lines:

Is it true? When you heard of my misfortune
From a distant land, was your heart sad?
You can hide and shrink to say it, Graecinus,
But if I know you well, it was sad.
Revolting cruelty does not fit your type,
And even less your avocation. For
The liberal arts, your highest concern,
Soften the chest so that harshness escapes.
– Ex Ponto, 1.6 (my trans.)

Ovid presumes that his story will soften the gruff Roman’s heart, especially because it comes in the form of a poem and the soldier is a devotee of the artes ingenuae: the liberal arts, or literally, the freeborn arts. The poem will work because the reader has been habituated by many previous poems to dislike cruelty. Apparently, “ingenuae” has aristocratic connotations, and so Ovid’s phrase for the “liberal arts” implies a higher class of people who have been civilized or humanized by the arts.

Here is another classic source for the idea that writing generates empathy:

  1. And early in the morning, he came again into the temple, and all the people came unto him; and he sat down, and taught them.
  2. And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst,
  3. They say [sic] unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act.
  4. Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou?
  5. This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote [or drew] on the ground.
  6. So when they continued asking him, he lifted himself up, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.
  7. And again he stooped down, and wrote [not drew] on the ground.
  8. And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.
  9. When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee?
  10. She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more (John, 8:2?11)

What was Jesus writing? One answer: something concrete about the specific Woman, which made the scribes and Pharisees think about her (and about themselves) instead of applying the abstract law.

For centuries in the English-speaking world, to enter the ranks of the civilized and humane meant reading Shakespeare. One possible reason: Shakespeare’s special capacity for empathy, which is related to his refusal to push arguments of his own. Keats found in Shakespeare the quality that he called “Negative Capability, that is when man is capable of being in uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason.” Other critics have noted Shakespeare’s remarkable ability not to speak on his own behalf, from his own perspective, or in support of his own positions. Coleridge called this skill “myriad-mindedness,” and Matthew Arnold said that Shakespeare was “free from our questions.” Hazlitt said that the “striking peculiarity of [Shakespeare’s] mind was its generic quality, its power of communication with all other minds–so that it contained a universe of feeling within itself, and had no one peculiar bias, or exclusive excellence more than another. He was just like any other man, but that he was like all other men.”

So we have a model of the humane and sensitive educated person as one who has been habituated by the reading of moving stories to be empathetic and thus to show mercy or otherwise depart from harsh decisions.

This model conflicts with the idea that a just person knows the truth and obeys the consequences.  St. Augustine recalls his sinful younger self enjoying the theater, where he was “forced to learn I don’t know what wanderings of Aeneas, oblivious to my own, and to lament the dead Dido, because she killed herself for love, while meanwhile with dry eyes I endured my miserable self dying among these things before you, God, my life. … In the theaters I took pleasure along with the lovers when they used each other for vice, even though their behavior was just the imaginary sport of a play, and when they parted I was sad along with them, as if I were really compassionate; yet I enjoyed both parts.”  At the moment of his conversion, Augustine hears a voice saying, “take up and read, take up and read.” He understands this as a command to open the Bible at random. The first words he finds are those of Paul: “But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof” [Rom. 13:13?14]. Augustine recalls: “I wanted to read no further, nor was there need” (Conf., 1.13.20; Conf. 3.2.3.; Conf., 8.12.29).

This is a model of the just person as one who is unmoved by inappropriate empathy and who avoids reading texts that might make him sympathize with sin. Although he is a very different kind of person from Augustine, Judge Richard A. Posner writes in “Against Ethical Criticism” that “empathy is amoral.”

Imaginative literature can engender in its readers emotional responses to experiences that they have not had. We read King Lear and feel how–or some approximation to how–a failing king feels, the wicked bastard feels, the evil daughters, the good daughter, the blinded earl, the faithful retainer, the corrupt retainer, the fool, all feel. We experience simulacra of the agony of madness and the pang of early death in Hamlet, the depths of mutual misunderstanding in The Secret Agent, the loneliness of command in Billy Budd, the triumph of the will in Yeats’s late poetry. This is the empathy-inducing role of literature of which [Hilary] Putnam and [Martha] Nussbaum speak. But empathy is amoral. The mind that you work your way into, learning to see the world from its perspective, may be the mind of a Meursault [from The Stranger], an Edmund [from Lear], a Lafcadio [the lion?], a Macbeth, a Tamerlane, a torturer, a sadist, even a Hitler (Richard Hughes’s The Fox in the Attic).

Empathy can even undermine justice. It can make the empathetic person feel more virtuous without doing anything, and it can even strengthen his position in a conflict by making him look better to third parties. This can be true of sincere empathy. I believe, for instance, that the median Israeli voter has achieved some empathy for Palestinians, and that feeling both blunts the urgency of justice and makes Israel look better than it should in the eyes of the world. Note the applause in this speech by Barack Obama in Jerusalem on March 21, 2013:

I — I’m going off script here for a second, but before I — before I came here, I — I met with a — a group of young Palestinians from the age of 15 to 22. And talking to them, they weren’t that different from my daughters. They weren’t that different from your daughters or sons.

I honestly believe that if — if any Israeli parent sat down with those kids, they’d say, I want these kids to succeed. (Applause.) I want them to prosper. I want them to have opportunities just like my kids do. (Applause.) I believe that’s what Israeli parents would want for these kids if they had a chance to listen to them and talk to them. (Cheers, applause.) I believe that. (Cheers, applause.)

In sum: I don’t think empathy will suffice on its own. It must be connected somehow with justice and with actually taking just action. If you favor systematic moral theories, than you may recommend using one or more general moral premises that distinguish good empathy from bad empathy. A feeling of empathy will not be a reliable guide to right action, only an urge that you must critically assess in other terms.

If, like me, you are skeptical about organized moral theories and believe that empathetic responses can convey truths about the world, then you will view an empathetic response as a valid source of guidance. But not as the only kind of valid input: relatively abstract and impersonal considerations must also apply.

The post empathy: good or bad? appeared first on Peter Levine.

April’s not-to-miss Tech Tuesday to feature Loomio

NCDD’s Tech Tuesday events had a bit of a hiatus since the conference, but they’re back with a vengeance with the next several being firmed up as we speak. For April’s event, on Tuesday, April 7th, we’re pleased to feature Loomio, an open source app for group collaboration and decision-making that has been generating lots of buzz in the field.Tech_Tuesday_Badge

Registration is open now, so reserve your spot today!

Loomio emerged when activists from the Occupy movement teamed up with the social enterprise network Enspiral, realizing that they were using different approaches to work towards the same aim. Loomio provides an independent and neutral online space for complex discussion with lots of people at once. People can start a discussion, build agreement toward possible solutions, and ultimately come to a decision together for a course of action. Today, Loomio is used by people across the globe in a variety of settings to achieve better outcomes.

In this Tech Tuesday on April 7th (4-5pm Eastern/1-2pm Pacific), Loomio cooperative members Alanna Krause and Chelsea Robinson will join us to demonstrate the tool and share case studies of how it has been utilized. Participants will have the opportunity to see how Loomio works and ask questions. A brief video introducing the tool is below.

This FREE event will take place on Tuesday, April 7 from 4-5pm Eastern/ 1-2pm Pacific. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to experience this simple yet powerful tool – register today!

Tech Tuesdays are a series of learning events from NCDD focused on technology for engagement. These 1-hour events are designed to help dialogue and deliberation practitioners get a better sense of the online engagement landscape and how they can take advantage of the myriad opportunities available to them. You do not have to be a member of NCDD to participate in our Tech Tuesday learning events.

Predictive Social Science

One of the great sources of despair in the social sciences is the lack of predictive theories.

Physics can tell us what will happen when we throw a ball in the air, or when we drop two objects simultaneously. Why can’t the social sciences provide similar trajectories for human behavior?

Put another way by economist Richard R. Nelson, “If you can land a man on the moon, why can’t you solve the social problems of the ghetto?”

One argument is that the social sciences are quantitatively stunted compared to their natural science peers; that the science of social has not yet developed to it’s full potential.

Those feeling more kind may argue that human affairs are simply more complex than those of levers and pulleys; that civil society is infinitely more intricate than a Grand Unified Theory. It’s not so much an issue of scientific chops, but rather that there is so much more work to do to solve social problems.

I find both of these arguments rather uninspiring, but what’s notable is that they each lend themselves to the same solution: more data, more formalism, more math, more “science.”

As if predictive social science is just around the corner. As if the solution to poverty is one Einstein riding a wave of light away.

To be fair, the social sciences have made remarkable quantitative advances. In 2008, Nate Silver correctly predicted the presidential contest in 49 states, and the winner of all 35 U.S. Senate races.

Fueled by the promise of better sales and better customers, the field of predictive analyics is on the rise – helping companies better identify what their customers want. Or perhaps, more accurately, what they can get their customers to buy.

In 2012, for example, Target used their big data mining to figure out a teen girl was pregnant – before her father did. It wasn’t that complicated, as it turns out, just watch for the purchase of certain vitamins and you could have a lucrative customer for life.

But creeping on a teenager – or even predicting elections – is a far cry from solving our most pressing social problems.

Why can’t you solve the social problems of the ghetto?

Perhaps our first mistake is to think there is an analytical solution.

Bent Flyvbjerg, a Danish urban planner, argues that a predictive theory approach to the social sciences is “a wasteful dead-end.” Instead we should “promote social sciences that are strong where natural science is weak – that is, in reflexive analysis and deliberation about values and interests.”

Flyvbjerg calls this approach the phronetic model, explaining, “At the core of phronetic social science stands the Aristotelian maxim that social issues are best decided by means of the public sphere, not by science. Though imperfect, no better device than public deliberation following the rules of constitutional democracy has been arrived at for settling social issues, so far as human history can show.”

I’m not sure I agree with Flyvbjerg that “no predictive theories have been arrived at in social science, despite centuries of trying.” Surely, we have not solved poverty, but we’ve come disturbingly close to predicting the patterns of an individual.

But just because we could have predictive theories of social science does not mean that is all we should aim for.

There is important knowledge, valuable knowledge, in quantitative understandings of society. We should pursue those understandings fully, but we should not deign to stop there.

Why can’t you solve the social problems of the ghetto?

Surely, one white, male economist cannot. No matter how much data he has.

But perhaps we can.

Predictive social science, assuming it exists, is only one tool towards a solution. Without phronetic social science – dialogue and deliberation between all members of a society – it is worth nothing.

Of course, this phronetic social science ought to be informed by predictive social science, just as predictive social science ought to be informed by phronetic social science.

The two aren’t competing paths towards the same end – we must pursue them both.

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Citizen Engagement: Two Learning Opportunities

For those willing to learn more about citizen engagement, here are two opportunities worth checking out.

The first one is the World Bank’s MOOC on Citizen Engagement. Even though the course has already started it is still possible to enroll. Here’s a brief description of the course:

The 4-week course brings together a diverse range of experts to provide students with a comprehensive overview of citizen engagement. It begins by synthesizing the theories and concepts that underlie citizen engagement, and goes on to explore how citizens can be engaged in both policymaking and public service delivery. Finally, it investigates how recent innovations are shaking up the field, through detailing both successes and failures of these new approaches. Our presenters, leaders in academia, government, and civil society, provide a wide range of perspectives and real-world experience to give participants a deeper understanding of whether citizen engagement can truly enhance the process of development. Participants will also have the opportunity to collaborate with one another and design their own citizen engagement initiatives, thereby putting theories learned in the course into practice.

This week starts module 2, with Matt Leighninger, Tina Nabatchi, Beth Noveck and myself:

This week explores the role that citizens can play in actively shaping public policy. We start by examining how citizens participate, analyzing the differences between ‘thick’ and ‘thin’ forms of engagement and asking strategic questions such as who should participate, how should participants interact with decision makers, what information do participants need, and how will participation impact policy decisions. Next, we survey examples of crowdsourcing and open innovation that are helping governments and citizens better interact. Finally, we unpack why citizens participate, moving beyond the mere calculation of costs and benefits described in the rational choice model to an analysis of broader factors that influence participation.

 

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The second opportunity is the coaching program on Citizen Engagement by the GovLab Academy, with Beth Noveck and myself. Here’s the description of the program:

This program is designed to help those wishing to integrate citizen engagement into ongoing projects. Whether policymaking or service delivery in nature, we start from the assumption that, engaging citizens is both more effective and more legitimate as a way of working. Engagement may be offline as well as on and local or widely distributed. But, in every case, teams should have a clear sense of the problem they are trying to solve, the rationale for why they believe greater openness to and collaboration with citizens can have a positive impact, and a willingness to measure impact. Convened by two practitioners/theorists of citizen engagement, the program with emphasize peer-to-peer coaching and introductions to relevant mentors and experts from around the world working on related problems or applying similar methods. Our goal? To have take more citizen engagement projects from idea to implementation. Everyone is invited to apply. There will be an admissions preference for those working at the city-level.

There’s a number of other awesome courses provided by the GovLab: you can check all of them here.