Thursday, June 26, 2014, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)
Last week, there was general agreement with Colin Powell's TED Talk about kids needing structure, but some Zoom-in members objected that he used the military as the primary example. What seemed to be missing was a sense of morality. Hank did remind us of the importance of passing moral values to the next generation. But so far we have been more concern about how the next generation will cope, given the extraordinary circumstances they will face.
If we accept Powell's contention that coping depends on the structure provided by our institutions, is it important that our institutions have high moral values? The answer is yes, according to Bryan Stevenson. In his TED Talk, We need to talk about an injustice, Stevenson encourages TED to adopt high moral value as an institution. What makes his talk relevant to our discussion on generational legacy is that Stevenson tells about three times that received advice from the older generation that influenced his course in life, once as a child, once as a young man getting started, and once as a practicing lawyer.
It is said that Stevenson's talk received teethe strongest standing ovation ever seen at TED. Enjoy.
Thanks for thisTed. Can't always come to meeting but like the talks and comments. Sally
ReplyDeleteDid Stevenson's grandma lie to him? Did it matter?
ReplyDeleteWas she under oath? Lying reflexively gets a bad rap. EVERYONE lies. Imagine a world in which everyone was forced to tell the truth. Chaos. It must have already been the subject of books and movies. Oddly enough more people lie in emails than face-to-face. (source-WAMU sometime between 10am-12noon yesterday)
ReplyDeleteEven though she told all her grandchildren that they were special, did Stevenson's grandma give sound advice? Could you improve on the three part pledge:
ReplyDelete1) Always take care of your mom
2) Always do the right thing even when the right thing is the hard thing
3) Never drink alcohol
What is morality - the difference between right and wrong? Doing the right thing when nobody is looking? Doing the hard right rather than the easy wrong? When I was deployed, I prepared a presentation on Pashtunwali, the code of the Pashtuns and compared it to other ethical codes - the Ten Commandments, the Boy Scout/Girl Scout promise, chivalry and sanctuary in the church for outlaws/outcasts in the Middle Ages. Can morality be taught? If so, how?
ReplyDeleteI'd like to hear that presentation. Maybe it could be scheduled along with the foreign affairs discussions. Hoped you saved your notes.
DeleteCould morality rise in a vacuum? I think not. There has to be someone else whom you do not do unto for the germ of that thought even to arise. I think morality must be taught and even evolves and devolves.
Stevenson said. "I've come to understand and to believe that each of us is more than the worst thing we've ever done. I believe that for every person on the planet". Do you agree?
ReplyDeleteI agree with Mr. Stevenson and think it would be equally logical to say that each of us is less than the best thing we've ever done? I prefer his phrasing.
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me that the "Golden Rule" in it's various forms is the most meaningful statement of morality to ever be uttered. All world religions have their version. Even atheists endorse it. The challenge is to rise above "self" long enough to apply it.
ReplyDeleteWhen Stevenson, as a young lawyer, said how he was going to fight injustice, he received this advice:
ReplyDelete"Mmm mmm mmm. That's going to make you tired, tired, tired." And that's when Ms. Carr leaned forward, she put her finger in my face, she said, "That's why you've got to be brave, brave, brave."
What did Ms. Carr mean? Did she mean that you need bravery to keep from being tired, or did she mean that compromise will make you tired?
Mr. Stevenson’s message captures a theme that has been personally inspirational and that has motivated the lessons that I have tried to pass on to future generations beginning with my family. I am now 67 but as a child I learned of my family’s abandonment of their rural Georgia home under threat from the Klan for refusing to part with a prized horse, or was it challenging the landowner’s accounting of what our sharecropping family owed at the end of the farming season? There are many such incidents in the memories of blacks from the south.
ReplyDeleteI have a contemporary first cousin born within a year of my birth who has no birth certificate, having been born at home to parents that could not write or read well. The State of Georgia and his county of birth apparently had little interest in the population of blacks born in their midst. The Draft Board and U.S. Army did not find this an inconvenience and this cousin was called to serve the nation in Viet Nam in 1968.
Within the last several weeks, this cousin and I discussed what his two brothers could look forward to when they are released from penitentiaries after each has served more than thirty of the last forty years in prisons. One is in prison for serious felonies and the other for three strikes drug violations. When they are released these men will be in their early and mid 60’s.
Thank-you for sharing that.
DeleteThis is just a trial entry to see if I finally can get one published!
ReplyDeleteThis goes back several weeks but still is on the subject of intergenerational communications.
ReplyDeleteVince's comments of the 9th reminded me of a lesson I learned in High School that has stayed with me all my life. I think it is worth passing on to anyone who will listen.
We were in a geometry Class about to prove the theorem of parallel lines. The teacher stated that the only way to solve this problem was to go to inductive rather than deductive reasoning. Her first statement was that there were only two possibilities, either the lines were parallel or they weren't. We would prove that they could not be "not parallel" therefore they had to be "parallel".
I asked her how she was so sure that those were the only two possibilities. She became livid, accusing me of trying to be funny and not taking the subject seriously.
I placed my tail between my legs and dropped the subject,
Several years later in one of my early college mathematics classes (a total of ten semesters were required for my degree), I was introduced to two forms of non-euclidian geometry, in which, when extended far enough, no two lines were parallel. One was Reimian (Sp?) and the other's name I cannot recall.
The lesson was, when you think something is true or false, and others do not agree, do not accept their statements. If they claim it is not provable, keep it in the back of your mind until someone proves or disproves it to your satisfaction.
Al Goldman
The third and final piece of advise that Stevenson relays in his talk was the old janitor reminding him to keep the eye on the prize. Stevenson certainly was already set in his direction, but he valued the encouragement from the older man. Could this be a metaphor on our role with the next generation? The next generation is already determined to set their own course and all we can do is offer them encouragement.
ReplyDeleteGood question being asked here -- Sherman
ReplyDelete"Why Americans are so dubious about science"
Joel Achenbach, Washington Post
2/15/15
. . . How to penetrate the bubble? How to convert science skeptics?
. . . Maybe — except that evolution is real. Biology is incomprehensible without it. There aren’t really two sides to all these issues. Climate change is happening. Vaccines save lives. Being right does matter — and the science tribe has a long track record of getting things right in the end. Modern society is built on things it got right.
. . . .Throwing more facts at them doesn’t help. Liz Neeley, who helps train scientists to be better communicators at an organization called Compass, says people need to hear from believers they can trust, who share their fundamental values. She has personal experience with this. Her father is a climate-change skeptic and gets most of his information on the issue from conservative media. In exasperation she finally confronted him: “Do you believe them or me?” She told him she believes the scientists who research climate change and knows many of them personally. “If you think I’m wrong,” she said, “then you’re telling me that you don’t trust me.” Her father’s stance on the issue softened. But it wasn’t the facts that did it.
I was trained as a scientist and believe scientists have failed to inform the public. But then, scientists don't really care about doing so. Then we have the question of how to change someone's mind: for some people we can it with logic but with others we have to do it with emotion. And we can't change another person's mind. Only they can do that. Great topic!
ReplyDelete