The World of Trees, exploring their value and meaning

Description

Did you know that trees talk to each other, share nutrients with other sick trees and can warn each other of danger? They are essential to the survival of the human race, yet most Americans can only name 10 or fewer trees growing in the United States. Not an SDG in botany, but rather on the value and meaning of trees, discussion will examine the roles trees play in our lives. Topics will include how trees feature in art, literature, film, health, religion, and politics. Further, we will examine how trees influence climate, control environment, and enhance community. Beyond the role that trees play in our lives, we will also look closely at select trees to discover both the extraordinary secrets of everyday trees, as well as familiarize ourselves with the exceptional trees of the world. Optional field trips offered.

Weekly Topics

1. Overview and the evolution of trees

2. A community – what trees feel and communicate

3. The enchanted forest – trees in literature, film, and art 

4. Rituals and religion – the Bodhi tree, The Tree of Knowledge, The Tree of  Life, sacred trees   

5. The giving tree: food, oxygen, shade, shelter, fuel, and animal habitat

6. Trees and the body: Medicines/health benefits; conservation burial

7. Urban trees and social value -neighborhood class markers; property values; urban shade; LA's Tree Plan

8. Heating and cooling the planet - burning the Amazon; clear cutting; tree epidemics

9. Harnessing the deserts – green walls of Africa; Champion Tree Registry, and cloning

10. Tree activism - trees and politics: Palestinian olives; Mexican Avocado wars; tree sitting

Bibliography

Core Book:
Drori, Jonathan. Around the World in 80 Trees,  Laurence King Publishing, Ltd., 2018

Suggested Reading:
Wohlleben, Peter. The Hidden Life of TREES, What They Feel, How They Communicate.
                              Discoveries from a Secret World.  Ludwig Verlag Munich, 2015

Hodel, Donald R. Exceptional Trees of Los Angeles. California Arboretum Foundation, Inc.
                              1988 

Tree Articles & Websites

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/3-life-lessons-we-can-learn-from-trees

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/great -green-wall-stop-desertification-not-so-much-180960171/                                                                                                                              

https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/10.11x /annurev.ecolsys.37.091305.110215                                                                                                                              http://old.worldagroforestry.org/downloads/Publications/PDFS/BL17569.pdf                            

https://www.flavorwire.com/244765/relevant-trees-in-art-history                                                              

https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/2017-1-january-february/books/politics-trees

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2351989415000141                                                                                                                          /PDFS/BL17569.pdf                            

https://www.flavorwire.com/244765/relevant-trees-in-art-history                                                              

https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/2017-1-january-february/books/politics-trees

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2351989415000141

more articles/websites beginning of SDG

Nationalism: Two Different Historical Analyses

Description

Jill Lepore, the liberal Harvard professor of history, and Yoram Hazony, an Israeli conservative, have written books taking diametrically opposed stances on nationalism.  Lepore traces the origins of nation and the history of nationalism in the United States and the failure of United States historians to write about its nature and its consequences, most of which she opposes.  Hazony, for his part, is an ardent supporter of nationalism.  Though one-third of his book is devoted to Israel, the remainder provides a more universal history of nationalism than does Lepore and a strong defense of it.  Both authors confront the problem of liberal nationalism or national liberalism.  And both strongly support the nation as a necessary entity in a global world.  Together, they provide a substantive set of arguments about one of the most pressing problems of current times.

Weekly Topics

1. Judt, Tony, “The New Old Nationalism.” The New York  Review of Books, May 26, 1994. 

2.  Hazony, chapters IV-VII and chapters XIII-XIV:  John Locke and the Liberal Construction; Nationalism Discredited; Liberalism as Imperialism; Nationalist Alternatives to Liberalism;National Freedom as an Ordering Principle; The Virtues of the National State. 

3.  Hazony, chapters XV-XVlll, and conclusion; The Myth of the Federal Solution; The Myth of the Neutral State A Right to National Independence; Some Principles of the Order of National States; The Virtue of Nationalism. 

4.  Luban, Daniel, “The Man Behind National Conservatism.” https://newrepublic.com/article/154531/man-behind-national-conservatism; Wimmer, Andrew, “Why Nationalism Works” https://reader.foreignaffairs.com/2019/02/12/why-nationalism-works/content.html.  Appiah, Kwame Anthony,   “The Importance of Elsewhere” https://reader.foreignaffairs.com/2019/02/12/the-importance-of-elsewhere/content.html. 

5.  Holmes, Kim R., “The Problem of Nationalism.” https://www.heritage.org/conservatism/commentary/the-problem-nationalism; Williamson, Kevin R., “The Nationalism Show.” https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/03/american-nationalism-public-policy-aesthetics-donald-trump/. Muller, Jan-Werner, “False Flags” https://reader.foreignaffairs.com/2019/02/12/false-flags/content.html. Snyder, Jack, “The Broken Bargain“ https://reader.foreignaffairs.com/2019/02/12/the-broken-bargain/content.html. Cederman, Lara-Erik, “Blood for Soil” https://reader.foreignaffairs.com/2019/02/12/blood-for-soil/content.html.

6.  Lepore, chapters I-IX; History and Nations; Nations and Nationalism; Nations and States; The Emergence of Nationalism; Liberalism and Nationalism; Nations and Citizens; Nations and Progress;Two Nationalisms; A New Nation. 

7.  Lepore, chapters X-XVI:  Race and Nation; Nations and Origins ; Cold War Liberalism; Can This Be America?; The End of Liberalism?; The Return of Nationalism; A New Americanism.

Bibliography

Yoram Hazony, The Virtue of Nationalism (Basic Books, 2018)

Jill Lepore, This America: The Case for the Nation (Liveright, 2019)

George Eliot's Middlemarch

Description

George Eliot's Middlemarch (1872) is arguably the greatest novel written in English, and without doubt the greatest novel written by a woman. It provides a trenchant account of a young woman's coming of age in Victorian England; searing representations of four marriages, both successful and less so; an analysis of scientific research and the nature of the medical practice in England in the 19C; and a study of the political and social effects of the Great Reform Bill of 1832. As Virginia Woolf said, "Middlemarch is the only novel ever written for grown-ups." And Frank Kermode concurred, "No writer has ever represented the ambiguities of moral choice so fully."

Weekly Topics

We will read this 700 page novel in weekly installments, c. 100 pages per week. Core book: any copy of Middlemarch you like.

Bibliography

George Eliot, Middlemarch (Norton Critical Edition, ed. Bert Hornbeck); Gillian Beer, George Eliot ; Kathryn Hughes, George Eliot - The Last Victorian (biography)

Hacking Darwin

Description

The “Hacking Darwin” SDG is a ground­break­ing explo­ration of the many ways genet­ic-engi­neer­ing is shak­ing the very core foun­da­tions of our lives — sex, war, love, and death.

At the dawn of the genet­ics rev­o­lu­tion, our DNA is becom­ing as read­able, writable, and hack­able as part of our infor­ma­tion tech­nol­o­gy. But as human­i­ty starts retool­ing our own genet­ic code, the choic­es we make today will be the dif­fer­ence between real­iz­ing breath­tak­ing advances in human well-being and descend­ing into a dan­ger­ous and poten­tial­ly dead­ly genet­ic arms race that could destroy humanity. Some think that the genetic arms race is possibly as dangerous for our existence as the nuclear and climate change threats.

Enter the lab­o­ra­to­ries where sci­en­tists are turn­ing sci­ence fic­tion into real­i­ty. Look towards a future where our deep­est beliefs, morals, reli­gions, and pol­i­tics are chal­lenged like nev­er before and the very essence of what it means to be human is at play. When we can engi­neer our future chil­dren, mas­sive­ly extend our lifes­pans, build life from scratch, and recre­ate the plant and ani­mal world, should we?

If you are concerned about the future of our species then Hack­ing Dar­win is a “must take” SDG for you.

Weekly Topics

1.Where Darwin meets Mendel

2.Climbing the Complexity Latter

3.Decoding Identity

4.The End of Sex

5.Divine Sparks and Pixie Dust

6.Rebuilding the Living World

7.Steeling Immortality from the Gods

8.The Ethics of Engineering Ourselves

9.We contain Multitudes

10.The Arms Race of the Human Race/The Future of Humanity

Bibliography

Hacking Darwin, Jamie Metzl, 2019, Sourcebooks

The Choices: Equality or Oligarchy; Individuality or Totality; Truth or Falsehood....Where is Democracy Going?

Description

In his recent book, The Road To Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America, Timothy Snyder reveals how and why liberal democracy has eroded in America and Western Europe since 2010. He asks the question, Are we losing our way and headed to "unfreedom"?

Snyder has written several books and many articles on the threats to democracy and the challenge to understand, restore, and renew the fundamental political virtues offered by liberal democratic traditions and demanded for its survival. In  Road To Unfreedom ,  he illuminates the significant role that Putin and Russia have played, and somewhat succeeded in creating chaos in W. European governments, and confusion by dividing and polarizing the EU and the US against themselves. To win back democratic traditions, we must understand the stark choices before us....between equality and oligarchy, individuality and totality, truth and falsehood, and make our choices. Snyder offers a way forward.

In this 7 week SDG, we will explore Snyder's analysis of how Putin re-shaped Post -Soviet Russia, put into practice the fascist and nationalist ideas of several modern Russian thinkers and created disruption and confusion in leading western democracies. We will examine Snyder's commentary and his call to concerned citizens as to what to do about the unraveling of democracy and the decay in our public, political life. What are the lessons? And,... What now?

Weekly Topics

1. Introduction to Snyder's writings and Prologue to the book. https://www.timothysnyder.org/; https://www.theguardian.com/profile/timothy-snyder.

2. Individualism or Totalitarianism, Chapter 1; Succession or Failure, Chapter 2

3. Integration or Empire, Chapter 3

4. Novelty or Eternity, Chapter 4

5. Truth or Lies, Chapter 5

6. Equality or Oligarchy, Chaper 6

7. Epilogue and Commentary on Snyder's lessons from the 20th Century

Bibliography

References

Core Book:  The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America, Timothy Snyder, 2018

Other Sources

On Tyranny, Timothy Snyder, 2017)

 Weekly Standard Review--www.weeklystandard.com/robert-zubin/understanding-putins-strategy, 2018

"The Road From Serfdom: How Americans can become Citizens again", The Atlantic. December, 2019

Interview with Rachel Maddow on TRMS, February 13, 2020

Ta Nehisi Coates Speaks: Essays on the Existence and Denial of Racism and White Supremacy in America

Description

A pre-eminent black public intellectual of his generation, Ta-Nehisi Coates testified before Congress in June, 2019 on the case for Reparations for blacks of ex-slaves in the United States. It was the first such hearing on the subject in over 20years.

During the Obama administration, Coates wrote a series of articles for The Atlantic, examining the issues and events of the period from his own intimate and revealing perspective of the haunting shadow of our nation's persistent and unreconciled racial history. 

This 7 week SDG will explore Coates' examination of the Obama years based on his own experiences, observations and his intellectual development as a black man in 21st century America. We Were Eight Years in Power , includes his  essays for The Atlantic, each introduced with a personal story (mini-essays) which elucidate his thinking, his confusions and his pessimism (lately turned to guarded optimism in wake of the democratic responses to Trumpism). His themes are about man, community and national identity and his view that black progress is always met with violence and backlash; that most white Americans still cannot tolerate the idea of equity and that acknowledging the many legacies of slavery is too much to ask of Whites because it would disrupt our conception of our country and ourselves. The book's essays provoke and invite argument and discussion as to what Coates has to say and to offer for the future in a black/white divided America.

Weekly Topics

1. Introduction; Notes and Essay from the First Year, "This Is How We Lost To The White Man"

2. Notes and Essay from the Second Year, "American Girl"

3. Notes and Essay from the Third Year, "Why Do So Few Blacks Study The Civil War"; Notes and Essay from the Fourth Year, "The Legacy Of Malcom X"

4. Notes and Essay from the Fifth Year, "Fear Of A Black President"

5. Notes and Essay from the Sixth Year, "The Case For Reparations"

6. Notes and Essay from the Seventh Year, "The Black Family In the Age Of Mass Incarceration

7. Notes and Essay from the Eighth Year, "My President Was Black"; Epilogue and Conclusions

Bibliography

Core Book:  We Were Eight Years In Power: An American Tragedy, Ta-Nehisi Coates, 2017

Other Supplemental Readings:

• Between The World And Me, Ta Nehisi Coates, 2014 (autobiographical Memoir)

• The Beautiful Struggle, 2008 ( Childhood in Baltimore and its Impact on the author)

• You Tube--Democracy Now! June 20, 2019,  PBS NewsHour, June 19, 2019

• www.the guardian.com>jun ."Ta-Nehisi Coates revisits the case for reparations five years after essay first published",

• July 6, 2019

Mysticism

Description

Mysticism (from the Greek word muo [to shut or close the lips or eyes]) is not a religion or a philosophy; it has no connection to the occult; it is not mysterious.  Its fount is the raw material of all religions and the inspiration of philosophy and poetry, a consciousness of something beyond the external world of material phenomena. In the words of Evelyn Underhill:  “In mysticism the will is united with the emotions in an impassioned desire to transcend the sense-world in order that the self may be joined by love in the one eternal and ultimate Object of love; whose existence is intuitively perceived by the soul [the cosmic or transcendent sense].”    In its pure form mysticism is the search for absolutes, union with the Absolute, and the abolition of individuality.  In this s/dg we will compare and contrast the various forms of mysticism, from the Hindus to psychedelic drug trips, and examine the question of its logic. There will not be a core book.  The readings will be assembled in a packet of photocopied documents.

Weekly Topics

Week 1:  What is Mysticism?  (William James, "Mysticism"; W. T. Stace, "The Philosophy of Mysticism"

Week 2:  Hindu and Buddhist Mysticism (Upanishads; Heart Sutra)

Week 3.  Plato, Plotinus, and Christian Mysticism (Excerpts from Plato's dialogues; Plotinus, The Enneads (Book 6, Tractate 9); Dionysius the Areopagate; Meister Eckhart)

Week 4:  Judaic and Islamic Mysticism (Ezekiel, Zohar, Rumi, al-Ghazali)

Week 5:  Mystical Scientists (Albert Einstein, Arthur Eddington, Erwin Schroedinger)

Week 6:  Poetic Visions and Hallucinogenic Drugs (William Blake, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Aldous Huxley, Huston Smith, Michael Pollan)

Week 7:  The Logic of Mysticism (Bertrand Russell, "Mysticism and Logic"; W. T. Stace, "Mysticism and Logic"

Collins, de Valera and the Fight for Irish Independence

Description

Is Irish history a special taste?  Not of general interest to PLATO members? Our vote is “No.”  It’s an object lesson in the creation of a people’s independence.  The oppression of the Irish by Britain lasted 750 years.  Beaten down, essentially dispossessed in their own country, treated as savages and infidels, they finally rebelled, managed to free themselves from the English and asserted control of their own destiny in 1919.  Without significant weaponry or foreign assistance, they relied on skilled leadership and commitment.

The two principal leaders of that rebellion were Michael Collins ("Big Fellow") and Eamon de Valera ("Long Fellow").  They came from different backgrounds, had different life experiences and very different skill sets, but both came to believe that only violence could free Ireland from English rule.  And they prevailed where others had failed.

Despite their alliance to gain that independence, rather than settle in to enjoy it, Collins and de Valera led their respective followers into a brutal civil war, with consequences (including the "Troubles" in Northern Ireland)  which have lasted until today.  When the civil war ended, Collins was dead and de Valera was the political leader.  And he remained the principal Irish political leader into the 1950’s.  And the legacy of the rebellion and civil war led to the more recent “Troubles” in Northern Ireland.  

This is a fascinating story of how the Irish fought for independence, how the English yoke was finally thrown off, the civil war, the creation and operation of the Irish Free State, de Valera’s career as its political leader and the military, social and political aspects of all of them.  We will start with a summary of what English rule meant, the failed rebellions of 1798, 1803 and 1916 and the 19th century movements to assert Irish political participation, cultural pride and land reform.  We will then move to the events leading to the successful rebellion, civil war and the creation of a nation.  

Many myths have grown up around these events. Among our tasks are to try to separate the myths from the realities, to take an objective view of the events themselves, to honestly appraise both Collins and de Valera, to see how the events of almost 100 years ago still galvanize emotions and to see how their respective attitudes and actions still play out today.  These events raise questions about whether the rebels were justified in forsaking peaceful methods to achieve independence in favor or violence, whether the violence of the civil war was justified, and to what extent the egos of the leaders influenced their actions.

Weekly Topics

1.  Background, including geography, early history, tribal society, St. Patrick & the Catholic Church, Strongbow & the Norman conquest

2.  British occupation, including suppression of Catholics, Penal Laws, Ulster settlement, rebellions of 1798 and 1803, Act of Union, Famine

3.  Post Famine 19th and early 20th centuries, including O'Connell, Young Ireland and Sinn Fein

4.  Parnell and attempts at land reform and home rule and cultural revival

        Play: "Cathleen ni Houlihan" by Yeats

        Novel:  "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" by James Joyce  (short exerpt)

5.  Biography of Michael Collins through 1915

6.  Biography of Eamon de Valera through 1915

7.  1916 Rising, roles of Collins & de Valera,  rise of Sinn Fein

           Play: "The Plough and the Stars" by Sean O'Casey

            Film:  "Ryan's Daughter"

            Yeats poems:  Easter 1916; Sixteen Dead Men; The Rose Tree

8.  British reactions to 1916 Rising, Preparation for Rebellion

9.  1919 Rebellion: Leaders, Orders, Personnel, Outcome

            Play:  "The Shadow of a Gunman" by Sean O'Casey

            Story: "Guests of the Nation" by Frank O'Connor

10. Peace negotiations and Treaty

11.  Civil War: Reasons, Fighting, Personnel, Outcome

            Play: "Juno and the Paycock" by Sean O'Casey

            Film: "The Wind that Shakes the Barley"

12. Assassination of Collins:  How & Why and Effects

            Film: "Michael Collins"

13. Creation of the Irish Free State, including roles of politicians, Church, parties

14. Creation of Republic of Ireland, 1937 Constitution, continuing divisions, retrospective look at Collins & de Valera and their respective                     legacies

Bibliography

The core book will be “Big Fellow, Long Fellow,” a dual biography of the lives and times of Collins and de Valera by T. Ryle Dwyer.  (Collins has long been referred to as the “the big fellow” and de Valera as “the long fellow.”)   There are several individual biographies and many books and other writings about the events and the periods.  In addition, there is available to SDG members a good library of books on Irish history and issues.  For example, we have a book with transcripts of 250 radio shows on Irish history, some of which can be easily copied and distributed for individual topics.

In addition, there are movies to watch and plays, stories and poems to read which illuminate the subjects and offer more personal views of the society in which these events took place and the individuals who were affected by them.  Those who have seen the move “Michael Collins” have some sense of the character and importance of both Collins and de Valera.  Those who have seen “The Wind That Shakes the Barley” have some sense of the intensity of the civil war.  The plays and stories and poems are indicated above.  The plays of Sean O'Casey are classics showing the effects of the 1916 Rising, 1919 rebellion and civil war on ordinary Dubliners.

Finally, there are podcast platforms which have many podcasts on our subjects.  These platforms include: The Irish History Show, The History Ireland Show, The Irish History Podcast and Glucksman House Ireland.

Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy

Description

An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser, published in 1925, is a complex and compassionate account of the life and death of a young antihero named Clyde Griffiths. It has often been called American's Crime and Punishment. The novel begins with Clyde’s blighted background, recounts his path to success, and culminates in his apprehension, trial, and execution for murder. Tracing the psychic and social consequences of inequality, An American Tragedy was voted into the 16th spot on the Modern Reader's Library Top 100 novels. 

 Based on a thinly disguised true story, this important novel is not only a biting portrait of the American dream gone sour but also a universal story about the stresses of urbanization, modernization, and alienation.

It was a watershed book that inspired the creation of a number of American tragedies - Richard Wright’s Native Son (1940), Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood (1966), and Norman Mailer’s The Executioner’s Song (1979) among others. The story has also been made into an opera and a film (A Place in the Sun, 1951). We will study the film in the last session.

The book is 856 pages.

Weekly Topics

1. Introduction: style, legacy, origin of plot; p. 1-53

2. p. 53-154

3. p.154-256

4. p. 256-354

5. p. 354-450

6. p. 450-558

7. p. 558-656

8. p. 656-771

9. p. 771-856

10. Film: A Place in the Sun 

Bibliography

Dreiser, Theodore. An American Tragedy. Signet Classics. 1964/2010.

Film:   A Place in the Sun. 1951.