The Axial Age

Description

The years 900 to 200 BCE were identified as the Axial Age by the German philosopher Karl Jaspers (The Origin and Goal of History) During that time, in four distinct regions of the world, four great spiritual and intellectual traditions came into being: Confucianism and Daoism in China; Hinduism and Buddhism in India; monotheism in Israel; and philosophical rationalism in Greece. All these traditions had in common the core doctrine that it was not what you believed that mattered but how you behaved. Ritual became less important than ethical behavior. Morality was placed at the center of spiritual life. Jaspers wrote: "What is new about this age is that man becomes conscious of Being as a whole, of himself and his limitations. . . . In this age were born the fundamental categories within which we still think today . . . Hitherto unconsciously accepted ideas, customs and conditions were subjected to examination, questioned and liquidated." Karen Armstrong, revisits and reexamines these traditions, beginning with a close look at the pre-Axial religions of early antiquity. Her thesis is that the insights of the Axial Age have never been surpassed, and she urges us to look back to them for guidance.

Weekly Topics

1. Introduction and ch. 1: The Axial Peoples (c. 1600 to 900 BCE)

2. Ch. 2: Ritual (c. 900 to 800 BCE)

3. Ch. 3: Kenosis (c. 800-700 BCE)

4. Ch. 4: Knowledge. 700 to 600 BCE)

5. Ch. 5: Suffering (c. 600 to 530 BCE)

6. Ch. 6: Empathy (c. 530-450 BCE)

7. Ch. 7: Concern for Everybody ((c. 450 to 398 BCE)

8. Ch. 8: All Is One (c. 400 to 300 BCE)

9. Ch. 9: Empire (c. 300-220 BCE)

10. Ch. 10: The Way Forward

Bibliography

Karen Armstrong, The Great Transformation: The Beginnings of Our Religious Traditions (Knopf, 2006)

The Story of Ireland and the Irish People

Description

Ireland is a beautiful land with a tumultuous history. Over the millennia it has been shaped by waves of immigration and invasion bringing new languages, faiths and cultures. In this SDG we will examine many of these migrations and invasions, particularly those of the Celts, Vikings, Normans, Scots and English.

As part of our journey we will learn of the Celtic migration to Ireland; he origin of the five Irish kingdoms of Ulster, Connacht, Leinster, Munster and Meith; the significance of Irish monks and monasteries not only to Ireland but to Europe in general; how the Vikings came to Ireland and why they stayed; how the Normans came to Ireland and why they stayed; the religious conflicts between Catholics and Protestants and with each other; the centuries long efforts of the English to dominate the Irish; the Scots who emigrated from western Scotland to northern Ireland; the famines, economic problems and religious conflicts that led both Catholics and Protestants to emigrate to North America; the fight for Irish self-government and independence from England; how six counties of Ulster remaining a part of the United Kingdom led to the "Troubles;" and the challenge faced by both parts of Ireland in the Twentieth and Twenty-first Centuries.

Weekly Topics

1. 8,000 BCE - 664 CE: Prehistoric Ireland; Patrick and early Irish Christianity.

2. 664 - 1307: Vikings and Normans.

3. 1318 - 1607: Challenges to the English colonial regime; Black Death; increased trade; Tudors.

4. 1605 - 1691: Ulster Plantation; English Civil War; Cromwell in Ireland; English Restoration; William of Orange.

5. 1691 - 1782: Protestant Ireland; penal laws; famine; American Revolution.

6. 1782 - 1798: trade; French Revolution; unrest.

7. 1798 - 1844: Union with Great Britain; Catholic emancipation; Napoleonic Wars; economic depression; O'Connell.

8. 1845 - 1868: Potato Famine; Catholic and Protestant emigration; Fenians.

9. 1868 - 1895: disestablishment of Church of Ireland; Parnell; land reform; home rule; Ulster unionism.

10. 1895 - 1914: Boer Wars; dual monarchy; home rule.

11. 1914 - 1923: World War I; Easter Rising; Connolly; Pearse; role of women; de Valera, Collins and Sinn Fein; IRA; partition; civil war.

12. 1923 - 1969: State building; role of Catholic Church; role of women; government in Northern Ireland; Great Depression; new constitution; World War II; post-war years; Irish Republic; end of isolation.

13. 1969 - 2011: Troubles; Anglo-Irish Agreement; Good Friday Agreement; admission to the European Economic Union; Mary Robinson; role of Catholic Church; "Celtic Tiger"; immigration replaces emigration; global financial crisis; bailout by EU and IMF.

14. 2011 - present: economic recovery; "leprechaun economics"; continuing social change; tension in the North; Brexit; global pandemic

Bibliography

There are two core books: The Story of Ireland: A History of the Irish People by Neil Hegarty and Ireland: A History by Thomas Bartlett. We will also suggest other books, films and literature to consider as additional sources on Ireland and the Irish people.

Caste: The Origin of Our Discontents (2nd 7 Weeks)

Description

This SDG seeks to examine the unspoken caste system in America and how a hierarchy of human divisions shapes us. The core book is the highly acclaimed Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabelle Wilkerson (Pulitzer Prize winning and best selling author of The Warmth of Other Sons.) Caste has been deemed in the New York Times review an "instant American classic and almost certainly the keynote nonfiction book of the American century thus far...one of the most powerful nonfiction books...ever encountered." Wilkerson gives a masterful and lyrical portrait of an unseen phenomenon in America as she explores through an immersive, deeply researched narrative about real people, how America today and throughout its history has been shaped by a hidden caste system, a rigid hierarchy of human rankings.

Weekly Topics

1. Chapters 1-4 (53 pages.) Toxins in the permafrost, the afterlife of pathogens, an old house, an american untouchable, a long running play and the emergence of caste.

2. Chapter 5-9 (45 pages.) The container we have built, the measure of humanity, through the fog of Delhi to the parallels in India and America, the Nazis and the acceleration of caste, and the evil of silence.

3. Part Three: The eight pillars of caste. (67 pages.)

4. Part Four: The tentacles of caste. Chapter 10 (58 pages.)

5. Chapters 15-20 (54 pages.) The urgent necessity of the bottom rung, last place anxiety, on the early front lines of caste, the illogic of caste, the consequences of caste, the euphoria of hate and the invisible narcissism of caste.

6. Chapters 21-26 (53 pages.) The German girl with the dark wavy hair, the Stockholm Syndrome and the survival of the subordinate class, shock troops on the borders of hierarchy, the lethality of caste, backlash, a change in the script, turning point and the resurgence of caste.

7. Chapters 27-31 and Epilogue (58 pages.) The symbols of caste, democracy on the ballot, the price we pay for a caste system, awakening, shedding the sacred thread, the racialization of the dominant caste, the heart is the last frontier and a world without caste.

Bibliography

• Isabelle Wilkerson, Caste The Origins of Our Discontents , New York, Random House, 2020.

• Sunil Khilnani, "Top Down." The New Yorker," Aug. 17, 2020. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/08/17/isabel-wilkersons-world-historical-theory-of-race-and-caste

Albert Camus

Description

Albert Camus (1913–1960) was a journalist, editor and editorialist, playwright and director, novelist and author of short stories, political essayist and activist—and arguably, although he came to deny it, a philosopher. He ignored or opposed systematic philosophy, had little faith in rationalism, asserted rather than argued many of his main ideas, presented others in metaphors, was preoccupied with immediate and personal experience, and brooded over such questions as the meaning of life in the face of death. Although he forcefully separated himself from existentialism, Camus posed one of the twentieth century's best-known existentialist questions, which launches The Myth of Sisyphus: “There is only one really serious philosophical question, and that is suicide” (MS, 3). And his philosophy of the absurd has left us with a striking image of the human fate: Sisyphus endlessly pushing his rock up the mountain only to see it roll back down each time he gains the top. Camus's philosophy found political expression in The Rebel, which along with his newspaper editorials, political essays, plays, and fiction earned him a reputation as a great moralist. It also embroiled him in conflict with his friend, Jean-Paul Sartre, provoking the major political-intellectual divide of the Cold-War era as Camus and Sartre became, respectively, the leading intellectual voices of the anti-Communist and pro-Communist left. Furthermore, in posing and answering urgent philosophical questions of the day, Camus articulated a critique of religion and of the Enlightenment and all its projects, including Marxism. In 1957 he won the Nobel Prize for literature. He died in a car accident in January, 1960, at the age of 46.

He's been gone six decades but after 2020, it feels like French literary great Albert Camus matters more than ever. Last year began with tributes for the 60th anniversary of the French existentialist icon's premature death in a car crash. Then came Covid-19. And readers locked down the world over dusted off that go-to guide, “The Plague”, to make sense of the randomly unexpected. But it's not just "The Plague" that is timeless. In all of the Nobel literature laureate's plays, essays and novels, protagonists struggle to understand where they belong in times of upheaval. Just look at today. We live in an age of alienation, identity politics, the loss of a sense of self. A bit like in "The Stranger”.

What would Camus have made of 2021 and the age of digital discourse, where powered by tribal echo chambers, we judge and sometimes sentence our peers? When Covid-19 is long behind us, "The Fall" will still be worth re-reading.

In this SDG, we will read 10 novels/plays/essays of Camus, discuss three cycles of his writings; Absurd, Revolt and Love and discuss his thoughts and philosophy of life.

Weekly Topics

1. Brief introduction of Camus,his differences with Sartre and play Caligula 1938

2. The Stranger 1942

3. The Myth of Sisyphus 1942

4. The Plague 1947

5. The Plague

6. The Misunderstanding 1943 and The State of Siege 1948

7. The Rebel 1951

8. the Rebel

9. The Fall 1956

10. The First Man - incomplete published 1994

Discrimination and Disparities

Description

If you believe slavery and white privilege are the underlying causes of our racial problems in America, this SDG will give you a different perspective to consider. If you do not believe this, this SDG will give you ammunition to support your views.

The core book is by Thomas Sowell, a highly esteemed, economist and Hoover Institution Fellow. He is also black, 90 years old, and has seen it all. He provides research and facts to support his contention that discrimination is not the cause of racial disparities.

The SDG will supplement the core book with articles and book excerpts from writers such as Victor Davis Hansen and Walter E. Williams. (Hanson is a white classicist and historian. Williams is a black conservative economist, and Sowell dedicates our core book to him.)

Weekly Topics

• Core Book; use of additional articles, TBD. Weeks and Chapters match.

• Chapter 1 Disparities and Prerequisites 1(Starrting page number)

• Chapter 2 Discrimination; Meanings and Costs 29

• Chapter 3 Sorting and Unsorting People 58

• Chapter 4 The World of Numbers 87

• Chapter 5 The World of Words 115

• Chapter 6 Social Visions and Human Consequences 150

• Chapter 7 Facts, Assumptions and Goals 186

Bibliography

Core Book:

Discrimination and Disparities by Thomas Sowell, originally published March, 2018, revised and enlarged March, 2019

Summary: Economic and other outcomes differ vastly among individuals, groups, and nations. Many explanations have been offered for the differences. Some believe that those with less fortunate outcomes are victims of genetics. Others believe that those who are less fortunate are victims of the more fortunate.

Discrimination and Disparities gathers a wide array of empirical evidence to challenge the idea that different economic outcomes can be explained by any one factor, be it discrimination, exploitation, or genetics.

This revised and enlarged edition also analyzes the human consequences of the prevailing social vision of these disparities and the policies based on that vision—from educational disasters to widespread crime and violence.

Sample Articles (to be expanded if proposal moves forward):

https://townhall.com/columnists/walterewilliams/2020/07/29/is-racism-responsible-for-todays-black-problems-n2573212

FTA: “The absence of a father in the home predisposes children, especially boys, to academic failure, criminal behavior, and economic hardship, not to mention an intergenerational repeating of handicaps. If today's weak family structure is a legacy of slavery, then the people who make such a claim must tell us how it has managed to skip nearly five generations to have an effect.”

https://amgreatness.com/2020/06/14/class-not-race-divides-america/

Class Not Race Divides America by Victor Davis Hanson, June 14, 2020

Caste: The Origin of Our Discontents (1st 7 Weeks)

Description

This SDG seeks to examine the unspoken caste system in America  and how a hierarchy of human divisions shapes us.   The core book is the highly acclaimed Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabelle Wilkerson (Pulitzer Prize winning  and best selling author of The Warmth of Other Sons.)  Caste has been deemed in the New York Times  review  an "instant American classic and almost certainly the keynote nonfiction book of the American century thus far...one of the most powerful nonfiction books...ever encountered." Wilkerson gives a masterful and lyrical  portrait of an unseen phenomenon in America as she explores through an immersive, deeply researched narrative about real people, how America today and throughout its history has been shaped by a hidden caste system, a rigid hierarchy of human rankings. 

Weekly Topics

1. Chapters 1-4 (53 pages.) Toxins in the permafrost, the afterlife of pathogens, an old house, an american untouchable, a long running play and the emergence of caste.

2. Chapter 5-9 (45 pages.) The container we have built, the measure of humanity, through the fog of Delhi to the parallels in India and America, the Nazis and the acceleration of caste, and the evil of silence. 

3. Part Three: The eight pillars of caste. (67 pages.)

4. Part Four: The tentacles of caste. Chapter 10 (58 pages.)

5. Chapters 15-20 (54 pages.) The urgent necessity of the bottom rung, last place anxiety, on the early front lines of caste, the illogic of caste, the consequences of caste, the euphoria of hate and the invisible narcissism of caste.

6. Chapters 21-26 (53 pages.) The German girl with the dark wavy hair, the Stockholm Syndrome and the survival of the subordinate class, shock troops on the borders of hierarchy, the lethality of caste, backlash, a change in the script, turning point and the resurgence of caste. 

7. Chapters 27-31 and Epilogue (58 pages.)  The symbols of caste, democracy on the ballot, the price we pay for a caste system, awakening, shedding the sacred thread, the racialization of the dominant caste, the heart is the last frontier and a world without caste. 

Bibliography

• Isabelle Wilkerson, Caste The Origins of Our Discontents , New  York, Random House, 2020.

• Sunil Khilnani, "Top Down." The New Yorker," Aug. 17, 2020.  https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/08/17/isabel-wilkersons-world-historical-theory-of-race-and-caste.