Ice Breaker Question:
Social media exploded last week when the president of North Korea out-Englished our president by tagging him as a DOTARD (dō-tərd). Name-calling is a substitute for rational, fact-based arguments against an idea or belief. In Paul Graham’s “Hierarchy of Disagreement”, he lists Name-Calling as the lowest type of argument in a disagreement, even behind Ad Hominem (attack on an opponent’s character). What clever or archaic name-calling have you heard, used or remember from school, work, family or politics? Describe the effect of name-calling in your experience.
Question of the Night:
Ephesians 4:29 ~ Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.
When do hurtful words evolve into corrupt acts?
Do you consider laughter the distinction between hurtful hostility and harmless humor in sarcasm?
Which is more important to you in debate, intelligent thought or tactical intent?
Other Questions:
Last year, before the election, a solitary NFL footballer, Colin Kaepernick, took to one knee during the national anthem in protest of police brutality against black Americans. He is currently unemployed. Last week, our president said players who kneel during the anthem should be “fired” immediately. This past weekend, twenty-seven players from two NFL teams dropped down and took a knee on the field as “The Star-Spangled Banner” began. No white players took a knee. A journalist remarked, “The kneel will now become a sign of opposition to Trump.” Is the formula for protest always a matter of growing numbers over exploited time? Has last year’s “kneeler” lost his job and his social point (racist police brutality) to the now winning political stand of opposing Trump?
On this day in 1950, United Nations troops recaptured Seoul from North Korean forces. However, China’s support enabled North Korea to fight the “police action” to an armistice and the two communist countries’ mutuality remains strong to this day. Why? -> The North Koreans had provided great support in the previous Chinese Civil War between the Communists and the Nationalists. They say Americans never learned history and their enemies and allies can’t forget it. How important is history in understanding current events? When has Nationalism been a result of selective forgetting? Should history gain more emphasis in our schools?
In 1900, the War of the Golden Stool began in west Africa when the ruling British governor disrespected the local people by sitting on their Sacred Golden Stool. Do you have “sacred” possessions or traditions in your house which when abridged make you fighting mad (or at least piqued)?
P.G. Wodehouse (creator of the fictional character Jeeves) ~ It is a good rule in life never to apologize. The right sort of people do not want apologies, and the wrong sort take a mean advantage of them. How do you score apology as an advancer or detractor in relationships?
Robin Bates ~ Work can ennoble, but not when we sacrifice our humanity to it. Robin reached this conclusion after reading Rhina P. Espaillat’s poem Find Work which includes the lines…
[Her life]…spent in the lifelong practice of despair.
her country tongue and country heart anaesthetized and mute with labor.
Have you found your labors at once economically sufficient but painfully self-sacrificial?