The Conversation Project

This gathering will provide opportunities to listen, learn and share views in a supportive atmosphere with people that are curious and enjoy engaging in seriously fun discussions on a variety of topics.

Once I was asked, "Do you like to talk about things, people or ideas?" My answer was IDEAS! Not that discussing a story about a friend or our new gadget is necessarily a bad thing. However, often it is difficult to find opportunities to have engaging conversations about artistic/scientific/historical or otherwise potentially interesting topics. This place gives you that opportunity!

Knowledge on topics is not a prerequisite. The Topic is not as important as is the 'Act of Engagement.'

Food for thought on these two topics for our next session. You don't have to read it!

WAR and TRUTH

TRUTH

· Alternative facts seem to be a phrase that is widely accepted.

· Information is not truth.

· What people believe is more powerful than truth.

· Nothing is more important to a democracy than a well-informed electorate.

· Three definitions: 1). Perhaps the simplest way to explain the concept of an objective truth is to say that "beliefs are true just when they correspond to reality." This definition is of an objective truth – objective meaning uninfluenced by our biases and emotions. Yet multiple realities can exist as a result of differing experiences; there are always at least three versions of a story: mine, yours, and the real one. What is the real story? 2).This leads to subjective truth even if we like to think that it is absolute, universal and indisputable. We make the truth; we forge it as we see it or as we want people to see it. 3). The third category of truth is normative truth. Normative truth deals with the idea of what we should and should not do. As with subjective truths, normative truths depend on our emotions. Normative truths are formed by an individual or society and their values and experiences. Examples of normative truths include "killing is wrong" and "look both ways before crossing the street." Because of the nature of normative truths, it is possible for the truth to differ between groups (i.e. between cultures, regions, religions, genders, etc.).

WAR

"I know not with what weapons WW3 will be fought, but WW4 will be fought with sticks and stones," Einstein.

"When the rich wage war, it's the poor who die," John Paul Sarte.

The Oxford Dictionary defines war as, “any active hostility or struggle between living beings; a conflict between opposing forces or principles.”

One of many questions might be, “Are humans naturally aggressive"? Here is ONE story to explain our behaviour and perhaps a solution. Do you accept this story or do you harbour a different view?

Chimps, Us and War as Inheritance.

JANE Goodall revealed that chimpanzees hunt and eat monkeys. They were far more like us than anybody had suspected. But one aspect was deeply troubling: they fight wars. Like us. The Kasakela so called Gombe group of chimpanzees in 1974 group split into two smaller bands — which went to war for four years until all the adult males of one band had been killed and the surviving females and their young found shelter with other groups. A lot of human beings, hearing this very bad news, thought: I’ve already seen this movie, except that the protagonists were human. It shredded the belief that human beings had invented war with the rise of civilization. Instead, it was an ancient family tradition. We didn’t invent war; we inherited it.

Many customs, traditions and even reflexes that were useful or at least tolerable for the wild version of the species will be useless or even harmful to its civilized descendants, but that doesn’t mean they will quietly go away. Nobody is in charge of updating these behaviours, and in many cases some groups or individuals will still be benefiting from them. Evolution is not conscious and it doesn’t care about the welfare of individuals. If you are a very bright chimp, you may deplore the recurrent warfare that disfigures chimp society, but you have no words to condemn it. Anthropologists know that human hunter-gatherers were usually trapped in similar territorial wars between neighbouring bands. That was presumably pro-survival for the group at some point in the distant past despite the cost to many individuals. However, humans have language and bigger brains, and they can reason and talk their way out of their old habits. We are in the midst of that process now. We have been in it for the past 100 years, and we’re definitely not home and dry yet. The chimpanzees are trapped in their ugly little wars, but we may be able to escape from ours eventually. Gwynne Dyer

W hat is your position on Gwynne Dyer’s last comment?