We are probably far enough into January already for most of us to have abandoned our New Year’s resolutions. So take this chance to pause for breath in the hurly burly of modern life and ponder, for a while, on how the passing of time feels to you.
Click here to join the debate. Jan 26. 4pm (UK time)
What are you glad to see the back of? What makes you sigh with nostalgia? Does looking to the future excite or exhaust you.
Our discussion will be hosted by Old Father Time so speak wisely to win him over.
Click here to join the debate. Jan 26. 4pm (UK time)
In the December 2011 Thinking Tank we considered rituals and their role in modern society. Some of the discussion focused on Christmas preparations but we also considered marriage, funerals and other rituals. There was some dissent over what was a ritual and what was just a habit, but in general a triumph of personal meaning over social conformity. Just over 100 ideas were proposed and considered by the group. Here is a summary of what was shared
Espresso Summary: Top 5 (the most supported comments)
- You don’t need “official” rituals to have rituals of your own – different and at different periods of the year
- Rituals are fine as long as they can be somewhat “tempered” otherwise they could be quite boring
- Christmas feels like a big task. Not just the work involved (wrapping presents, preparing food etc) but also the ritualistic ways people behave at this time of year
- Christmas is too commercial
- Rituals don’t work when they too superficial – no time and no space to really pay attention to people
Latte Summary: when you have a bit more time
ROLE OF RITUALS
General view is that they can – and should – be personalised to increase their meaning
- You don’t need “official” rituals to have rituals of your own – different and at different periods of the year
- Rituals are fine as long as they can be somewhat “tempered” otherwise they could be quite boring
- Some of the old rituals appears as not mine, others are new and very welcome
There were less supported comments about the specifics of Christmas preparations – carols and family and gifts and food.
BENEFITS
Benefits of rituals were contemplative: a time for reflection, pause for thought. rather than anything to do with pomp and circumstance.
- The positive side is that it creates space for family time, that it creates moments in the family history
- Is almost a way to learn myself better, getting a deeper insight into myself
- My marriage: although I don’t believe in God, I enjoyed the ritual.
- a time to share
Opinion was divided on more mundane rituals – these comments became Synthetrons but also attracted negative scoring.
- arriving home. Not just shuffling in and getting straight into the jobs but taking a moment to arrive, greet each other, be present
- Having a cold shower after a family struggle – you are immediately nourished by fresh energy
- The checkin and checkout of meetings: To get a sense of the feelings that are in the room, to see the development of the meeting, to get a closer feeling to what happens
HAZARDS
There are potential downsides to rituals that the group were aware of, mostly around coercion and falseness:
- when a ritual is felt more as a constraint rather than an event to look forward to
- When the ritual itself becomes more important than its original intention
- When everyone pretends
The group agreed on some strategies to avoid these risks
- rituals must be considered as occasions – not obligations
- Distinguish between personal rituals and traditional rituals. Maybe knowing our own reason for participating makes a difference too. It’s not the ritual that has meaning in itself, it is we who choose to bring it meaning (or just go through the emotions)
IDEAL CHARACTERISTICS OF A RITUAL
Ah. Let’s hope that we can all remember these wise words in our hearts during the Christmas and other seasonal festivities
- a ritual that encourages me to think of the rhythm of life, the tides, the seasons, the births and deaths. Get a sense of perspective and stop obsessing about my own trivia
- a ritual that encourages us to look within hearts and also at our global connectedness
- A trueness-ritual … perhaps … like this: If I was born in Ohio, now i would be this, if i was born in Kabul, now i would be this, if I was born in ….
- A ritual that includes time for deep reflection in a safe environment
- pause to think about the meaning of what we do
- It’s not about the stuff – or the stuffing! It’s about the meaning. I can choose for it to be meaningful or I can choose for it to be a chore. Right now I am hoping to have the presence of mind to choose meaningful.
- Relax, be authentic, thoughtful of others
Full Summary
Click on this pdf file to see all the comments 1112 Rituals full report
In June of this year one blog made this summary “Forty years and $1 trillion later, America’s “War on Drugs” remains a costly, colossal failure – as evidenced by a new report released this week by the Global Commission on Drug Policy.”
Click here to join the debate at 4pm UK time, Thurs Nov 24
One Thinking Tanker has commented
“The war on drugs not only is a total failure, it makes the problem much worse.
It creates much more and much bigger problems than it is trying to resolve, because it starts form a totally wrong premise: for purely ideological reasons, it totally irrationally defines a difficult medical problem as a criminal one.”
Click here to join the debate at 4pm UK time, Thurs Nov 24
Start the debate now by tweeting with #thinkingtank
Stimulus
- Yesterday’s article in the NY Times ““It could lead to a nationalist backlash in the countries involved,””
- Huffington Post: Is legalisation the answer?
- RSA Drugs – is it always abuse?
Click here to join the debate at 4pm UK time, Thurs Nov 17
Future Thinking Tank Discussions
(always Thursdays, always 4pm UK / 5pm Euro / 11am US East Coast…). Topics may change if there is a more pressing issue at the time. Please feel free to make suggestions by adding a comment below
- 22 Dec (Winter Solstice): Rituals and their role in modern society. As you prepare for Christmas, Hannukah, recover from Eid or plan your own rites, we take a break to reflect on why rituals are so important to us and how they might help even a post-modernist society.
- New Year (Jan 26). Stopping and Starting. What will you leave behind with 2011, what will you work on in 2012?
- Feb 23: The F-word. Over a century after New Zealand gave all women the right to vote and nearly 50 years after the US Equal Pay Act the situation is still far from balanced. 70% of the world’s poor are women and girls and the gender pay gap still exists. Where do we go from here?
Posted in Debates, Economics, Society
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Tagged criminality, drugs, equality, ideology, new york times, rituals, RSA, war on drugs, wealth
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As the euro wobbles and personal and national debts mount around the world, we took a 
moment approaching Diwali to debate prosperity. Which involved into a debate around prosperity and scarcity – the yin and yang of creativity and progress according to the group.
Here are some highlights of what they said (statements in italics are verbatim, those in bold were supported by at least 70%):
Prosperity is a broad concept
- My definition of prosperity is much broader than when I was in my 20s. The sun is shining, I am learning new things
Also mentioned: freedom,. education, family, sharing, mentors, work hard play hard. Seen by some as a privilege, a luxury for some people in some countries, not broadly available to all.
Prosperity is desirable and allows progress / evolution
Prosperity also comes with risks
- risk: smugness, complacency, stagnation
- Risk to forget about the less fortunate
Though a smaller group disagreed with this view
- At systemic level I disagree about complacency …. there is always a push from the bottom …. if you get complacent you stop growing …. others will ….
Prosperity and Scarcity
- Scarcity creates some urgency in solving problems. So a good driver. But I think it leads us to focus on the basics so no good for human evolution
- I like the occasional bit of scarcity eg a 2 hour power cut, a day when the shops are closed. It leaves me joyful when it is over
- Plenty of budget makes us unimaginative, plenty of time makes me lazy
- At the begining, need / scarcity motivates change, creativity …. then without a bit of prosperity you get stuck
Prosperity can be nurtured
The greatest levels of agreement were around ways to encourage properity
- Continue to give freedom to women
- Invest in clean and cheap energy (we are not there yet!)
- Teach prosperity in schools (an inclusive view of prosperity which includes social capital, beauty, creativity, caring as well as financial security)
- Continue to reduce trade barriers (e.g. CAP policy in Europe, fran subsidies in the US)
- Continue to try to remove dictators …. (e.g. good news today about Gaddafi!)
- Continue to educate all people
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- Nobody needs more than ten years living expenses. So increase your prosperity by sharing your wealth (or skills)
Next discussion
When do you lie? Does it matter? Is lying increasing or on the wane as transparency shifts our expectations but mobile phones and Second Life allow us to be who we want, when we want? Good for you? Bad for me?
CLICK HERE to join the discussion on Sep 29th
Stimulus:
CLICK HERE to join the discussion on Sep 29th
Future Thinking Tank Discussions
(always Thursdays, always 4pm UK / 5pm Euro / 11am US East Coast…). Topics may change if there is a more pressing issue at the time. Please feel free to make suggestions by adding a comment below
- 20 Oct: Prosperity. As we approach Diwali* let’s consider what prosperity means in the 21st century and how we can enjoy and spread it
- 24 Nov: tbc
- 22 Dec (Winter Solstice): Rituals and their role in modern society. As you prepare for Christmas, Hannukah, recover from Eid or plan your own rites, we take a break to reflect on why rituals are so important to us and how they might help even a post-modernist society.
- New Year (Jan ). Stopping and Starting. What will you leave behind with 2011, what will you work on in 2012?
* Diwali, the festival of light, is an important day for Hindu (awareness of inner light), Jain (equivalent of Easter when Lord Mahavira attained Nirvana) and Sikh (celebration of freedom) communities as well as the beginning of the Indian financial year
CLICK HERE to join the discussion on Sep 29th
ESPRESSO SUMMARY
Power corrupts: we must all be vigilant and selective.
- We need to get our information from different sources , always to balance and weigh whatever comes our way
Watchwords: Governance, ownership, checks and balances, avoid concentration of power
- In Latin America we also see a similar phenomenon with the media companies and their power
The clean up process: ugly but welcome
- Personally I thought that anyway so I am glad that it has been exposed like this. There are many honourable police officers but also systemic corruption that needs to be rooted out.
We are all part of the problem or part of the solution
- Good reminder that we all make many choices each day. Sometimes the choice is to do what’s convenient or to do what is right.. If we go with convenient we are each part of the problem.
FULL WORKS
Click on the pdf file to see the full list of synthetrons ordered by topic 1107 Murdoch Effect full report
Recent events in the UK have jeopardised Murdoch’s bid to control satellite TV. Relationships that have come to light between media, politicians and police have caused many questions to be asked. Click here to join us 4pm (UK time) July 21st.
In this month’s Thinking Tank we consider
- Are these cosy arrangements inevitable or should we fight to expose them?
- Does this decision signify a new era of transparency or is it just a one off?
Previous Thinking Tanks have often cited the media as the cause of the problem.
- Is this a moment of truth for their role in our lives?
- Or are they right when they blame consumers who buy the scandal and horror stories?
Don’t miss out. Have your say in this debate and let’s make the news for ourselves.
Click here to join us 4pm (UK time) July 21st.
One of the first things I noticed about today’s debate was the poll results. At the beginning each participant rated themselves on a scale of 1-5 how ethical they are. The weighted average was 4.4. At the end of the discussion we took the same poll and scored ourselves as 3.7. As a main premise of Bazerman and Tenbrunsel’s recent book “Why We Fail to Do What’s Right and What to Do about It” is the tendency to turn a blind eye to our own failures to be ethical (like the mice on the right), it seems that the Thinking Tank helped to raise consciousness. It’s a good start.
And some of the well supported statements in our last 5 minutes was a good finish:
- when I tell my wife what I was doing all this time on my pc I shall answer, I was working on how to make the world a little better
- Thank you very much- I think we learned quite a lot due to our anonymous discussion…….
What we need to be ethical
We generally agreed that ethics were necessary and standards should be met. But how? The 2 strongest statements in the debate were both about what support we need to be ethical:
- a clear set of values
- having the guts to risk being unpopular / sacked, having a greater purpose
We also agreed (like Barry Schwartz on TED) that actions speak louder than words:
- it is not about the word but more about the behaviour
- Yes, bringing ethics into everyday life and conversation is a great idea. It cannot be left in theory-land
- ethics is not just a philosophical concept, it is a day to day issue to discuss and bring to life
- It is not sustainable for us to all behave selfishly (often the opposite to ethically). In the end we all suffer
And the actions that the group supported most strongly are:
- I will live and act more closely to my set of values
- I must be on the alert watching the public discussion on ethics, including the role of the churches and our politicians, discussing these items with my family and children
- speak up if I notice unethical behaviour
The ethical problem
We also had a frank discussion about the challenges of ethical behaviour. Although as a group we found it easier to criticise others (child abusers, politicians, high profile business fraudsters) than analyse our own shortfalls, there were some personal admissions:
- So easy to lose touch with reality and believe in your own version of the universe
- The same thing happens with discounters when they mistreat their employees but you go there shopping almost every day
The most common feelings from behaviour falling short of our own ethical standards is guilt
- Feel like I let myself and others down. That I was not enough.
- Feel like I just learnt something and will avoid that mistake next time
- Turning a blind eye is easy in the short term than hard to live with in the long term. I feel like a coward
If this is an issue that interests you and you would like to see a complete list of the 100 statements put forward and evaluated, contact me cmshovlin@gmail.com. Join us next month? Thurs June 16th, 4-4.45pm UK time. All welcome.
Try this May 31 at 1pm UK time: RSA talk on Jonathan Wolff on #ethics and public life.
We are probably far enough into January already for most of us to have abandoned our New Year’s resolutions. So take this chance to pause for breath in the hurly burly of modern life and ponder, for a while, on how the passing of time feels to you.
