Promoting Capitalist Ideals & Constructive Thinking Skills

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MONDAY NIGHTS: Discover Capitalism (tm).
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Chaired discussions on various topics exploring, defending, and promoting Capitalist Ideals.

Here's a list of past meetings & topics:
http://www.meetup.com/prodos/calendar/past_list/

This is a PRO Capitalism group.

Monday night meetings are chaired and very well run.

Our broad areas of interest include ...

* Individual Rights
* Property Rights
* Ayn Rand
* John Locke
* Thomas Jefferson & the American Founding Fathers
* Adam Smith
* Frederic Bastiat
* Ludwig von Mises
* Free Market economics
* Separation of Church and State
* Creative Heroes, Entrepreneurs, Scientists, Artists, Inventors, Explorers
* Philosophy. Politics. American Ideals. Conservative politics
* We reject the Global Warming orthodoxy

Our members come from a wide range of politics and ideology within the pro-Capitalism spectrum:

Conservative, Classical Liberal, Objectivist, Christian, Atheist, Libertarian, Liberal Party of Australia.

Discussions are friendly but vigorous! :-)

If you take ideas seriously, please join us!

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THURSDAY NIGHTS: Constructive Thinking Skills
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This is an ideology-free and politics-free zone.

Improve your constructive thinking skills!

Every Thursday we run a non-profit workshop dedicated to the practice and improvement of thinking skills using the formal lateral thinking and constructive thinking methods of Edward de Bono, including:

* EBS (Examine Both Sides)
* CAF (Consider All Factors)
* TEC (Target-Expand-Contract)
* Six Thinking Hats
* PO (Provocative Operation)
* PMI (Plus, Minus, Interesting
* OPV (Other Peoples Viewpoint)
* ADI (Agree, Disagree, Irrelevant)
* And lots more

We treat thinking as a skill that can be enjoyed and improved with practice.

Regular, steady, sensible practice. It works!

These Thursday "constructive thinking skills" sessions are like a gymnasium.

They're like learning to play an instrument such as a piano or guitar.

They're like learning ballroom dancing or tap dancing.

They're more perspiration than inspiration.

What this is isn't ...

It's not puzzles
It's not problem-solving or brain-teasers
It's not memory improvement
It's not Art or poetry or story-telling or singing or anything like that
It's not "positive thinking" or motivational training
It's not about IQ
It's not anything like NLP or Mind-mapping
It's not about being delightful, witty and amusing
You won't transform your life overnight and it's not "therapy"

There's nothing exotic or magic or high-powered about these workshops.

What is achieved?

You'll improve your skills in ...

* Generating new ideas deliberately, on demand
* Understanding the viewpoints of others
* Exploring your thinking for factors that you may have left out
* Identifying and escaping your own assumptions and dominant
patterns of thinking
* Organizing your thinking
* Coming up with new ways of seeing things
* Creating "thinking plans" for working on your projects
* Dealing with information and feelings
* Practical thinking, planning, clarifying goals, sharpening your focus

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PRODOS Film Society (Member of the Federation of Victorian Film Societies)
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The presentation, study, discussion, of films that relate to a better understanding and appreciation of capitalist ideals including: free speech; free market economics; constructive and creative thinking; individual rights and their defenders; science, technology, and invention; the history of western philosophy; the lives and works of “creative heroes” (eg. Scientists, Entrepreneurs, Artists, Inventors, etc.)