Greater Philadelphia Thinking Society

 
 
 

Welcome to the series "Bucky Inspired Comprehensivity to Understand and Change the World". This is a collaboration with 52 Living Ideas.

Look at the amazing Schedule of Meetups in the series below:
(All Meetups are on Sundays at 9pm ET unless otherwise specified)

Struppi Pohl on Spherical Thinking and the Way of Spheres - Jan 1, 1pm ET
Thomas Miller on Liberating Modular Building from the yoke of Boxes - Jan 2, 12pm ET
Daniel Ari Friedman on Bucky & William Blake Parallels - Jan 8
Peter Meisen on On Synergy - Jan 15
Jon Brett on TetraMeme - Jan 22
Kirby Urner on Dimension in Synergetics - Jan 29
Curt McNamara on Bucky's Comprehensivity in his Design - Feb 5
Christopher Zelov - Cinematic Bucky Themes - Feb 12
D W Jacobs on Dramaturgical Synergies - Feb 19
Robert Sandusky on Bucky's Design Science & Four onramps - Feb 26
Bucky Lightening Talks: Invitation to talk for 5 minutes - Mar 5
Rupali Sharma on Bucky & Maria Montessori on Education Mar 12
Richard Ramsay on Social Tensegrity - Mar 26

Watch previous Bucky Meetups on YouTube here.

Buckminster Fuller championed a broad array of ideas to help us better understand and change the world. This series of events will engage these ideas and their practitioners to share, nurture, and develop this unique and urgent learning and doing mission to "make the world work for 100 percent of humanity in the shortest possible time through spontaneous cooperation without ecological damage or disadvantage to anyone" as Bucky so famously put it.

Topics will range from the conceptual, scientific, and philosophical to nuts-and-bolts applications to arts and culture.

"Comprehensivity" is a word Buckminster Fuller used in a number of
writings in the 1960s and 1970s. In a series of essays and video explorations, CJ Fearnley has developed the concept into a Bucky-inspired
synthesis. Comprehensivity can be described as the quality of
comprehensive thinking that aspires to be "adequately macro-comprehensive and micro-incisive" by combining all we know in breadth for context and all we know in depth for clarity to improve our effectiveness in understanding and changing the world.

We invite everyone with a interest in learning about and participating
in this work to join us in forming a collaborative community to nourish
and support this important work and its practitioners.

The series will feature presentations by and interviews with
Bucky-inspired practitioners, aficionados, and artists. Some events
will explore works of Bucky, those inspired by or building on Bucky,
or with the same spirit as Bucky.

Please join us.

See: CJ Fearnley's Resources on Collaborating for Comprehensivity here

See the YouTube Playlist on Collaborating for Comprehensivity here

All Meetups on the 52 Living Ideas platform will be recorded, and then posted on YouTube. Feel free to keep your video on or off as you prefer. Watch Past Meetups here.

 
 
 

Do innovative technologies threaten sustainability or promote economic inequality? According to an article in the online academic journal Aeon, business and political leaders may be obsessed with innovation economic growth as the solution to too many of the world’s problems. Andrew Russellis, Dean and Professor in the College of Arts & Sciences at SUNY Polytechnic Institute in Utica, New York, and co-author and Lee Vinselis, an assistant professor of science and technology studies at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey, have written:

“Innovation is a dominant ideology of our era, embraced in America by Silicon Valley, Wall Street, and the Washington DC political elite. As the pursuit of innovation has inspired technologists and capitalists, it has also provoked critics who suspect that the peddlers of innovation radically overvalue innovation. What happens after innovation, they argue, is more important. Maintenance and repair, the building of infrastructures, the mundane labor that goes into sustaining functioning and efficient infrastructures, simply has more impact on people’s daily lives than the vast majority of technological innovations.”

You can read the article, “Hail the Maintainers” at https://aeon.co/essays/innovation-is-overvalued-maintenance-often-matters-more. The article, published in 2016, attempts to draw lessons from the post-World War II boom and more recent examples of tech products, and growth industries.

• What are some of the unintended social and economic consequences of new technologies and products?
• Does new technology tend to lead to economic inequality? Should growth in wealth or growth in jobs be the higher priority? Does the growth of high-tech products and services provide jobs for only the well-educated?
• Do most new jobs created by tech industries pay poorly, and have low status? Are machines, automation, and AI eliminating more jobs than they are creating?
• Should priorities for economic growth be reconsidered? Should there be more emphasis on improving infrastructure and maintenance, as the authors propose?
• Do you agree with the assertion that home appliances have actually created more work for homemakers by raising cleanliness standards and expectations? Why are women doing more housework and child care than men, even when both partners have full-time jobs?
• Are maintenance and infrastructure workers underpaid? Are they part of an underclass? Why does the US need so many migrant workers in agriculture, food processing, and other manufacturing industries?

 
 
 

Why is the term "Karen" gaining popularity and being used as an insult so frequently? It seems like everywhere you turn, there are memes and costumes centered around the idea of a "Karen." The term "Karen" is often used to describe a white, middle-aged woman who consistently demands to speak to the manager in various situations. While there have always been middle-aged white women and individuals who complain excessively, there seems to be heightened criticism specifically directed toward this particular type of woman at this moment in time. In this meetup, we will explore how the meme "Karen" has revolutionized conversations about age, gender, and race in America.

Growing up, one might notice a prevalence of students named "Karen" in many schools. Among these students, there could be those who tend to bully others, regardless of whether their name was Karen or not. Such individuals often targeted those who stood out; newcomers, highly intellectual individuals, creatively inclined, or unique individuals.

One would hope that such individuals would undergo personal growth with time, evolving into kinder, more empathetic adults. But, the term "Karen" has gained a negative connotation in recent years, being used as an insult. Interestingly, this derogatory usage seems to be associated with those individuals who exhibited bullying tendencies during their school days. Despite growing older, it appears that their mean-spirited behavior remains the same, often targeting individuals perceived as different or less powerful, which sometimes included minorities.

There are racial and sexist components to the word "Karen." It is solely used against white women. Is this word used to call out the racism of white women, or is the use of it against only white women, racist in itself? While some white women exhibit "Karen" behaviors, many do not. Also, why is this word used solely against women? Plenty of men are racist, but they are let off the hook. Nobody dresses up in a middle-aged, white man costume to make fun of complaining, racist, middle-aged white men. Is this another example of society telling women to keep quiet and not to voice their opinions out loud? Words have meaning, and when we have a word for women, but not men, that omission tells us something.

Age is another aspect to consider. The term "Karen" is typically used to refer to older white women, while younger white women are not commonly labeled as such. Does this imply that only older women tend to complain and display disagreeable behavior? It is worth noting that American society often idealizes youth. Therefore, is there a genuine distinction in the behavior of older white women compared to younger ones, or is this merely a form of age-based discrimination disguised as a new label?

It is noteworthy that the term "Karen" has significantly gained popularity since the summer of 2020. Did the events during that period raise awareness about the frequent occurrence of racist incidents? It's possible that people now feel more empowered to denounce these incidents for what they truly are, and the use of the term "Karen" serves as a means of truth-telling and emotional release. However, it's important to acknowledge that white men hold the majority of power and wealth in our country, not white women. This raises the question of why there exists a term specifically for racist white women but not for racist white men.

Sources

1. ‘Karens’ have been going viral. But their behavior is not new — and it's dangerous
2. What does it mean to be a ‘Karen’? Karens explain | Life and style | The Guardian
3. Column: Is the 'Karen' meme sexist? Maybe, but it's also apt - Los Angeles Times
4. The Mythology of Karen - The Atlantic
5. White Women: Our Most Divided Voting Bloc: Democracy Journal
6. Earnings | U.S. Department of Labor

Questions to Consider:

1. What factors contribute to the increasing prevalence of the term "Karen"?
2. Why is the term "Karen" commonly associated with middle-aged white women, while middle-aged white men lack a comparable term?
3. In what ways does age influence the usage of the term "Karen"?
4. To what extent does racism play a role in the growing popularity of the term "Karen"?
5. Is the utilization of the Karen insult an attempt to silence or undermine women's voices and opinions?

 
 
 

Welcome to the series "Bucky Inspired Comprehensivity to Understand and Change the World". This is a collaboration with 52 Living Ideas.

Look at the amazing Schedule of Meetups in the series below:
(All Meetups are on Sundays at 9pm ET unless otherwise specified)

Struppi Pohl on Spherical Thinking and the Way of Spheres - Jan 1, 1pm ET
Thomas Miller on Liberating Modular Building from the yoke of Boxes - Jan 2, 12pm ET
Daniel Ari Friedman on Bucky & William Blake Parallels - Jan 8
Peter Meisen on On Synergy - Jan 15
Jon Brett on TetraMeme - Jan 22
Kirby Urner on Dimension in Synergetics - Jan 29
Curt McNamara on Bucky's Comprehensivity in his Design - Feb 5
Christopher Zelov - Cinematic Bucky Themes - Feb 12
D W Jacobs on Dramaturgical Synergies - Feb 19
Robert Sandusky on Bucky's Design Science & Four onramps - Feb 26
Bucky Lightening Talks: Invitation to talk for 5 minutes - Mar 5
Rupali Sharma on Bucky & Maria Montessori on Education Mar 12
Richard Ramsay on Social Tensegrity - Mar 26

Watch previous Bucky Meetups on YouTube here.

Buckminster Fuller championed a broad array of ideas to help us better understand and change the world. This series of events will engage these ideas and their practitioners to share, nurture, and develop this unique and urgent learning and doing mission to "make the world work for 100 percent of humanity in the shortest possible time through spontaneous cooperation without ecological damage or disadvantage to anyone" as Bucky so famously put it.

Topics will range from the conceptual, scientific, and philosophical to nuts-and-bolts applications to arts and culture.

"Comprehensivity" is a word Buckminster Fuller used in a number of
writings in the 1960s and 1970s. In a series of essays and video explorations, CJ Fearnley has developed the concept into a Bucky-inspired
synthesis. Comprehensivity can be described as the quality of
comprehensive thinking that aspires to be "adequately macro-comprehensive and micro-incisive" by combining all we know in breadth for context and all we know in depth for clarity to improve our effectiveness in understanding and changing the world.

We invite everyone with a interest in learning about and participating
in this work to join us in forming a collaborative community to nourish
and support this important work and its practitioners.

The series will feature presentations by and interviews with
Bucky-inspired practitioners, aficionados, and artists. Some events
will explore works of Bucky, those inspired by or building on Bucky,
or with the same spirit as Bucky.

Please join us.

See: CJ Fearnley's Resources on Collaborating for Comprehensivity here

See the YouTube Playlist on Collaborating for Comprehensivity here

All Meetups on the 52 Living Ideas platform will be recorded, and then posted on YouTube. Feel free to keep your video on or off as you prefer. Watch Past Meetups here.