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Civilized Conversation of San Diego

4.7•1155 ratings

San Diego, CA, US

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About us

Civilized Conversation seeks to revive the lost art of face-to-face thoughtful conversation. We're a diverse group of people from different parts of the political spectrum and varying backgrounds. Yet, we believe that it is possible to discuss controversial topics honestly and respectfully, as well as passionately.

We meet every Monday evening (except the last Monday of each month) at the same time and place to discuss a pre-set topic. Usually it's related to politics or public affairs, but some topics are about religion, cultural change history, world politics, or even philosophy or science. Our format is an informal roundtable discussion by all present, with a moderator.

WHEN: Mondays 7pm - 9pm (except last Monday of each month).
WHERE: Panera Cafe, 5620 Balboa Ave., at the front of the giant shopping mall at Balboa and Genesee. Lots of free parking.
SIGN UP to the group and to attend specific mtgs at Meet-up.com.

Upcoming events

3

Does soccer still “Explain the World” or at least globalization’s shortcomings?
Mon, Jul 13 · 7:00 PM PDT
Panera Bread, 5620 Balboa Avenue, San Diego, CA, US
In 2004, an American author wrote a best-selling book, "How Soccer Explains the World." Like DavidG with this topic, the author was using a World Cup year [update: Oops, 2004 not a world cup year] to make some broader points. Franklin Foer's were about how globalization changed the world. He emphasized that the economic integration and the political and cultural interdependence it brought about had many benefits to many people all over the world.

But he also used modern, globalized soccer to illustrate some of globalization's failures and some of the old problems it had not done much to solve or even made worse (like tribal loyalties and toxic nationalisms). The problems he wrote about about were economic, political, and cultural.

Now, a quarter of a century has passed. Where has globalization taken us? Join CivCon on July 13th, the day before the Cup semifinals begin, to discuss today's challenges of globalization and integration. We also can focus on the many, huge benefits globalization has brought us, and on emerging challenges like AI and new forms of fragility in the system.

Oh BTW, what sport or form of entertainment best "explains" the United States? Baseball? NASCAR? Gaming? Shopping? It was on the White House lawn, but please don't say ultimate fighting!

BTW, II: This makes two economic-related topics in a row. The last one in July won't be.

Background Readings -

-- Author’s basic thesis, 2004 interview transcript.
-- 2026 - Author updates football’s lessons about globalization. Atlantic Monthly. I will give this as gift link if needed.
-- 2026 - Soccer reflects the world, including globalized corruption and authoritarianism and inequality. Recommended.
-- 2019 The death of neoliberism.

-- AI search term: “Challenges of globalization.”
-- Why the world needs better - not less - globalization | World Economic Forum.
17 attendees
INTJ or TGIF? What's the best way to describe different personality types?
Mon, Jul 20 · 7:00 PM PDT
Panera Bread, 5620 Balboa Avenue, San Diego, CA, US
More description later. but I wanted to do a less heavy topic to end July. I pushed the student debt topic to the first Monday in August, 8/3. After that we will use the usual 3-person topics committee to pick topics.

I thought of this one because we have had several meetings that touched on how to identify or deal with different personality types. Authoritarian ones and sociopathic ones, for example. Plus, several group members have mentioned the Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), which got me to thinking, why not do a meeting comparing different metrics/ways of cataloguing different personality types?

There is the MBTI, the Big Five model, Enneagrams (not sure what they are) and a few other major ones. We could discuss them or our own observations or opinions based on what we know about basic psychology.
18 attendees
1 seat left
America's student debt crisis: Causes, damage done, solutions.
Mon, Aug 3 · 7:00 PM PDT
Panera Bread, 5620 Balboa Avenue, San Diego, CA, US
I think this topic's wording speaks for itself. But one # helps: 9.1 million Americans are in default on their student loans! How many more can pay yet do little else because they are nearly broke?
Some of these loans are at 8-9%.

The week before the meeting, check back here for some optional background readings and suggested wording for AI queries. They will give a fuller picture of the plight of student debtors using more than just numbers. Links will address all three aspects in the topic title. Why has college debt skyrocketed (opinions vary)? Who has been harmed by this, our society as well as individuals. And what could be done about the crisis.

President Biden was going to forgive a lot of the corpus of student debt. But the Supreme Court struck it down despite black letter law that gave the President the power to do so. Se le guerre.

We also can discuss the tradeoffs of using a ton of government money to help college graduates instead of using it for other priorities. We could, for example, put those resources to work improving vocational training for non-college graduates. Or we could restore President Trump's cuts to health care programs, science funding, food stamps, or you get the idea. So many unmet needs, so much govt debt piled up, so much cut by Trump, so much spent on his wars, tax cuts, etc.

Optional Backgrounders –

*TBA.
14 attendees

Past events

502

Organizers

DavidG and 2 others

DavidG is a Super Organizer

Members

2,330

Related topics

Intellectual Discussions

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Critical Thinking

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