Cultivating a Citizenry?

Menu & Fee:

Sous vide chicken drumsticks & scrambled eggs with crème fraîche.
$20

Payment can be either in cash or by bank deposit to the account 12-3150-0079141-00.

Agenda:

6.15pm: 15 minute pre-meet. Those more than 15 minutes late will not be able to enter. This will be counted as a no-show, and will be refunded any pre-payments. Those with three no-shows will be blocked from joining these events for an indefinite time.

6.30pm: Meal & Discussion

8.00pm: Official ending; unofficial 'after-party' discussion.

Topic Briefing:

[Note: This discussion will be accompanied by a related discussion the following month: 'Steelmanning Anarchism' ]

Living in a more complex world than ever before, it is ripe to wonder if our cultural expectations are keeping pace with developments in technology. What it means to be a 'citizen' by law is one thing, but what should it mean in practice in the modern world?

When some can become citizens merely by being born, on what basis do we expect more from others? What does citizenship serve in how our roles, desires, cultures, and their interplay affect the world in which we live?

The political theorist Patrick Deneen wrote: "liberty is not a condition into which we are naturally born but one we achieve through habituation, training, and education - particularly the discipline of self-command. It is the result of a long process of learning. Liberty is the learned capacity to govern oneself using the higher faculties of reason and spirit through the cultivation of virtue. The condition of doing as one wants is defined in this premodern view as one of slavery, in which we are driven by our basest appetites to act against our better nature."

Isaiah Berlin would have labelled such liberty 'positive freedom', the freedom to. As opposed to 'negative freedom', the freedom from coercion by some authority.

Where should the responsibility rest to cultivate a citizenry, and how is one best tailored? To what extent should the negative versus positive freedoms be emphasised? What should we expect from all citizens? (And should different places have different standards?) Is it meaningful to be a 'global citizen'? How do questions of loyalty affect the rights of those with dual citizenship?

Let's discuss.