Philosophers & Gamblers

Hosted by Juliette
tonight - Procrastination
Group Rules:

1. Please be sensitive, kind, and compassionate with other group members. We are a positive psychology group and intend for this meetup to be supportive of each others' well-being.
2. Please keep your responses to 2 minutes or less.
3. Please raise your hand and avoid interrupting other members.
4. Please reserve conversation unrelated to the meetup topic for after-meeting conversation.

I would like to invite all members to help us keep this meetup safe and comfortable for everyone. In order to accomplish this, if you feel any of the rules are not being followed please let Juliette or Anthony know by private message in the chat. Sometimes we might get too immersed in the conversation to notice potential issues and we appreciate your help in making sure we are all happy with the shape of our meetup.
Every week we meet to discuss a topic related to positive psychology and how to best achieve optimal well-being. Due to the risks of community transmission of COVID19 via pubic meetings, we will video conference using the Zoom app.

This critique group is kept private to preserve the privacy of critique submissions. Most don't RSVP on Meetup.

To join, please email Erik at tigurini@protonmail.com and include in your message: (1) A description of your current writing project(s), (2) Your goals for joining this writer's critique group, (3) And a brief history of yourself as a writer, including past projects, education, and related. Your message doesn't have to be anything fancy. We just wish to make sure that you're serious about observing and that your intentions/projects are a good fit for this critique group.

About:
As the title suggests, we critique writing that is speculative (sci-fi, fantasy, horror, surrealism, slipstream, etc.), philosophical (idea-driven, writing with a message, etc.), and experimental (unusual language, visual/musical aspects, transgressive, etc.). All writing submitted for critique should fit at least one of these categories. We are happy to include work in all formats (poetry, prose, playwriting, screenplay, libretto, graphic novel, and hybrid) and for any audiences (adults, YA, and kids).

Some Example Works:
Of course, the written works and authors that inspire us may vary, and widely. Nonetheless, here's a list of some written works and authors that have inspired us, and which we might use as an (incomplete) list of the kind of writing that could be submitted to this critique group.
One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez; Ice, Anna Kavan; Blade Runner, Philip K. Dick; The Waves, Virginia Woolf; The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin; The Street of Crocodiles, Bruno Shulz; Stories of Your Life, Ted Chiang; The Faerie Queene, Edmund Spenser; The Book of Disquiet, Fernando Pessoa; The Dreamquest of Unknown Kadath, H. P. Lovecraft; Don't Bite The Sun, Tanith Lee; Illuminations, Arthur Rimbaud; The Rings of Saturn, W. G. Sebald; The Three Body Problem, Liu Cixin; Moby Dick, Herman Melville; Kindred, Octavia E Butler; The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood; The Divine Comedy, Dante; The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle; A Doll's House, Henrik Ibsen; Les Fleurs du Mal, Charles Baudelaire; Blindsight, Peter Watts; The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Leguin; Sweat, Lynn Nottage; The Song of Maldoror, Comte de Lautremont; Solaris, Stanislaw Lem; Blood Meridian, Cormac McCarthy; Dune, Frank Herbert; Star Maker, Olaf Stapledon.

Critique Group Structure:

• Meets weekly Thursdays from 6:00pm-7:30pm PT / 9:00pm-10:30pm ET
• Submission length maximum: 20,000 words (many submissions are shorter).
• Back-to-back weekly submissions for novelists + long form writers are encouraged.
• Participants are expected to closely read the submission and arrive prepared to discuss it in depth for 1.5 hours.
• If, for whatever reason, a participant can't read the submission in time for our meeting and/or can't attend our meeting, that participant is urged to provide a written (or audio recorded) summary of feedback to the submitting writer through DM on our Discord.
• Active participation is required to ensure all members' best interests. A member can be removed from the group if found absent in critique sessions for more than 3 months. Should one wish to rejoin the group, please message me directly either in Discord or via email.

Community:
We're a serious yet fun group of writers with eclectic projects and tastes. We're always looking to meet new friends and grow our community, so we hope you'll consider observing a critique group - and if we're a good fit for one another, continuing to hang out with us Thursday evenings!

We meet on the Blinding Cyclops Discord server. Join link: https://discord.gg/urPBsNTWuK

You can read our full syllabus under the category "Writer's Critique Groups." The rest of the writer's critique group channels are kept hidden to preserve the privacy of critique submissions, but will be opened up to you when your observation has been confirmed.

Commitments:
This critique group's structure expects a weekly attendance commitment, so it's only right for writers who are committed to writing and critiquing.

American anti-intellectualism isn’t a fluke—it’s structural. From founding myths to TikTok algorithms, the whole setup rewards charisma over credentials and confidence over knowledge. We will explore potential reasons and thinkers who have commented on this matter to see the reason for this feature of American political, and social life.

Potential reasons:

• Populist DNA: America was born out of rebellion. There's a built-in suspicion of elites, including intellectuals.
• Cultural Hero Worship: The U.S. celebrates the self-made, rough-around-the-edges type—not the bookish philosopher.
• Media Trash Fire: TV and social media reward hot takes and sound bites, not longform reasoning or nuance.
• Education Gaps: Underfunded schools + test-driven systems = generations with shallow thinking skills.
• Ego Boosts: It feels better to think you're right than to be told you're wrong by someone “smarter.”

Thinkers who wrote about this:

### 1. Richard Hofstadter

• Book: Anti-Intellectualism in American Life (1963)
• Main Idea: Anti-intellectualism is baked into American culture. The U.S. has always favored “practical men” over academics—think self-made business guys vs. ivory tower elites.
• Why?: Protestant religious tradition + democratic populism = suspicion of “elites.” Americans love equality, and intellectual distinction often smells like superiority.

### 2. Susan Jacoby

• Book: The Age of American Unreason (2008)
• Main Idea: We're drowning in infotainment and junk media. Critical thinking is out; gut feelings and viral memes are in.
• Why?: A combo of political populism, declining education standards, and digital overload. Basically, we trained a generation to swipe, not think.

### 3. Mark Bauerlein

• Book: The Dumbest Generation (2008)
• Main Idea: Young people today are tech-savvy but intellectually shallow. They read less, know less, and think less critically.
• Why?: Social media and screen addiction hijacked attention spans and killed intellectual curiosity.

### 4. Tom Nichols

• Book: The Death of Expertise (2017)
• Main Idea: Americans don’t just distrust experts—they’re proud of it. People think five minutes on Google beats a PhD.
• Why?: Democratization of information (thanks, Internet) blurred the line between opinion and knowledge. Now everyone thinks they’re right.