Owl & Ibis - A Confluence Of Minds

More than a year ago I stumbled upon the Dark Mountain Project , a British social and literary movement to alert the world about Humankind’s threat to itself and Earth. DMP disturbed me. Most of what its founders and members had written rang true with my own thinking about the negative cultural evolutionary direction of Humankind over the past five centuries, and our rapid degradation of Earth along the way. But was DMP’s solution of a total abandonment of the Western, now global, approach to economics, politics and ecology justifiable, and would DMP’s suggestion for doing something different work? These were questions I could not answer. So, in December 2017 I made an email proposal to my fellow participants in the Owl & Ibis Confluence of Minds hoping to answer them. The full text of that email is here . Here is an extract of the proposal itself: I propose a close look at DMP by Owl & Ibis over the course of several meetings in 2018. This would require an O&I

Since a recent meeting with a close friend I’ve been thinking a lot about his caution concerning my views of those who hold political and moral views different from mine. Specifically, I’ve been thinking about revising what I think of the mostly white, rich, Christian, (ultra)conservative, Republicans, WRCCRs (pronounced “wreckers”) for short, currently in power in the US. I’ve decided I want to shed my hatred for them and their beliefs and values, and replace it with a deeper understanding of why they hold the views they do. Socially, I’m looking for common ground as a basis for a better dialog when I encounter them, in person or via media. Personally, I’m looking to replace my hatred based on judgment with a tolerance based on understanding. All things considered I think this approach is the only reasonable option. "Those folks," as my friend reminded me, aren’t going anywhere and their thinking isn’t going to change easily or quickly. My hatred won’t free up or

Kudos and a sincere thank you to author and video producer Pam Dewey on her outstanding July 10, 2018 Owl & Ibis presentation, "Strange Brew: Religion, Politics and Business in America, Part I," also known as "Religion: Home Grown in America!" An MS Word outline of Pam's presentation may be downloaded  here . Pam’s talk and videos conveyed a large amount of the history, sociology and psychology of prophetic and apocalyptic religious movements in the U.S., and generated a robust and informative discussion among the meeting’s attendees. “Religion: Home Grown in America” was the first of two talks Pam is giving at O&I during July. Her second presentation, “Strange Brew: American Religion, Business and Politics,” will be made on July 24, 2018. See the left sidebar above for O&I meeting times and driving directions. Pam introduced “Religion: Home Grown in America” by stating: “Religion, especially evangelical Christianity, is pl