PCAPPC

For January’s meeting, I thought that rather than discuss a specific book by John Ralston Saul, we could take up several. His views on history, politics, economics and social policy all merge into a philosophy of “civilization” that I find very compelling. He’s also written some fiction, which I’ve never read, but you’re welcome to check those out as well. Voltaire’s Bastards is a history of western civilization, from Cardinal Richelieu to Robert McNamara, from Jesus to the Harvard Business School. On Equilibrium details his epistemological philosophy. Here’s where you learn the place of Reason among other human qualities: Common Sense; Ethics; Imagination; Intuition; and Memory. The Unconscious Civilization takes his ideas about core human qualities and consciousness, and applies them to an understanding of current western democracies. The Collapse of Globalism attacks our obsession with free trade, elevating commerce above broader and more basic social issues, and examines the me...

Thanks, Craig for setting this up and for ushering me into blog-land. Picked up a copy of Voltaire's Bastards yesterday and even though I've only read a dozen pages, it is already affecting how I'm reading the new issue of Time. "Realism" all over the place. This is a great choice for us to discuss. Thanks, Greg. Sylvia

So - this is it - our very own blog. We can use this as a central location for presenting, collecting and referencing ideas and themes. Over time, a blog gains value as more and more materials are posted and then can be easily located. I encourage everyone in the group with interest, to accept the email invitations I will be sending to participate in this blog. By joining it, you will be able to comment on existing entries and make your own. I apologize in advance for the series of steps you may have to go through in order to create your own blog entries . I wish this could be effortless. I chose this blogger tool after reviewing and using several, and think it is among the best. Unfortunately, all of the blogger tools require some sort of registration process. I've set this blog to not be included in blog indexes. This means, that although the blog is available to anyone with the address, it will be nearly impossible for someone to find it based only on the information it contai...

We did it! We accomplished so much in our first meeting and the PCA * is as official as it needs to be. We shared pizza and champagne and our happiness over the recent election results. We had some great discussion over a wide range of topics, and we put together a loose structure for our group. Each of our meetings will have a central theme provided by our members in the following arbitrary order: Greg, Sylvia, Stefania, Craig, Wanda, Molly. We will plan to get together on the second Fridays of alternate months. We are flexible though, and if someone has a good excuse to meet (theater, lecture, music etc...) between meetings, we will. Our next meeting has been set for Friday the 12th of January, 2007. Greg will be providing the theme for our January meeting. *Group name subject to change based on the whim of any member.