Current Events – Seminar Presentation
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First Meeting Only – 21 September, 2013, 9:30am-12:00n, Room 200 University Center

Note the venue change for this meeting.

The University Center, Room 200
3232 College Park Drive – Conroe, TX – 77384
936.273.7510 or 936.321.4500

The University Center is on the Lone Star Campus. It has its own marked entrance off Tx 242
between the LSC-Montgomery Main and West entrances.

Third Saturday Seminars 2013-14

To date we have worked on:
Return of the Elders!
Unleash Your Wisdom!

NOW! For the coming 2013-14 Sessions we will discuss
Age of Enlightenment 2.0

Be one of the first to recognize it!

Not only is our world interesting in the Chinese sense, but We the People of the world, like Rip van Winkle, are waking up after a long siesta.

How else can you explain phenomena like: “Occupy,” “Arab Spring” and “Tea Party?” Long oppressed peoples are apparently spontaneously finally rising up to express dissatisfaction with their rulers, and challenging the foreign policies of the rest of world to respond. Everybody sincerely desires Democracy”, “Justice” and “Freedom.” But things don’t quite seem to work out.

Obviously, the new instant media technology is one of the major factors in bringing this about. Not only do they recognize the injustice of their own situation, but they see there are many in the same boat and they also see that there are other places on the planet where people live much better lives.

In the 17th and 18th centuries Western cultures experienced an “Age of Enlightenment” (the “Enlightenment“) or “Age of Reason.” The idea was to substitute reason for the rules of tradition and faith. Our American independence was inspired by this energetic movement.

However, in the intervening 200 years, our Enlightenment has lost some of it energy. It’s time to talk about it!

This year we will attempt develop an appreciation of the progress of Western Civilization before and after the first “Enlightenment.”  We will try to understand why, when so much of the world has embraced the principles of the enlightenment, an equally large part of the world has not.  What about this “Pursuit of happiness” thing.  Are we really free to pursue our happiness, whatever that might be?  Or, are there conscious or unconscious forces at work that down deep inside sincerely feel they can and should be keeping or society and economy on the right track?   When a society is put under continued real or perceived stress it begins to feel insecure and that can make it receptive to ideas that are not necessarily helpful to bringing about a free and peaceful world.

Here is the initial draft of the Syllabus which we will continue to develop as we proceed.

To help you get started may I suggest reading or skimming some the following short Wikipedia Articles: (your own  sources are welcome too.)

1. Age of Enlightenment (First page)
2. Islamic Golden Age (First page)

The following short sections from the Outline of the History of Western Civilization:

3. Renaissance and Reformation
4. The Reformation 
5. Rise of Western Empires
6. Dark Ages / Reformation 
7. Dark Ages / Englighenment
   (worth scanning to see just to see how being a revolutionary is a good business, also a convenient list of historic milestone of the ascent of man.)
8. Economics 000(Work in progress, will be updated)

And as usual we will start with 45 minutes of Current events:

Things are getting serious in Syria.  Can you say, “Red Line” or “Chemical weapons”, “WMD” or “Maher Assad?”  Do you think Putin can keep his shirt on?  I am hearing numbers like 7 million Syrian Refugees, 2 million external and the rest internal.  100,000 dead from bombs and bullets.

Immigration bill went to the floor of the Senate.  Will it get any more attention or will the government shut down?

Will the term “super power” ever be applicable again?  Will a country’s strategic military assets ever be sufficient to dominate another country or regions?  Since Korea, America’s enemies have denied her victory or success.  Limited war or pseudo wars have only drained America of her resources and her lives, because we have never been able to recognize and deal the reality on the ground.  We have had neither the determination nor the resources nor sufficient faith in our own ideals to truly dominate a determined, inferior force or convince him of the advantages of emulating us.

The Arab Spring, wasn’t our idea, but we cheered them on.  None that I know of have come anywhere close to a peaceful existence and the elimination of oppression of the weak by the powerful and a peaceful life for all their citizens.  Why?

Egypt in Crisis.  Frontline examines the rise and fall of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood (53 Minutes)

Richard Haass, was interviewed recently by Diane Rehm regarding, “Foreign Policy Begins At Home: The Case For Putting America’s House In Order” (1 hr) “The president of the Council on Foreign Relations says the biggest threat to the United States comes not from abroad but from within. He says that only by getting our own house in order — fixing our crumbling infrastructure, second-class schools and outdated immigration system — will we be able to lead a world that will otherwise be overwhelmed by global challenges, regional conflicts and failed states. Diane and her guest discuss why he believes foreign policy begins at home.”

Surveillance Nation:  President Dilma of Brazil has cancelled/postponed indefinitely her state visit to Washington until the Brazilian people get satisfactory response from the Administration regarding the digital eavesdropping on the the government and national oil company

Don’t forget about the Mid-Term General Election 4 November 2014, that’s in only 409 days from Saturday.

A Special Note: Some people who normally received the previous notice may not get this one.  My Computer experienced a total hard drive crash and guess who hadn’t backed up his system.  As luck would have it I did have a copy of the email list from August 2012, and I have been able to reconstruct some of the recent members, but some people will be missed.  If you see people you recognize from the Seminar please remind them about this meeting.  Also if you have sent me email since August 2012, it now is gone to that big buffer in the sky. I apologize for the inconvenience. I’m trying to reclaim it but not much hope.

About the ALL Program 

Here’s the official Course description from the Fall Catalog:

The following may be useful if you haven’t been to the University Center.
Campus Tour
   
University Center – Floor plans
   
LSC Montgomery-Map (University Center = Building “I”)

DON’T (be) PANIC(ked) (by our leaders) 

Curt Gibby
Director, Third Saturday Seminar

http://northstarinst.org/TSS/
gcgconsult (at) n-star (dot) com