Comments and Suggestions

From Mike Gurstein

Doug,

One thought here as a place to start might be to take a look at the (fairly extensive) work that has ben done on trolling/anti-social/destructive behaviour in e-lists/online.. I can't put my finger on this right now but a casual search through Google should turn up a lot of stuff that could quite easily become "patterns" of nastiness…

M

From Valerie Brown

Congratulations Doug. You certainly do think of imaginative things to do. Val

From Andrew Lang

How about the list of characteristics of collapsed societies made by Jared Diamond in 'Collapse' as high level patterns.

And I'd highlight 'divide and rule'

All the best (and would love to see the result …)

Andrew

From Rachel Buddeberg

Hi Doug,

This project sounds very interesting - and rather promising for finding leverage points to change this culture to get off its suicidal path...

Not quite sure if this would take you / your students down a tangent but I thought I'd mention it. David Loy, a Zen teacher & philosopher, has done some work at looking at the institutionalization of the three "sins" identified by the Buddha (they don't call them sins in Buddhism but I can't remember what they do call them...): Greed, aversion, and delusion. Greed has become capitalism. Aversion turned into war. And our educational system largely fosters delusion (your class might be an exception ;-). The thing that I find fascinating, and might make David's ideas fit into this pattern work, is how individual behaviors have become core structures in our civilization. If you think this is worth pursuing, David's website has a ton of info: www.davidloy.org . His book "Money S*x War Karma: Notes for a Buddhist Revolution" provides a summary of his thoughts around this.

I hope you'll keep the list posted about how the project unfolds!

-)

R♥chel

From Eevi Beck

Great!

Both the courage (from you and the students) to delve straight into key issues and hard (painful) truths, and your awareness of keeping hope alive (my interpretation:-) by also studying the "positive" processes, the stuff of life and of community; of (re-)creation and connectedness. They're so easy to forget, to let cynicism creep in.

-A bow to you!

Eevi

From John Thomas

Getting ready for CHI --- ironically in particular a workshop on time --- and can only give you a few off the top of my head.

Positive feedback loop: treating others badly + others not viewed as human. If we treat other people badly, we mostly feel bad about it. To relieve guilt, people tend to dehumanize the one's that they have treated badly therefore making even more mistreatment possible.

Not engaging "Theory of Mind." People after age five or so typically have a "theory of mind"; that is, they can imagine what things look like from another's viewpoint. But that doesn't mean that they actually use this ability.

Distancing from and filtering consequences: Drones come to mind.

Might makes right!

Treating interpretations as facts.

(More later)

From Andrew Lang

Another suggestion - Project Worldview at http://www.projectworldview.org/ is in my view and despite it's raw html appearance, an extraordinary collection of patterns and memes covering a wide range of world views - this could be another key resource for the team project - I have been using Project Worldview (in conjunction with Liberating Voices PL) as a site for my online classes when my students have a go at exploring their own worldviews and the worldviews of others … it works very well, especially the top cards and discards exercise which is relatively quick and easy to use to refelct on a worldview and come up with an analysis/critique and then consider some strategies for making changes.

Such important work ….

All the best

Andrew Langford www.gaiauniversity.org

From Rachel Buddeberg

Joy Degruy Leary has a sobering chapter on resolving cognitive dissonance by dehumanizing others in her book "Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome," which could add a real world example of how dehumanizing others makes their mistreatment possible to the PL (and also show how this works within the context of politics since slaves were declared 3/4 humans in part for political reasons... Just typing this makes my stomach churn...)

-)

R♥chel

From Nigel Ecclesfield

Doug

Not sure if your students like literature, but the character of Mr Gradgrind in Dickens' "Hard Times" is the arch rationalist and industrialist and is prepared to live in the horrors he has created in the interest of profit and rationality. Given its topicality here at the moment, many of Margaret Thatcher's pronouncements against collectivity and collaboration epitomise the patterns of rampant individualism and created destructive patterns promoting selfishness against ecological sustainability and equity. You may want to consider the rationales for the arms industry and its extreme manifestation in what E P Thompson called 'exterminism', contemporary example might be N Korea?

This is a great theme so happy to contribute European examples.

All the best

Nigel

From Hajo Neis

Doug,

Great to hear from you.

It sounds like your 'aggressive' topic seems to fit perfect well into the 'aggressive' title of the next conference. I am sending you an early announcement. We will send out the official announcement sometime this week.

Best wishes with the anti-anti patterns. There are no dates on your handout. When are you exhibiting the student work and in what form.

Best wishes, Hajo