Moving discussion session to this Thursday, 7:15pm

I’ve resolved a scheduling conflict so that I can hold our discussion session this Thursday at 7:15pm. My daughter, Mahalia, has volleyball this fall and the games are mostly on Tuesday and Thursday. She’s a junior in high school, and I’ve become quite conscious of the fact that she is going to be leaving the nest soon. The way that time seems to pass more quickly as we age feels so real to me right now.

Here is the Zoom information for Thursday’s discussion.

Topic: Sept SP discussion

Time: Sep 19, 2024 07:15 PM America/Detroit

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89921615001

I am including two clips that I had prepared for the gathering with Dr. Myers, but wasn’t able to use. I am also including a link to a podcast episode that I listened to again recently.

The podcast episode is on the work of philosopher Martha Nussbaum, and it relates to this clip from Barbara McQuade, author of Attack from Within: How Disinformation is Sabotaging America, about “fueling fear.”

This second clip discusses social capital theory, and the importance of mutual toleration and forbearance. Mutual toleration requires politicians to accept their opponents as legitimate. When mutual toleration exists, we recognize that our partisan rivals are loyal citizens who love our country just as we do.

The second norm is forbearance, or self-restraint in the exercise of power. Forbearance is the act of not exercising a legal right. In politics, it means not deploying one’s institutional prerogatives to the hilt, even if it’s legal to do so. We rarely think about forbearance in politics, and yet democracy cannot work without it.

This podcast episode features Martha Nussbaum in conversation with Ezra Klein. I see significant important overlap with the clip above on “fueling fear.”