Hello friends,
If you’re a regular follower of this newsletter you’ll know that last week I opened the cage door and released a new show called Difficult Conversations with Jane Hutcheon. During the two events, our fab POWW (Panel of Wit & Wonder) helped to answer questions posed by the audience. In both shows, we had many more questions than we could possibly answer. This thrilled me because I realised there was a thirst engaging with difficult conversations with civility instead of rancour.
I decided to ring one of the panelists, Tim Dean, to see if he would have a stand-alone conversation with me about the Israel-Gaza war which divided and still divides people with each new development. I thought this conversation would be useful in these times. Tim is Senior Philosopher at The Ethics Centre in Sydney, Australia. We spoke yesterday. It was a broad discussion about the mechanics of conversation: how might we talk about war or indeed, not engage. Ukraine was also discussed.
I used two audience questions as the bedrock of our discussion which went for 40 minutes. These are the two questions which I refer to during the conversation:
I hope you enjoy our forty-minute discussion. I’m planning to write a snappier takeaway which I’ll aim to finish in a few days.
Some show notes:
Tim Dean’s book is How We Became Human and why we need to change:
In the recording, Tim mentioned a post he wrote on the war in Ukraine:
Is it wrong to care about Ukraine more than other wars?
There’s also one on the limits of ethical protests on university campuses:
The limits of ethical protests on University Campuses
… and this one on Israel & Hamas; do you have to pick a side?.
He referred to two books, the first about The Scout Mindset by Julia Galef and the second is the classic Thinking, Fast & Slow by Daniel Kahneman.
As always, I’m awaiting your civil comments and any of your own stories about impasse, argument, disagreements or … silence.
How do we have a difficult conversation about about war?