Swap Meet Discussion Series: Councilor Jonathan Schechter

Program Type:

Discussion Series

Age Group:

Adults (Ages 19+)
Please note you are looking at an event that has already happened.

Event Details

Like a book club, but less of a commitment.
Read and discuss thought-provoking articles with local electeds.
Discussions take place in the fireplace area of the library. Please arrive by 7:05 p.m., as these programs are after-hours, and the front door must be staffed for you to enter.
Town Councilor Jonathan Schechter
THUR, NOV 9
6-7:30 p.m.

Article: This Element is Critical to Human Flourishing--Yet Missing From the News by Amanda Ripley (Washington Post, March 30, 2023)
Article: Progressive Gloom Ignores a Marvelous Historic Economic Measure by George Will (Washington Post, July 19, 2023)

I chose the two Swap Meet articles because they speak to two subjects of increasing interest to me. George Will's "Progressive gloom ignores a marvelous historical economic measure" gets at the question of how we assess ourselves - individually, organizationally, as a society.To me, a lot of traditional socio-economic measures are showing their shortcomings - increasingly unable to provide us with a meaningful way to assess how we are doing.  The concept Will discusses - the concept of time-price - forced me to think about "progress" in a very different way.  Like the tools Will critiques, time-price has its problems, but it's also insightful.

Amanda Ripley's "This element is critical to human flourishing — yet missing from the news" attracted me because it discusses something I've been giving more and more thought to: our almost-desperate need for hope in a world that seems increasingly devoid of it. As Ripley suggests, part of this void is due to the media's obsession on both superficiality and doom-and-gloom.  I'm coming to believe that's just a symptom, though.  Dig down deeper, and I'm wondering if our growing lack of hope isn't some sort of design flaw in our larger social and economic systems.

Combined, for me the two articles raise a number of important questions for our community and society.  These include "What are our goals?" and "How do we assess  whether we are achieving those goals?"  These are the kinds of questions I hope we can discuss at the Swap Meet.