I felt strong negative emotions reading the above comment.
I think that the description of CFAR’s recent speaking-for-the-dead leaves readers feeling positive and optimistic and warm-fuzzy about the event, and about its striving for something like whole truth.
I do believe Anna’s report that it was healing and spacious for those who were there, and I share Anna’s hope that something similarly good can happen re: a Leverage conversation.
But I think I see the description of the event as trying to say something like “here’s an example of the sort of good thing that is possible.”
And I wanted anyone updating on that particular example to know that I was invited to the event, and declined the invitation, explaining that I genuinely could not cause myself to believe that I was actually welcome, or that it would be safe for me to be there.
This is a fact about me, not about the event. But it seems relevant, and I believe it changes the impression left by the above comment to be more accurate in a way that feels important.
(I was not the only staff alumnus absent, to be clear.)
I ordinarily would not have left this comment at all, because it feels dangerously … out of control, or something, in that I do not know what the-act-of-having-written-it will do. I do not understand and have no idea how to navigate the social currents here, and am not going to try. I will probably not contribute anything further to this thread unless directly asked by someone like Anna or a moderator.
What caused me to speak up anyway, despite feeling scared and in-over-my-head, was the bit in Anna’s other comment, where she said that she hopes people will not “refrain from sharing true relevant facts, out of fear that others will take them in a politicized way, or will use them as an excuse for false judgments.”
EDIT: for context, I worked at CFAR from October of 2015 to October of 2018, and was its curriculum director and head-of-workshops for two of those three years.
The former curriculum director and head-of-workshops for the Center For Applied Rationality would not be welcome or safe at a CFAR event?
What the **** is going on?
It sounds to me like mission failure, but I suppose it could also just be eccentric people not knowing how to get along (which isn’t so much different?) 😕
It’s not just people not knowing how to get along.
I am trying to navigate between Scylla and Charybdis, here; trying to adhere to normal social norms of live-and-let-live and employers and employees not badmouthing each other without serious justification and so forth. Trying to be honest and candid without starting social wars.
But it’s not just people not knowing how to get along. It’s something much closer to the gestalt of this comment, although please note that I directly replied to that comment with a lot of disagreements on the level of fact.
I felt strong negative emotions reading the above comment.
I think that the description of CFAR’s recent speaking-for-the-dead leaves readers feeling positive and optimistic and warm-fuzzy about the event, and about its striving for something like whole truth.
I do believe Anna’s report that it was healing and spacious for those who were there, and I share Anna’s hope that something similarly good can happen re: a Leverage conversation.
But I think I see the description of the event as trying to say something like “here’s an example of the sort of good thing that is possible.”
And I wanted anyone updating on that particular example to know that I was invited to the event, and declined the invitation, explaining that I genuinely could not cause myself to believe that I was actually welcome, or that it would be safe for me to be there.
This is a fact about me, not about the event. But it seems relevant, and I believe it changes the impression left by the above comment to be more accurate in a way that feels important.
(I was not the only staff alumnus absent, to be clear.)
I ordinarily would not have left this comment at all, because it feels dangerously … out of control, or something, in that I do not know what the-act-of-having-written-it will do. I do not understand and have no idea how to navigate the social currents here, and am not going to try. I will probably not contribute anything further to this thread unless directly asked by someone like Anna or a moderator.
What caused me to speak up anyway, despite feeling scared and in-over-my-head, was the bit in Anna’s other comment, where she said that she hopes people will not “refrain from sharing true relevant facts, out of fear that others will take them in a politicized way, or will use them as an excuse for false judgments.”
EDIT: for context, I worked at CFAR from October of 2015 to October of 2018, and was its curriculum director and head-of-workshops for two of those three years.
The former curriculum director and head-of-workshops for the Center For Applied Rationality would not be welcome or safe at a CFAR event?
What the **** is going on?
It sounds to me like mission failure, but I suppose it could also just be eccentric people not knowing how to get along (which isn’t so much different?) 😕
It’s not just people not knowing how to get along.
I am trying to navigate between Scylla and Charybdis, here; trying to adhere to normal social norms of live-and-let-live and employers and employees not badmouthing each other without serious justification and so forth. Trying to be honest and candid without starting social wars.
But it’s not just people not knowing how to get along. It’s something much closer to the gestalt of this comment, although please note that I directly replied to that comment with a lot of disagreements on the level of fact.