Topic1
Year of 2019 is almost over! So what? Let’s try some presentations about likes and dislikes. Share your secret passion, effuse you love and hate. Bring materials. Show-and-tell could be nice.
1 Tell us anything you like, and why do you like it?
I like… amateur baseball, Riisa Naka, dining out alone, Orix Buffaloes, Naomi Watanabe, Michiko Ishimure, “Demian” of Hermann Hesse and Dragon Quest Walk.
2 Tell us anything you don’t like and why is that?
I don’t like… Kazutoyo Koyabu, taking pictures before eating, public toilet, Kabuki, peanut butter, Haruki Murakami.
Topic2
All We Need Is Love, Isn’t it?
Former US President Barack Obama made a cutting remark about “Call-out culture”; accusing someone harshly and giving social punishments. Neal Simon used to write that one starts believing when it is written, in “Biloxi Blues”. The legendary playwright pointed out that written documents have power to persuade people, from a comrade’s private diary to SNS.
1
No small amount of people assume that social punishment is necessary to keep “world order” or their morals. Do you think so?
2
Please watch this if you have time, or even if you don’t, watch it anyway. This is the best TV program in last 25 years.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=js9jKiieN24&t=268s
What can call-out culture do?Once, the Japanese were crazy about democracy and freedom. It took only 10 years to change the values completely. Call out culture can be next Muneki Minoda.
Then, how can we, each one of us, prevent this?
3
If we REALLY want to change the world, what do we need? Shouldn’t we call out for love-driven world instead of hate-driven call-out culture? Then, what should we do?
“At the risk of seeming ridiculous, let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love. It is impossible to think of a genuine revolutionary lacking this quality.”
-Ernesto Che Guevara
“If instead of E = mc2, we accept that the energy to heal the world can be obtained through love multiplied by the speed of light squared, we arrive at the conclusion that love is the most powerful force there is, because it has no limits.”
-Albert Einstein
“The more one judges, the less one loves.”
—Honoré de Balzac
“The first duty of love is to listen.”
—Paul Tillich
“There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement, and acceptance.”
“All You Need Is Love”
-John Lennon