The Touro Communication Club Notes - #131–December 8, 2010
NEWS: 10th Speech Contest is on Tuesday, December 7, 2010 at 2 pm in Room 314 – Midtown. Finalists from the Communication classes will compete for $100 First Prize, $75 Second Prize, $50 Third Prize. Judges are Adriana Jimenez, of the Career Placement Office; Simone Joseph of the Midtown Site Directors office; and Dr. Brent Cutler, Director of the Paralegal program. Join us!
Blog Contents:
1. Ten Quotes about the Battle of the Sexes
2. UPCOMING CLUB PROGRAM: - “Talking to Guys/Talking to Girls” Again! Wednesday, December 8, 2010 @ 2 pm in Room 223.
3. Logical Fallacy of the Week # 21 – “Post hoc ergo propter hoc”
4. Professor Geo’s Communication Thought of the Week
5. Note to Communicators: “Nobody’s interested in communicating during the Battle of the Sexes”
6. .NEXT WEEK’S TOPIC: “Wikileaks and Secrecy”
7. Upcoming Conversations - please add your topic to the list
8. What happened last week: Professor Carlisle Yearwood discusses T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land”
1. Ten Quotations about the Battle of the Sexes
“I'm not offended by all the dumb blonde jokes because I know I'm not dumb...
and I also know that I'm not blonde.”
Dolly Parton, American country singer, songwriter and actor
“You see a lot of smart guys with dumb women, but you hardly ever see
a smart woman with a dumb guy.”
Erica Jong, American author and teacher
“Nobody will ever win the battle of the sexes. There’s too much fraternizing with the enemy.”
Henry Kissinger, former Secretary of State and political advisor
“I think -- therefore I'm single.”
Lizz Winstead, American comedian and blogger
"When women are depressed they either eat or go shopping.
Men invade another country."
Elayne Boosler, American comedian
"In politics, if you want anything said, ask a man;
If you want anything done, ask a woman."
Margaret Thatcher, former British prime minister,
“Women who seek to be equal with men lack ambition.”
Timothy Leary (1920-1996), controversial American psychologist, advocated research into psychedelic drugs. President Nixon called him "the most dangerous man in America.” (cf. Wikipedia)
“A woman reading Playboy feels a little like a Jew reading a Nazi manual.”
Gloria Steinem, American feminist, journalist, founder of MS magazine
“To tell a woman everything she may not do is to tell her what she can do.”
Spanish Proverb
“Remember no one can make you feel inferior without your consent."
Eleanor Roosevelt, civil rights advocate and First Lady from 1933-1945
Eleanor Roosevelt, civil rights advocate and First Lady from 1933-1945
2. The Touro Communication Club
Wednesday, December 8, 2010 - 2 pm – Room 223
Midtown
Let’s Try Again!
“Talking to Guys/Talking to Girls”
In the last four years, we’ve talked about this topic at least three times in one form or another. The academic term for conversation between the sexes is “Gender Communication.” John Gray’s 1992 bestseller “Men are from Mars; Women are from Venus” codified the communication difficulties between the sexes in the popular mind. For centuries, the conflict has been called ‘The Battle of the Sexes.” Going beyond sexual attraction to attempt building a relationship is an ongoing challenge for everyone. Some have answers. Others are searching. We’ll share our questions and conclusions.
3. Logical Fallacy of the Week #20:
“Post hoc ergo propter hoc”
President Obama is experiencing this Latin mouthful as we speak. Roughly translated the phrase means “After this, therefore because of it.” This fallacy makes the erroneous assumption that if “A” occurred after “B” then “B” must have caused “A.”
In this fallacy of “B” causing “A,” the current political atmosphere has painted the picture that President Obama’s policies are now responsible for the current economic situation. In fact, so says the propaganda strategy, Obama has made this situation worse. “B” has made “A” worse.
Knowing that voters have a very short memory and will always ask “what can you do for me now?” the Republicans have been exceedingly successful in shifting the blame for the economic crisis from President Bush to President Obama. Bush’s actions are forgotten as Obama’s efforts to correct the situation appear futile Obama’s attempts to demonstrate that his accomplishments, though not entirely successful, have begun to right the sinking economy. Combined with the parallel strategy of saying “No” to everything, this fallacy makes for powerfully effective politics.
Take another example: the American Indian “rain dance.” There is a drought; the crops are dying. The tom-toms beat; the men dance and the rains come. The clever medicine man has noticed that there are dark clouds occurring on the horizon and tells the chief to do the rain dance. The tribe does – and the rain comes. Everyone assumes that the dance caused the rain.
Imagine the frustration of doing a rain dance on a series of dry blue skies.
Here’s a literary variation of the fallacy: If you remember Mark Twain’s “A Connecticut Yankee in King Author’s Court,” this fallacy is crucial to the success of the hero, Hank Morgan. After a blow to the head, he finds himself in King Arthur’s court. He is an outcast. Merlin, the court magician is suspicious of him and arranges for Hank to be burned at the stake. Now Twain stacks his deck in favor of his hero. Coincidentally, Hank was somewhat of an astronomer in his former life and remembers that his date of execution in 528 coincides with the date of a solar eclipse.
Twain manipulates the connection imaginatively as he writes that Hank announces that he has special powers. He claims that at the moment of his execution, he will blot out the sun permanently. The event comes to pass. As the sun begins to disappear, Hank announces he has the powers to bring back the sun. King Arthur is fearful. Merlin is discredited and Hank is freed and made the principal advisor to King Arthur. Now Hank is known as “The Boss.” Twain’s charming tale continues through many other fascinating twists.
In our every day life, other examples of post hoc ergo propter hoc occur.
· We fail an exam; we say the test is too hard when we haven’t studied.
· We are late to class; the cause of the lateness is that the subways were running late, not that we got up late.
· We are late for a date; we make up an excuse when the reality is that we forgot.
· The best one I’ve heard for lack of preparation for class was when the student said that his culture forced him to drink all night and therefore he could not study.
I have stopped taking out my violin when I hear these feeble statements to avoid responsibility for our actions.
The effectiveness of the fallacy in Obama’s world of politics requires a more immediate and forthright denunciation of the tactic.
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4. Professor Geo’s “Communication Thought of the Week #9:
The smart remark or insult has a long history in communication. Sir Winston Churchill had many storied encounters with Lady Astor, Here is one pungent exchange.
Lady Astor: “If you were my husband I'd give you poison,"
Churchill: "If you were my wife, I'd drink it."
5. .A Note to Communicators:
Nobody’s interested in communicating during the Battle of the Sexes
After searching for credible quotations about the communication process between the sexes, I’ve come to the conclusion that neither sex is really interested in bridging the gender gap. Positions are staked out; barbs are thrown; funny linguistic twists are invented, but most everyone takes the “Battle of the Sexes’ as a given.
To try to bridge that gap is dull and boring and, most of all, takes the hilarity out of the endless possibilities of deriding the behavior of the other sex. Men feel wonderful when they can slice up a woman. Women take pleasure in puncturing the male ego.
So who wins? Nobody. The arguments start with light frivolity and end mean and hurtful. The back-and-forth quickly becomes circular – an enthymemic syllogism where no one agrees to the basic premises of the disagreement.
In the 1990s, John Gray made the male/female communication difficulties into catchy stereotypes of labeling the dichotomy as “Men are from Mars; Women are from Venus.” Simultaneously, linguist Deborah Tannen explored the difficulties in a more even-handed manner, beginning with her 1990 “You Just Don’t Understand: Women and Men in Conversation.”
Their discussions faded into the background. Even with wider knowledge of how the sexes are wired (Dr. Luann Brizendine’s “The Female Brain” (2006) and “The Male Brain” (2010), there remains a chasm in emotional and intellectual understanding between the sexes.
Why is disappointing? The clich̩ works in all aspects of life Рeverything takes time. With every birth, there is another mind to stimulate to awareness. With every culture, there are embedded codes of behavior that resist change.
But, perhaps, as the French would have it, “le plus le change, le plus le meme chose.” The more things change, the more they stay the same.”
6. Next week’s Conversation:
Wednesday, December 8. 2010 – Room 223 – Midtown
“Wikileaks and Secrecy”
In recent days, there has been a torrent of secret American diplomatic documents released by Wikileaks, a self declared arbiter of secrecy founded in 2006 by Australian journalist Julian Assange. Some 250,000 documents that purport to describe the behind the scenes diplomatic exchanges by the United States and some 274 of its allies have been released. Compared to the 1971 leak of the Pentagon Papers by Daniel Ellsberg which was a single event, these Wikileaks actions stem from philosophical position of anarchy and are based on its slogan, “We open governments.” The banks are next. We will explore the latest in the Wikileaks actions and compare the concept of secrets between governments, institutions, personal relationships and individual acts. We’ll ask, “Is secrecy necessary? Is transparency impossible or dangerous? What about self-disclosure?” Tune in for what should be a lively discussion.
7. UPCOMING CONVERSATIONS:
What about one of these topics?
“Repetition”
“Meaning”
“Why Does History Repeat Itself?”
“Heroism”
“Concentration”
“Coping with Adversity”
Student Poetry showcase
“Empathy”
“Connecting the Dots”
Role play of Cynical people
“Cold Calling in Sales”
“He’s Just Not That into You”
Critical Listening Institute III: “Abbott & Costello’s ‘Who’s On First?’”
“Criticism – Giving and Receiving”
“Logical Fallacies”
“Freedom II”
“Gender Communication II”
“SPAR Debate”
“Distraction II”
“Negotiation II”
“Imagination II”
“Rodney King: ‘Can’t We Just Get Along?’ II”
“Political Savvy”
“Emotions: Anger II”
“Identity Politics”
“Human Rights”
“Capitalism and Socialism”
“Illusions”
“Parenting”
And dozens of others!
Compare the notice of the session with what really happened!
8. What happened on
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
2 pm – Room 223 -Midtown
Faculty Colloquy I:
Professor Carlisle Yearwood discusses
T.S. Eliot’s poem “The Waste Land”
This event is a milestone in the four year history of the Touro Communication Club. We introduce a traditional university event called a “Faculty Colloquy.” A universal collegiate tradition, a scholar shares his/her serious research with colleagues for discussion and feedback.
That is our goal today. Professor Carlisle Yearwood of Touro’s English Department will share his analysis of the first several stanzas of T.S. Eliot’s landmark poem, “The Wasteland.”
A native of Barbados and a published poet, Professor Yearwood has degrees from Pace University and City College of New York (CUNY). He has owned two bars and a nightclub which focused on talent development in Harlem and was involved with the Civil Rights movement with CORE and created an after school English and business skills program in Harlem. He is a member of the Blind Beggar Press.
Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888-1965) was an American-born English poet, playwright and literary critic, arguably the most important English language poet of the 10th century. “The Wasteland’ was written in 1922. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948.
There was a respectable audience of over 15 who came to hear Professor Yearwood share his thoughts on Eliot. New faculty members include Carol London, Jane Heil, Willie Evans and Walter Turney joined familiar faculty faces including Gary Sheinfeld, Charles Mason, Steve Gradman, Dean Timothy Taylor, Markus Vayndorf, Richard Green and Hal Wicke. New student faces included Marie Constant, Simone Joseph, Grace Gibson and Matthew Nwozuzu as well as old timers Pamela Sheppard and Myrtho Leon. Dean Leon Perkal stopped by for a moment. Several students observed the event without signing the club attendance sheet.
Richard Green videoed the event, about one hour and 15 minutes, It will eventually be posted on the club blog.
As the audience gathered, Hal passed out a copy of T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land” along with a photo of the author. He introduced the event, briefly describing the background of Professor Yearwood and the object of the study.
I won’t detail here Professor Yearwood’s in comparable monumental feat, other than to say he combined information about Eliot’s with his literary techniques of fragments from other English literature as he deconstructed the entire five stanzas of the poem.
As he read sections of the poem, he pointed out line references for the audience to follow.
As he read sections of the poem, he pointed out line references for the audience to follow.
Aside from the academic and intellectual skills Professor Yearwood demonstrated, his extraordinary use of his mellifluous voiced added unusual impact to the power and passion of his presentation.
Post lecture questions focused on Eliot’s plays and the context in which the poem was written.
Comments included:
· “I am speechless.”
· “I was blown away.”
· “Brain stimulating.”
· “The first intellectual event in my 13 years at Touro.”
In short, Professor Yearwood raised the intellectual bar for club discussions and for public scholarship at Touro. With the palpable ease with which he handled the various elements in the poem, he gave us both a model and a standard for intellectual discourse.
We thank you, Professor Yearwood, for showing us what first-rate intellectual scholarship looks like and how to achieve it.
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We always have a great time exploring these issues. So often our daily life never focuses on these Communication issues. If you have something you want us to discuss please let us know and we’ll add it to the list.
Next time bring a friend. The Communication Club is always an open discussion, limited only by time. Everyone gets a chance to speak. All opinions are welcome.
Here is an opportunity for students to challenge professors’ views outside the class without any homework or assignments. You just have to show up and listen and talk if you want.
Hal Wicke
Here is an opportunity for students to challenge professors’ views outside the class without any homework or assignments. You just have to show up and listen and talk if you want.
Hal Wicke
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