Dear members of the nameless discussion club,
I would like to thank you all again for coming last Sunday to the very first discussion gathering, which was given the title “Utopians Anonymous”. It was to me both fun and inspiring, and I am happy to see that we can gather such a club of people that are willing to discuss until after midnight the things that interest and inspire them as well!
In this e-mail I would like to provide a quick overview of what was decided upon during the last gathering, as well as propose an agenda for the coming one of Monday April 6. Furthermore, I added to this e-mail the e-mail addresses of persons who were possibly interested in joining. Those people I would like to ask to respond to this e-mail and let me know if you’re coming.
During Sunday’s meeting (March 29), at which a total of eight persons was present, the following things (among other) were decided upon:
1. We have officially started a discussion/action club that will henceforth be gathering weekly on a set day.
2. The set day at which the gatherings will be held will be at Sunday, starting from 20:00. The location for these gatherings will for the present be Nieuwe Rijn 2 in Leiden. (We will make an exception for next meeting, which will be at Monday due to Easter.)
3. In order to challenge the traditional concept of identity and what it means to be a group, the group will not be given a Set Name. Instead, a new name will be chosen at the start of each meeting which the group members present find fit for that meeting.
4. In order to have a raison d'être, the group has made it its first official goal to come up with an utopia, as a desirable alternative to the current state of affairs in society, an end-state that we would happily work towards. After the establishment of such an utopia, the group may come up with new practical goals in the spirit of the utopia and start to realize these goals through the means of action.
5. In starting towards our first goal, each group of us begun by listing all the things that frustrated us on a piece of paper. Although the discussion about these things went on until after midnight, the frustrations were so many that we couldn’t even finish discussing them all! Therefore, we decided to continue the discussion next week.
It is therefore that I propose the following agenda for Monday (open for suggestions! times are proposed estimates):
20:00-20:15
doors open, poor drinks, chat;
Adress: Nieuwe Rijn 2, Leiden;
20:15-20:30
establishing a new ‘Name of the Week’ for the club;
20:30-21:00
A. updates about recent news events and interesting literature (this one I thought of, but I’d like to hear your opinion on it);
B. read last meeting’s notes and establish this meeting’s agenda;
21:00-00:00
A. finish discussing the listed frustrations; if this is done then
B. identify and write down the most common frustrations and formulate them into societal problems; if this is done then
C. start discussing solutions to the problems;
00:00-?
have music and drinks.
If you have any additions or suggestions to the agenda, please share it in the e-mail.
The last gathering everyone took their own drinks with them. I thought that was an excellent idea, and I would ask you to do the same again next time. However, I can imagine it to be more efficient if one person (e.g. the host, i.e. me) buys the drinks and snacks. In that case we might consider making some kind of arrangement soon. Finally, to those new people that are coming but weren’t there last time, please write down two or three things that frustrate you in daily life (these can be anything as trivial as late busses to serious things such as poor education) so you can participate in the first part of the discussion.
I think that was about all. I’m looking forward to seeing you all at the next meeting Monday!
Sincerely,
Piet
P.S. here’s a nice piece on the phenomenon of bullshit jobs: http://strikemag.org/bullshit-jobs/, and here is a link to a report on how a Canadian mining company operates in Greece by avoiding taxes through the Netherlands: http://www.somo.nl/publications-en/Publ ... anguage=en.