Zoom Link for Lecture Today
Added 2024-02-22 09:23:56 +0000 UTCSome people mentioned not receiving a link so for those thinking of virtually attending today (7pm Japan time).
Here is the infoโฆ
Good afternoon
Below is the link (and URL/meeting ID and password) for tonight's lecture.
โFrom Charisma to Conspiracy: Traits of Modern Secular Gurus,"
A few points about tonight:
-The lecture will begin at 7PM. The Zoom room will probably be open a bit before then, and, if you join us after 7, that is ok, too. I have to "admit" everyone to the room as a security precaution, so that might take me a minute or two, since there will be a live audience in the room as well.
-The best way to join the session is to choose "Speaker View" on Zoom, so that our speaker and/or his presentation slides will be what you mainly see (otherwise your screen will bounce around between 40 people)
-The plan is to have time for Questions and Answers at the end and perhaps our guest will try to elicit ideas from the audience during the lecture, but, otherwise, please turn off your mic during the lecture.
-However, you are welcome to keep your camera on.
-FYI: tonight's lecture is going to be recorded. Some Lakeland faculty members and students are not able to join us live, but have asked to watch the recording.
luj general is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Lakeland Lecture
Time: Feb 22, 2024 07:00 PM Osaka, Sapporo, Tokyo
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87895436340?pwd=3YLdMHSbbaxGkvYcNOOSGWGyZPdRFz.1
Meeting ID: 878 9543 6340
Passcode: 5gbSeu
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Comments
I would also love a link to the recording :)
Peter Moon
2024-03-01 09:36:44 +0000 UTCProblem with this is when you see the post.
Christopher Kavanagh
2024-02-23 21:28:05 +0000 UTCIn fairness, I don't know if he has really made a concerted effort to promote himself into the guru space. He may just be another case of someone on Twitter having an over-inflated sense of their ability to make ill-informed judgement calls (lab leak, etc, iirc) outside of their specialist field. He may be just another Dawkins-level bloviator. Chris would probably have a better grasp as he follows the covid-contrarian and lableak conspiracy area more closely
Paul Bowman
2024-02-23 16:16:02 +0000 UTCHow funny that you mentioned Nate Silver, Paul - I was going to use him as a 'pundit' example but then I realised I hadn't thought about him for years and didn't know what he was up to! And it seems the answer is 'no good'. That would be an interesting case study indeed, perhaps naively, I thought there wouldn't be as much of a pundit -> guru pipeline as there would be a public intellectual -> guru pipeline.
Artemis Green
2024-02-23 13:45:57 +0000 UTCAn interesting case study would be Nate Silver - originated as a psephological pundit and then has diversified into galaxy-brained, conspiracy-curious hot-takes on Twitter. I don't know if he's gone as far as to acquire a long-form podcast and followers (for his social views, as opposed to opinion poll analyses), so he may be more a wannabe than getting anywhere near secular guru status
Paul Bowman
2024-02-23 10:05:46 +0000 UTCYes - I think the colloquial, secular use of the terms are something like: - A pundit: a public figure who is of interest because of their predictions about what will happen about fairly specific real-world events (election outcomes, polls etc). - A guru: a public figure who is admired by a cohort of people because those people perceive the guru as having special wisdom or insight regarding how the world works and/or how one should live one's life. I would say that pundits can have viewers, readers, fans of their work etc - I suppose you could call these followers, in the twitter sense. But to be a guru, one needs 'actual' followers - people who apply the guru's perspective in their own lives somehow, or are inspired by the guru's persona. I would say there is a third category of the public intellectual - a person whose perspectives on a range of social matters are considered to be of popular interest. This can overlap with the guru role or the pundit role - I would describe Christopher Hitchens as both a public intellectual and a guru, and the Australian political commentator Malcolm Mackerras as a pundit and a public intellectual. I like your point about gurus leveraging anti-insitutitional, anti-expert sentiment to cement themselves as experts. And then some of them, like Jordan Peterson, have gone on to found alternative institutions... Chris if you're reading this, I annoyingly got interrupted during the part of the lecture where I think you outlined *why* you think secular gurus and techno shamans play a similar social role to the people who might have been given that title in other societies... I'm not convinced but would like to hear more. But wouldn't it be more accurate to argue that gurus play a similar role to spiritual teachers in various traditional societies? I may just not know how the term is used academically because it's not my field etc, but I associate 'guru' pretty specifically with Vedic culture, Indian religions etc.
Artemis Green
2024-02-23 02:09:47 +0000 UTCThanks, didn't see that.
DrWallabong
2024-02-22 19:33:07 +0000 UTCSee the response to the very first comment... > No idea!
Roland Weber
2024-02-22 18:13:05 +0000 UTCWill a recording be available for those of us who missed it?
DrWallabong
2024-02-22 11:55:40 +0000 UTCGood lecture. To recycle what I said in the zoom chat, in response to a Q on whether the term pundit was equally valid as guru (given similar sanskrit origins): I think in contemporary use, pundit is more associated with "expert". Specifically someone who has secular expertise based on, not knowledge of religious scriptures (vedas), but secular sources, such as past football scores, or pseuphology (voting patterns), opinion polling, etc. In Weberian terms, pundits qua experts, are representing bureaucratic authority and gurus rely on charismatic power. Given the anti-expert bias of populist discourse, it's an interesting trick of secular gurus is that they leverage the anti-expert prejudice ("the're all corrupt, the institutions/broadcasters are all captured...") while presenting to have superior (or transcendent?) reserves of knowledge themselves. It's a neat trick to present yourself as the anti-expert expert
Paul Bowman
2024-02-22 11:33:54 +0000 UTCLecture will start when this comment is 10 minutes old ๐จ
mobitobi
2024-02-22 09:50:48 +0000 UTCBest time format is: in n hours from this post. I now it as reddit time. Super easy for the poster and saves lots of innocent succulents by preventing a bajillion time zone conversion google searches ๐ฅ๐
mobitobi
2024-02-22 09:45:19 +0000 UTCThank you!! I just received the link via email as well. Break a leg or alternatively a conspiracy hypothesis, your choice :)
Artemis Green
2024-02-22 09:31:50 +0000 UTCNo idea!
Christopher Kavanagh
2024-02-22 09:25:51 +0000 UTCWill the record be accessible for people outside of the student body / faculty?
mobitobi
2024-02-22 09:25:30 +0000 UTC
