tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145179162024-03-13T02:14:17.683-04:00Metta Spencer's weblogEntertainment, Emotion, Love, Empathy, Ethics, and Saving the WorldMetta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.comBlogger342125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-67228704250676423902013-12-27T22:13:00.000-05:002013-12-27T22:13:03.017-05:00One Woman’s Brief Annual Report on the State of the WorldThis is the season for sending greeting cards and emails about one’s foreign journeys and new pets. I am well and did travel a bit in 2013 but I have no pets so I will write about my opinions instead. I have plenty of those. I’d love for you to reciprocate by saying how you suggest we solve the world’s main problems. We cannot do everything, so we must select our issues thoughtfully.
In an Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-53988203345049515552013-09-28T13:02:00.001-04:002013-09-28T13:02:19.348-04:00Weekly Lecture Series 2013-14 Please Come and Bring a Friend!
Vital Discussions of Human Security Lecture Series for 2013-14
Co-Sponsored by University College Health Studies Programme, Canadian Pugwash Group, Science for Peace, and Voice of Women for Peace.
Thursdays, 7-9 pm, Room 179, University College, 15 Kings College Circle, U.of Toronto. All welcome. No charge. Bring your friends! Video will normally be available on the SfP YouTube channel&Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-33095333150995593882013-09-28T12:40:00.000-04:002013-09-28T13:04:03.974-04:00I am one of the most powerful people in the world.
I
am one of the most powerful people in the world. Yes, I am! I am a
journalist (sort of) and journalists and dramatists are, in my opinion,
the most powerful people alive. They influence the way people understand
ongoing social life, and all of political life depends on public
opinion.
Admittedly, I am one of the LEAST powerful members of the most
powerful group (only about 3000Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-75061551604529710792012-09-09T12:55:00.001-04:002012-09-09T13:02:53.607-04:00Invitation to weekly lectures in Toronto Here's the program for my weekly lecture series for the academic year 2012-13. Please do come!
Metta
Vital Discussions of Human Security
Lecture Series for 2012-13 academic year. Co-Sponsored by University College Health Studies Programme, Canadian Pugwash Group, Science for Peace, and Voice of Women for Peace.
Thursdays, 7-9 pm, usually in Rm. 144, University College, 15 Kings College Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-84567192074525914362012-03-11T12:28:00.000-04:002012-03-11T12:28:48.929-04:00I Support Fighting Israel NonviolentlyAt least one of my friends has quit the Canadian Voice of Women for Peace (VOW), since the group is sharply critical of Israeli policies toward the Palestinians and is now threatening to bomb the Iranian nuclear installations. My friend "D" says the VOW is trying to whip up hatred toward Israel, whereas she herself proceeds by trying to bring Israeli and Palestinian women together and support a Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-67058965107687217802011-08-08T20:59:00.003-04:002012-01-10T13:57:03.108-05:00Hiroshima Day speech 2011
Psychologists tell us that happiness comes from giving yourself over to a cause greater than yourself. Well, do I have a humdinger of a cause for you! Thirty years ago millions of people were engaged in it: to abolish nuclear weapons. In Toronto the movement was centered in this church. Upstairs in the chapel we founded the Canadian Disarmament Information Service. A hundred persons a day Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-22594108944892980102011-07-27T17:56:00.002-04:002012-01-10T14:10:02.632-05:00News from the International Peace BureauThe International Peace Bureau (IPB) sends out a newsletter every month, recounting its member organizations’ activities and especially significant developments in the world that reflect the prospects for peace. You can read them at www.ipb.org. Here are some of the events that have been mentioned during the last few months:
Several of the items dealt with the arms trade. For example, in March itMetta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-45153434979233653832011-07-11T18:43:00.008-04:002011-07-12T15:21:15.508-04:00Games, Theodicy, and The Tree of Life
Yesterday I got into an argument with a woman friend, whom I'll call “Aysa.” We were in a restaurant with another woman friend, who didn't get into the dispute, partly because she had not seen The Tree of Life, which had set Aysa and me off onto our dispute.
We both loved the film, about half of which was a tour of the cosmos—gorgeous images of galaxies, volcanoes, dinosaurs, cells, and blood Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-4381673955375358042011-07-01T00:46:00.000-04:002011-07-01T00:46:16.143-04:00After the G-20, Re-Thinking Turmoil
Metta Spencer
At a meeting tonight on bad policing at G20, I rudely noted that demonstration organizers also had duty to make all protesters pledge nonviolence. This was not received well. They said it was up to the cops to make people behave. I said it's up to all of us. Gandhi stopped all demonstrations for a year after protesters acted up. His satyagrahis had to be EXTREMELY disciplined. Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-45887956835548981562011-04-08T16:08:00.000-04:002011-04-08T16:08:56.117-04:00Einstein on Cosmic Religion
I want to quote this passage of Albert Einstein, which was published in
"Cosmic Religion and Other Opinions and Aphorisms,”
(Mineola, N.T.: Dover, first published in 1931)
p 46: The religions of all the civilized peoples, especially those of the Orient, are principally moral religions. An important advance in the life of a people is the transformation of the religion of fear into the moral Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-24817805360567922132011-04-06T10:39:00.001-04:002011-04-06T10:42:33.858-04:00Nonviolence: A CBC Radio series (Including with me)Mary Wiens, a producer for CBC's “Metro Morning” radio show, produced a series of seven-minute programs about nonviolent struggle, which were recently broadcast over the course of a week. She came to my home and interviewed me, among others. The whole series is now available for you to hear on-line. I am in the first and third segments, if that matters. I think the whole series is a Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-68501855364163534612011-04-06T10:17:00.004-04:002011-04-06T11:38:07.925-04:00CBC Interviews Me About RussiaCBC News producer Jennifer Clibbon, who has lived and worked in Russia periodically since the mid-1980s, published this interview with me on the CBC web site. (See http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2011/03/01/f-gorbachev-80th-birthday.html). She was especially interested in the state of civil society and the future of democratic reform in Russia today.
CBC News: Gorbachev has been Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-9799081985604462872011-04-06T10:08:00.004-04:002011-04-06T11:35:54.317-04:00Dilemmas of Nuclear PowerAs a member of the steering committee of the International Peace Bureau, I went to Barcelona a couple of weeks ago for a meeting. I knew that some members already expected us to call for nuclear reactors to be shut down, world-wide, and I wasn’t ready to vote on that issue. I said that it would take me another month of serious study to reach a decision for myself, so the matter was referred to a Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-35936227983757760722010-11-16T17:22:00.004-05:002010-12-30T23:43:26.073-05:00My friend, Janet SalaffTo her friends and mine, I need to write about Janet Salaff. If you decide to forward this to other friends of hers, feel free to correct any mistakes I may make or add observations or recollections of your own. I began this as a message to members of the study group that met at my place when we were all preparing for oral exams in Berkeley long ago.
On Thursday, Nov. 4, I had invited seven Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-64848679900370742062010-10-22T13:56:00.005-04:002010-10-28T13:20:27.344-04:00Why Did You Stay Communist So Long?Chandler Davis has a new book out: It Walks in Beauty (ed. by Josh Lukin. Aqueduct Press, 2010). Last night there was a book launch at the Judy Merrill Science fiction library at the Toronto Public Library on College Street. Chandler's book includes both science fiction and essays in which he recounts his experience as a leftist in the United States during the forties and fifties. Eventually he Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-76818472301606251022010-10-12T12:24:00.003-04:002010-10-12T13:26:11.793-04:00Classifying Russian Political OpinionsSpeech to International Peace Bureau, Oslo, September 2010
In 1982 I began visiting the Soviet Union and then kept returning and interviewing hundreds of people for the next 28 years. Today my book The Russian Quest for Peace and Democracy is supposed to be released. I’ll give you a peek.
In those days it made sense to classify Eastern public opinion in four categories: Sheep, Dinosaurs, BarkingMetta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-21617420860338391952010-10-12T12:19:00.001-04:002010-10-12T13:13:15.141-04:00On Our Way to Nuclear DisarmamentOn Our Way to Nuclear Disarmament: Speech to Physicians for Global Survival
Surveys suggest that about three-quarters of the human population want nuclear weapons to be abolished. Why have we been unable to do so? I’ll list five reasons, which will suggest an agenda of five preconditions that must be resolved. I won’t discuss the technology of the bombs or the diplomatic steps toward abolishing Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-87169893963631069702010-08-14T07:58:00.002-04:002010-08-14T08:02:11.386-04:00No to TigersThere's no obvious way to distinguish Tigers from other Tamils, but we must do so before admitting them to Canada. I took in a refugee family, who lived with me in various combinations for six years, during which time the father became a (or the) leading Tiger in Canada. Tigers were collecting/extorting millions of dollars here to buy weapons. Had they not done so, the war would have ended Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-54973852634241787552010-07-26T02:57:00.003-04:002010-07-30T20:34:42.268-04:00Moral PaybackHere I want to reflect on one of life’s great conundrums: how to treat others who make serious mistakes. It is a religious problem in that we recognize forgiveness as our own spiritual goal (though it is not always obvious what forgiveness entails). It is a social problem, in that our organizations and intimate relationships require measures of social control. It is a legal problem, in that Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-17063549847621592762010-07-08T17:29:00.000-04:002010-07-08T17:29:25.333-04:00How to Democratize the PlanetWhen we start discussing global governance, the first proposal that comes up is to strengthen the United Nations: get rid of the veto in the Security Councils, rotate a wider group of its member States, and add a house to represent NGOs and other voluntary organizations. Those are fine proposals, but here I want to add other suggestions.
We have inherited a “Westphalian” world—one in which the Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-34498192151520924162010-06-09T19:57:00.000-04:002010-06-09T19:57:13.476-04:00How to EatIntelligent eating is becoming harder to do every day—mostly because information is uncertain and keeps changing about what is healthful and what the effects of various foods are on our planet. Moreover, human bodies differ significantly. For example, I have diabetes and am healthiest when I almost eliminate carbohydrates.
We are told that the most beneficial thing a person can do for the planetMetta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-19413813472969482402010-05-30T14:23:00.002-04:002010-05-30T14:24:45.287-04:00Nah! We’re Not DoomedI keep getting into arguments with my friends about whether humankind is doomed. There are people, you know, who insist that billions of people are going to perish, either because of climate change or peak oil. I disagree, and I’m bored with the conversation. Yes, we are vulnerable, but not necessarily from those two factors, singly or in combination. Along with Vaclav Smil, I think there are twoMetta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-65491258552410187842009-12-11T23:14:00.001-05:002009-12-11T23:16:54.620-05:00Happy Holidays, Friends. 155 Marlee Ave. Apt. 201 Toronto M6B 4B5 All is well here, but I have decided to postpone my Christmas and New Year festivities until May. I’m working hard to get my next book, The Russian Quest for Peace and Democracy, to Lexington Press in March and I need every minute of the time. So I’m skipping the tree, gifts, parties, and even my traditional New Years Day bash this year. I expect the Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-24562853969846272112009-08-15T14:58:00.006-04:002009-08-15T15:50:34.304-04:00Obama's Faith and MineI haven't been blogging here much since I got on Facebook and Twitter. Sorry.But I'm in a dialogue with the Globe and Mail's excellent columnist Doug Saunders about — of all things — religion. It seems to me his notion of religion is determined by contact with mainly theologically illiterate persons. He thinks religious journalists shouldn't be allowed to write about religion because they are Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14517916.post-50558268878859425242009-05-24T02:37:00.005-04:002009-05-24T11:13:07.411-04:00Waiting to ForgiveMy friend Joy Kogawa just phoned me and rehearsed to me a speech that she’s supposed to give in a few weeks. It’s about the memoir she is writing, Gently to Nagasaki, and it offers a spiritually moving glimpse of healing.Joy’s topic is reconciliation and forgiveness. She contrasts two attitudes toward the bombing of Hiroshima: self-justification and remorse. Most Americans took – probably still Metta Spencerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17197342087364242715noreply@blogger.com2