Why an essential competency for effective facilitation is respect for others, and how we can cultivate respect in facilitation.

https://www.conferencesthatwork.com/index.php/facilitation/2024/05/respect-facilitation

→ They wanted to save us from a dark AI future. Then six people were #killed
https://www.theguardian.com/global/ng-interactive/2025/mar/05/zizians-artificial-intelligence

“Rationalists had considerable #openness to new experiences, but sometimes poor discipline or #judgment, and could embody the old joke about being so open-minded that one’s brain falls out […]”

“It goes without saying that the #AI-risk and #rationalist communities are not morally responsible for the #Zizians any more than any #movement is accountable for a deranged fringe.”

A quotation from Marcus Aurelius

The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts: therefore, guard accordingly, and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature.
 
[Τὴν ὑποληπτικὴν δύναμιν σέβε. ἐν ταύτῃ τὸ πᾶν, ἵνα ὑπόληψις τῷ ἡγεμονικῷ σου μηκέτι ἐγγένηται ἀνακόλουθος τῇ φύσει καὶ τῇ τοῦ λογικοῦ ζῴου κατασκευῇ]

Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180) Roman emperor (161-180), Stoic philosopher
Meditations [To Himself; Τὰ εἰς ἑαυτόν], Book 3, ch. 9 (3.9) (AD 161-180) [tr. Collier (1701)]

Sourcing, notes, alternate translations: wist.info/marcus-aureleus/2665…

A quotation from Arendt

The moment we no longer have a free press, anything can happen. What makes it possible for a totalitarian or any other dictatorship to rule is that people are not informed; how can you have an opinion if you are not informed?

Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) German-American philosopher, political theorist
Interview (1973-10) with Roger Errera, Office de Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française (ORTF)

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/arendt-hannah/45087/

A quotation from Victor Hugo

In fact, were it given to our human eye to see into the consciences of others, we would judge a man much more surely from what he dreams than from what he thinks.
 
[En effet, s’il était donné à nos yeux de chair de voir dans la conscience d’autrui, on jugerait bien plus sûrement un homme d’après ce qu’il rêve que d’après ce qu’il pense.]

Victor Hugo (1802-1885) French writer
Les Misérables, Part 3 “Marius,” Book 5 “The Excellence of Misfortune,” ch. 5 (3.5.5) (1862) [tr. Wilbour/Fahnestock/MacAfee (1987)]

Sourcing, notes, alternate translations: wist.info/hugo-victor/75330/

A quotation from Hannah Arendt

If everybody always lies to you, the consequence is not that you believe the lies, but rather that nobody believes anything any longer. This is because lies, by their very nature, have to be changed, and a lying government has constantly to rewrite its own history. On the receiving end you get not only one lie — a lie which you could go on for the rest of your days — but you get a great number of lies, depending on how the political wind blows. And a people that no longer can believe anything cannot make up its mind. It is deprived not only of its capacity to act but also of its capacity to think and to judge. And with such a people you can then do what you please.

Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) German-American philosopher, political theorist
Interview (1973-10) with Roger Errera, Office de Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française (ORTF)

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/arendt-hannah/45162/

16x20 Work in Progress............