SF Love Dojo: Democracy Summer - take the Harvard Course with me!

For mental health and social well-being! (Jedi Training begins now!)

Hi all,

Happy Memorial Day!

Harvard launched a free online course in 2020 that is POWERFULLY resonating now.

We the People: Civic Engagement in a Constitutional Democracy

It’s taught by Danielle Allen, the renowned James Bryant Conant University Professor of Political Science at Harvard, MacArthur Fellow, author of numerous books, and chair of the bipartisan Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences which produced the 2020 Our Common Purpose: Reinventing American Democracy for the 21st Century, which you can read online. I’ve been meaning to since I saw this News Hour report in 2023.

Let’s learn together. Let’s take this course, and hopefully have some time to engage in the content on a weekly basis. I’d like to sort out how democracy and egalitarianism connect to mental health, the Social Determinants of Health and Mental Health, relatedness, community, belonging, and even compassion, love, and joy.

Are you in? Leave a comment and let me know. I plan on holding several discussion sections along the way, but your comments will help me gauge interest. Spread the word by sharing this post.

You can audit the course for free, but I’m signing up for the paid version, so I can participate in the course, do the assignments, and FINALLY GRADUATE FROM HARVARD lol. Also, to support this venerable institution. This seems to represent the very best of Harvard. This round of the course begins this week, and runs through July.

American higher education has been the envy of the world for decades. Mr. Trump’s attacks threaten to tear all that down in an attempt to make the world revolve around him. He’s doing a mob boss hit, or even a Darth Vader choke-hold, on Higher Ed. You see, if blood doesn’t get to our brains … America will die.

But Harvard is resisting. Is it the Great Temple of Yavin that launches the Rebel Force? (Star Wars Nerd s/o!) Only time will tell.

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Sure, one could argue for reforms in Higher Ed, but this is callous and callow destruction, not disruption. I guess it makes us all think about the value of education, and the importance of connecting and lifting people across all educational levels and diverse backgrounds. It doesn’t seem our higher education or elite institutions did quite enough of that, or at least Mr. Trump can capitalize on resentment of Harvard, Yale, and the other Ivies.

But remember - he and many of his group are products of elite institutions who learned a lesson of seeking power and profit without service to the common good. That’s THE problem IMHO. The racist, classist, sexist elite.

It’s a very strange situation. The super-rich have great and seemingly unchecked power. There’s no check on right wing propaganda and media moguls on the right, who appeal to base drives of hatred. White Christian Nationalists pursue religious monarchy under a very White, fire-and-brimstone, judgy Jesus. A veritable autocrat holds the presidency, a man the evangelicals liken to King Cyrus of the Bible.

You are our only hope.

Join me. Together we can overcome the Death Star’s ray of hatred, greed, and ignorance. We can use the Force within us - for Enlightenment!

See you in Jedi Training!

Warmly,

Ravi