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GLOBAL
SENSE:
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
PART
II:
MALE
RULE AND AUTHORITY
ADDICTION
- .
7.
The Divine Right of
Kings
- .
8.
Hereditary
Succession
- .
9.
Inherited Wealth
- .
10.
Authority
Addiction
.
- .
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All
men would be tyrants
if they could.
- Abigail
Adams
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Chapter
7. The Divine Right of
Kings
- Do you agree or
disagree with the author's
interpretation of the biblical "Fall of
Man" as a myth for the rise of male
rule? Why or why
not?
.
- If Abraham wed
his half-sister and Isaac married his
first cousin, did that inbreeding taint
the "royal" line of Jacob, David and
Jesus?
Explain your reasoning.
.
- Does the tale of
Abraham's sons (Isaac and Ishmael)
inheriting a claim to the "Promised
Land" explain today's Middle East
conflict?
Why or why not?
.
- Discuss the
Israelites giving up the rule of law
for rule by a king. How did that choice
change the direction of world history?
.
- Paine claimed
people have ignored the Scriptures'
protest against monarchial government.
What's your response to his
comment?
.
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It
is not birth but virtue
that makes the difference.
- Voltaire
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Chapter
8. Hereditary Succession
- Paine
wrote that the first kings came into
power either by lottery, election or
usurpation. Are there any other
options? If so, what?
.
- Discuss
the idea that Jesus was an enlightened
man, a "spiritual evolutionary," who's
been turned into "an opiate of the
masses." How does this idea affect your
own beliefs?
.
- Discuss
the schism of Islam into Shiites and
Sunnis in a dispute over election of
Mohammed's successor. Does Islamic
tradition really support the election
of both religious and civil leaders?
Why?
.
- How
has deism influenced our modern world?
When deist Tom Paine cited Scriptures
to make his case, was he being a
hypocrite? Why?
.
- Do
monarchies still have a legitimate
place in the world? Explain why.
.
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Whenever
a separation is made between
liberty
and justice, neither, in my
opinion, is safe.
- Edmund
Burke
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Chapter
9. Inherited Wealth
- Does inherited
wealth help or hurt those who inherit
it? Explain your
reasoning?
.
- What does using
"prosperity for posterity" mean to you?
Please give
examples.
.
- Discuss the idea
of "Affluenza." Do you suffer from
chronic debting, under-earning or
over-spending? If so, how do such
habits affect you?
.
- Do you agree
that Adam Smith was a social
progressive? Why or why not? Do you
agree that capitalism has ignored
Smith's sympathetic moral compass?
.
- Discuss
Jefferson's worries about the power of
corporations. Are corporations the
modern hereditary kings in our world?
Why or why not?
.
- Does the name of
democracy still fit modern
governments? In fact, can they rightly
be called republics? Explain
your reasoning.
.
- Discuss the
traditions of male dominance that men
inherit from their fathers. How have
male myths affected your own life?
Please give
examples.
.
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Man
is born free, and
everywhere he is in chains.
- Jean Jacques
Rousseau
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Chapter
10. Authority Addiction
- Discuss
the theory of generational authority
addiction as a cause of our world's
problems. Do you suffer from authority
addiction? How does it make your life
unmanageable?
.
- If
humans ideally progress from
dependence to
independence to
interdependence, how and why do
we get stuck in codependence?
.
- What
are the various social roles enacted
compulsively by authority addicts. Have
you enacted any of these roles? With
what results?
.
- To
counter authority addiction, the author
endorses the "self help" recovery
movement. Have you faced your own
addictive habits? How has your thinking
and behavior changed as a result?
.
- Would
you agree that authority addiction
explains our social and political
tendency to sacrifice liberty for
security? Why or why not?
.
- How
can we counter the cultural legacy of
authority addiction?.
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