Test All Things

Who’s My Neighbor?

Dane County leaders regularly tell us just how we should love our neighbor. But who do they mean when they use the term "neighbor," and what does their definition of love actually accomplish? In this episode of Test All Things, We'll consider a time-tested 1st-Century parable that defines what it looks like to be a true neighbor, then dig deeper to understand who our neighbor actually is. Only in providing ourselves with solid definitions of the terms "neighbor" and "love" can we accurately determine how well Dane County leadership's version stacks up...and whether we should follow it.
 
SHOW NOTES:
Luke 10:25-37
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+10&version=NIV
Matthew 5:43-47 (accidentally referenced as Matthew 5:44-48)
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+5&version=NIV 
 
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Social Cartels

Do you find yourself checking your thoughts, attitudes, beliefs, or actions because you're afraid of what other people in Dane County will think of you? If so, you're likely experiencing the impacts of a social cartel. What is a social cartel? How does it operate? And what makes us susceptible to the pressures they impose? Host Aletheia offers some possible definitions and answers. Recognizing the existence of social cartels and how we become subject to them is the first step in breaking free of them.
Show Notes: 
A working definition of the term social cartel:
cooperation between people or groups to mediate and direct public expression of thoughts, attitudes, beliefs, and actions, in order to advance a moral code that masks not only an agenda of control but also one or more aspects of objective truth.
Mechanisms for reinforcing the agendas of social cartels include virtue signaling, public shaming, public labeling or classification, tribalism, isolation, and cancelation.
A helpful discussion of social cartels in relationship to the history of racism in the U.S.:
http://lorenzo-thinkingoutaloud.blogspot.com/2015/06/cause-and-context.html
Full text of John Taylor Gatto's 1991 speech, "The Seven-Lesson Schoolteacher":
https://www.wanderings.net/notebook/Main/SevenLessonsTaughtInSchool
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Undividing Dane County

Dane County, WI, promotes itself as a friendly and tolerant place. Yet division reigns supreme here. However you identify politically, step out of line, and you're likely to be attacked, depersonalized and told you're "not a good neighbor." How do we go about infusing real relationship and neighborliness into a county that desperately needs it. In this brief, introductory episode, host Aletheia discusses a simple way to establish meaningful dialogue by asking honest, friendly questions. 
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