How Identity Causes Problems in Our Society

Scott Wakefield

11 a.m., March 5, 2023

Join the Humanist Forum, in person OR on Zoom.

This Sunday, Humanist Community board member Scott Wakefield will speak to us in Mountain View about How Identity Causes Problems in Our Society.

Have you had an experience like this? When discussing a social topic with someone, you find them merely repeating things they have heard from a group that they strongly identify with. They are not interested in seeing, let alone discussing, your point of view.
Strong identity with a group symbolizing power can be worrisome. After all, democracy often caters to the groups that “play the games right”. While these groups may not have a big membership, they certainly have a big political clout, enough to get politicians to take their sides.
Does a person’s social identity interfere with rational, objective thinking?
Is this more likely to occur when the group is more powerful?
Do others behave this way? Do I?

About our speaker
Scott first moved to The Valley of Heart’s Delight in 48 years ago. (You may know it by its other name, Santa Clara Valley.) He had already heard of Sunnyvale as the home of the phone hacker Cap’n Crunch. For several years, Scott served on the Research Advisory Committee of the Cystic Fibrosis Research Institute in Palo Alto. For the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic, Scott volunteered as a Case Investigator for the Santa Clara County Public Health Department. Scott’s sons live in Davis and Seattle.

23/03/05 Scott Wakefield from Humanist Community-SiliconValley on Vimeo.

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You can attend our forums in person with fellow humanists in the Maple Room of the Mountain View Community Center at 201 S Rengstorff Ave, Mountain View. Lunch will be served after the forum. We request a $10 donation for lunch.
If you attend in person, COVID protocols will be followed. Vaccinations and masks will be required. If you have symptoms that may be COVID, kindly attend on Zoom (see below).

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Also, we will continue to present our forums on Zoom. To join and be able to ask questions and make comments, click here.
No password is needed — our host will admit you from the waiting room. Joining the meeting via the link will download and install the Zoom app on your desktop computer (if it’s not already installed), and then take you to the meeting. You can also install the Zoom app on your computer or smart phone, and then enter:
Meeting ID: 816 5389 0712
Passcode: 250634

You can also call any of the following phone numbers and then enter the above Meeting ID and the Passcode in order to join the meeting by phone.
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
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You can find international phone numbers to call here.

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