In my first post, I called this “a forum.” That brought to mind this oily comment from Bob “I helped drive the College to its doom” Devine:
Does anyone recall that in the late 80s and through the 90s that the regular Friday Forum brought together a wide diversity of speakers and perspectives in a format of moderated respectful dialogue. Those fora were attended by…
I remember the Friday Forums: a milquetoasty nonevent where a few stragglers sat around watching People Who Had Opinions hold forth on what the Sunday New York Times told us were the most important issues of the day. Luckily, the Times also helped with the guest list by defining what the various “sides” of “the” debate were.
To this day I can’t figure out how people have convinced themselves that bringing together any two yoyos who disagree is the same as the blinking Phaedrus.
Really, the only thing worse than the Friday Forums is watching Bob Devine nod sententiously while pretending the plural of “forum” is “fora”–which it is, if you’re talking about ancient Greek marketplaces.
