The Season

Join The Asteroids Club

Be a hero.

Imagine there is a giant asteroid heading to earth, expected to destroy life as we know it. There’s no question we’d stop the incessant partisan bickering and do everything within our power to deflect the asteroid. Right? Well, we’re here to tell you… there are asteroids headed directly at us.

The bad news: In reality, there are many such “asteroids” headed directly at us with the power to destroy our lives as we know them – and the longer we wait to recognize them, the harder they’ll be to “deflect.” Unfortunately, with the rise of tribal partisanship each asteroid arrives wrapped in a special magnetic field that allows only about half of us to see it.

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While that half points, screams and jumps up and down to warn others, earthlings on the other side of the aisle seem to simply shrug… they’ve got their own asteroids to worry about. And as we fight about which asteroid is real, they’re all coming closer by the day and we’re paralyzed to act.

The good news: We’d like to invite you to join “The Asteroids Club,” a state of mind that values long-term thinking, listening and an ounce of prevention (ok to be realistic it’s probably more than an ounce by now). In the Asteroids Club, we see that the problems in our future are ultimately common threats, whether we like that or not. We’ve even got a club motto: “I’ll help you deflect your asteroid if you help me deflect mine.”

Graphics credit: Jayne Riew

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The bad news: In reality, there are many such “asteroids” headed directly at us with the power to destroy our lives as we know them – and the longer we wait to recognize them, the harder they’ll be to “deflect.” Unfortunately, with the rise of tribal partisanship each asteroid arrives wrapped in a special magnetic field that allows only about half of us to see it. While that half points, screams and jumps up and down to warn others, earthlings on the other side of the aisle seem to simply shrug… they’ve got their own asteroids to worry about. And as we fight about which asteroid is real, they’re all coming closer by the day and we’re paralyzed to act.

The good news: We’d like to invite you to join “The Asteroids Club,” a state of mind that values long-term thinking, listening and an ounce of prevention (ok to be realistic it’s probably more than an ounce by now). In the Asteroids Club, we see that the problems in our future are ultimately common threats, whether we like that or not. We’ve even got a club motto: “I’ll help you deflect your asteroid if you help me deflect mine.”

Past 2013-14 Events

Apr 8, 2014

Seven Deadly Sins

Featuring Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Lucy Morgan
Jan 14, 2014

FEARS

Where not everyone shares your pain
Fall Dinner at the Square

American Dream Lost

More Inequality, Less Marriage. Failing Institutions, Forgotten Community. It’s been awhile since marriage and 2.5 kids in a suburban home behind a white picket fence told the real story of America. But is the American Dream Lost? If so, can we get it back?

Winter Dinner at The Square

FEARS: Where everyone knows your name?

FEARS: Where every study grows your pain. Where Half the People Get the Blame. Where Not Everybody Shares Your Pain. What if man made climate change is real AND the social welfare state is doomed? We might just need a beer.

Spring Dinner at the Square

Seven Deadly Sins

Why don’t liberals seem to care about moral behavior and the moral communities that support it? Why don’t conservatives seem to care about rampant public corruption at the heart of our political system?

In partnership with Dr. Jonathan Haidt

Village Square launches “The Asteroids Club”

The Asteroids Club is a new approach to communicating about the civic problems that polarize – and paralyze – us. (You know, the ones which are hurtling toward us through space and time at an alarming rate of speed.) The concept grew out of the field of moral psychology, which tells us that people are more likely to find common ground when they unite to fight common threats. Like any good club, we’ve got a motto: “I’ll help you deflect your asteroid, if you help me deflect mine.”