I have always thought of meetings—particularly well-facilitated events—as being highly educational. But writer Suzanne Stallings has a more paranoid view: "After having seen the movie, The Stepford Wives, I understand what has happened to most of our elected officials and planners. Their brains have been programmed to instill bizarre and illogical ‘visions.’ They attend conferences and meetings where a ‘facilitator’ is employed to perform the programming."
Sure, sometimes the meeting leader seems to be preaching to the choir, but good meetings facilitate more communication, brainstorming, and problem-solving—not Stepford-like blind conformance to someone’s idea of ideal. While I haven’t been to any major government meetings, I can’t imagine they hand out Soma at the door and brainwash officials into some bizarre Brave New World vision. Kind of interesting that this point of view is out there, though.
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