10. Meal Mutiny

Linguistic laziness

Objective: To explore all the ways we can communicate without talking!

Duration: 30 to 75 minutes

Material:

An open-minded family

Instructions:

Prepare the revolution. To revolutionize your meal tonight, suggest that your family eat your meal... without talking! Indeed, in this scenario, you are all suddenly suffering from a ludicrously lackadaisical linguistic laziness. Say what? You are too lazy to use your tongues, people! As a consequence, you're only allowed to communicate without words. If your family members don't want to play along, that's fine. You yourself can still communicate without talking during the meal to see what it’s like!
Lead the revolution. Enjoy your meal without talking by taking the time to observe how it feels.
Think about the revolution. At the end of this revolutionary meal, you can get back to talking and discuss the following questions: What changes occur when you're too lazy to talk? What exactly does it mean to be lazy? Is laziness always a bad thing? What would the world look like if everyone were lazy?

...

Bonus: If you're still ravenous, here are some more juicy questions for your family to enjoy munching on: Do we communicate less well without talking? Can we do without language? Is it possible to think without words? Why or why not? Maybe the language we speak influences our way of thinking... but can language be dangerous?

Can we get by without talking?

Tricks for tots: To make the most out of this game, you can try to do the following five things, still without talking:

Asking for something on the table to be passed to you...
Asking for something that is in another room to be passed to you (without getting up)
Telling others about something that happened to you today...
Asking someone what they think about something...
Explaining what you'd like to do tomorrow…

Tips for teens: Though thinking about a single concept is already quite an adventure, it’s often by intersecting several concepts that we find the best ideas! As a group, connect laziness to boredom by asking yourself the following questions: If we're bored, is it because we're lazy? Can boredom provide a solution to laziness? Are lazy people necessarily boring? Why or why not?

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