Standford Prison Experiment

This experiment is crazy. The way the people go into these roles and accept them just blows my mind. The guards surprised me the most, the way they decided that they were going to punish the prisoners the way they did. I wonder if the prisoners would act the same now a days. At the time students were all about rebelling and sticking to the man. They believed that they had to fight for what they thought was right and get it done no matter the situation. They way one of the went on a hunger strike in order to make the guards angry just makes me wonder how long he would have done this if it actually last the 14 days.

I feel like students now a days would act different that there wouldn’t be as much rebellion then they saw. I know if I was in this experiment I would do what they said and wouldn’t question it. I mean some of the prisoners did, they didn’t want to suffer for someone else’s problems but if they were to act on their own to get what they want I think they would have.

The way the way that they had the guards cover their eyes, makes me think of War. In War they teach the men to shot at the enemy. The enemy soon becomes non-human in a way. These men wouldn’t kill a decent human being, they only kill the bad ones who don’t deserve to live. This is how the prisoners saw the guards, they were the authority that ruled their life, they were not actually humans, because really humans wouldn’t act this way. It is so easy for us to de-humanize something. As soon as we see something that can’t be done as a human it just make us think that there is no way and actual person can act this way. This has been going on for years, all throughout history nations have been de-humanizing people in order to make things seem ok to do. Take the Taliban, they aren’t human because they don’t see the world we see and they are trying to kill us, so it is ok to get rid of them because they don’t have the same values Americans have.

When you see the guards acting the way they do, it makes me think, does one have to be insane to commit a violent act? Some of the guards had no problem harassing the prisoners. They seems like they enjoyed having all the power and being able to rule over a less being. But when they are asked about it they say it was their role to act mean. I think that there is something in you that makes you want to act that way, so form on insanity that makes it alright for the person to act crude. Even if the guard say they had to be that way, it was still their choice deep down to act on it. One guard didn’t think it was right and volunteered to get food and be the one to get things. He still could have put a stop to the violence but he would rather just look past it and pretend it not happening. He didn’t choose to act insane and harassed
the prisoners, deep down he knew it was wrong and acted on that feeling, were most of the other guards didn’t act on that feel.

 

Columbine Mood Shifts

Columbine is an intense book, looks of facts are given while telling what is happening during the massacre and the time after. There are mood shifts were the author will give you a piece of information that makes you think about the situation differently. When the author does this it make you stop and think what you would do if you were put in this situation. It also can reassure you that the person that they are talking about is ok, because they had to interview them to get the full detail.

In the book, page 138-158 there are a lot of shifts. It starts at the beginning of chapter 26, with Dave’s daughters talking about how they heard through people who it was their dad that was shot and that he was just laying in the school. They were so angry that no one helped or tried to get their father out. (pg138) When I was reading this I was getting mad too, how could they leave a man just laying there bleeding to death. Then the author switched to what actually happened and what witnesses saw. Dave was shot and was carried by his fellow teachers to science room 3, where a student named Aaron, did first aid procedures on Dave. Aaron would have stayed with Dave the whole time if the SWAT team didn’t make him leave. This just makes glad to know that Dave wasn’t just left to die, he was helped and had people there trying to save him.

The SWAT team knew that there was a man severely wounded in the building and they told people in that room to hang a red t-shirt on the door outside so that they could find them easier. This sounds like a good idea, because the SWAT team is telling them to do it, but then the author points out that the shirt could have been a sign to the killers as well telling them people were in that room. (pg141) If the author didn’t mention that I would have never thought that Dylan or Eric could have seen the shirt and gone in a killed everyone in that room. Sometimes people don’t think of the risks when they are trying to save a person’s life.

Another shift is when they talk about the SWAT team going in to the school finally. (pg 145) People are all mad that they waited so long and that if they had gone in earlier than more people could have been saved. The public was frustrated and I was too, I am used to the SWAT team going to situation right away, they never hesitate. But then the author gives you the SWATs prospective and that made me realize they did what was right. They didn’t know what they were getting into, and once they did get in they couldn’t talk or hear because of the alarm system. They couldn’t go just anywhere because they didn’t know what the killers look liked. They acted the way they were trained, get out as many people without putting them in harm by taking other people who were hurt badly.

The author is good at making sure that you try to understand how everyone was feeling that day. From every perspective you will get what went on that day. The author will have you feeling one way and the boom make you feel another way and reconsider your opinion with new information. The mood shifts make you realize that all the madness happening during this day effected people very differently.

 

How do you feel about media covering war?

Media has been an influence when it comes to dealing with war. In the 1950’s we had the cold war where they would inform american citizens how to prepare for bombing. And show commercials on how to support your country. In the 60’s people watched Vietnam on tv, there was no escaping it. Ever night on the new they would show what was happening and give out facts about how many soldiers were killed that day. There was no mystery on what was happening over there and Americans had mixed feelings about seeing these horrific images.

Some people hated it and protested against the government, and when the men got home from the war they were not welcomed home or were they treated right. This I think is because of the way media portrays war. They showed clips of what the solders were doing and it was not a pleasant sight to see. The media made the war seem to real and showed people who were not in the same mind-set what their son or husband was doing over seas. Media made the war worse.

In Afghanistan and Iraq the media is over there even more, and it is showed on tv way more than Vietnam was. The videos they show are awful, they show men getting shot at and people who are the enemy blowing up street and killing innocent people. This is all we see from the war, we don’t see all the good things that are happening and our ideas of war are manipulated by the media.

While reading the book War, I found out that what they show in the media is what really happens but they leave out the parts where they talk to the elders trying to make peace. They also don’t show the bonds these men and women make while they are away, they just show them getting shot at or shooting at the enemy. If they showed more of the good things, then I feel that people would be more willing to support our troops. This is the one of the first wars that people aren’t really trying to help the troops. In World War II people would give their things away to help the troop and would really root for them when they arrived home. Now its just the solders family who greets them and it is not as big of a deal when they come home.

Soldiers work hard for what they do and are under appreciated if the media showed the people who the troops need more support and only showed the good parts then people would be more accepting of war and would be happy that America is helping the world. So I think media could be a good thing if they showed the progress that war makes and not focus on what the negative effects are. People want to hear about the happy things that happen during war not who was killed and what bombs had gone off that day. If the media did this then I feel that it could be more inspiring more people to help support the war.

Is war ever just?

As much as I would love to say that we don’t need war in this world, it’s not true. Man kind can never and will never be able to get along. World peace will never happen because someone will find a problem that they have to fix. Over the history of humans there has been war, wether it be in a country or world-wide, we as a species feel the need to fight.

War is an awful thing and just because we have doesn’t mean that its a good thing at all. War is where people kill other people in order to claim or solve a problem. It is very violent and a lot of innocent people die each year from war. But people join the army and other forces of military because it is such a honor to serve your country and protect it from the world’s evil.

If a person kills another human while in war does this make it murder or just part of war? The government doesn’t arrest people for killing other people when it comes to war but if it happens anywhere else its the worst crime a person can commit. Why is it that when at war its okay to kill people? Maybe because it is to protect our country and that the people who do get killed during war could have harmed us in the long run. However we are seen as heros if we kill someone who is the on the enemy’s side, but if they kill us then they are awful people who shouldn’t exist on this planet.

Murder is murder no matter the circumstances and all the people who have killed someone in war suffer from it. They are never the same and can never un-see what they experienced while over seas. We as a society shouldn’t be putting young men and women to see these awful things and we should try to make war seem bad. In all the commercials out there for the military it shows strong men and women fighting for the country but they leave out all the bad, they don’t show people what it will be like to kill someone or to see a dead body. They can’t prepare someone to enter a place with the open fire, being shot at from every direction. They need to make war some thing scary enough were people don’t want to go in to it.

War is an awful thing but it is necessary for the survival of the world. People need to fight over something and if it gets resolved then there will be a new issue that comes up. When war is happening people feel the need to join and help their country fight for the greater good, however I don’t think that it is right to solve conflicts by going around killing people. How is something truly accomplished if so many innocent people are lost in the process. War is not just but it needs to happen for the world to go round.

 

When is the line between brilliance and insanity at its vaguest?

There is a thin line between brilliance and insanity. For most people someone is considered insane until his or her plan works. This line is at its vaguest when someone completes something that no one thought was possible. Take Albert Einstein for example, people think he is absolutely crazy but also one of the smartest men to live.  He once said ” A question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I or are the others crazy?” This just goes to show that he knew that everyone was crazy but until they proved what they believed in then they couldn’t be called brilliant.

There are a lot of people who have been called insane or crazy of the years, the Wright brothers, who invented the first successful airplane, Thomas Edison, the inventor of the light bulb, and many, many other inventors. All of them were considered insane until they proved that their ideas were important and made them come to life. If everyone went about this way of thinking then I don’t think we would have as many insane people in our world.

When people think of an insane person, what do they think of? I think of someone who is locked up in a mental hospital and can’t function in the normal world. But who is to say that these people are not brilliant.  Maybe their ideas are great ones that need to be worked on so that they can come true. The only way for people to know who is insane or brilliant is to wait for them to make their ideas a reality.

So as a society we could call anybody insane. Every decision you make could be considered an act of insanity or brilliance. When someone is getting married does that make them crazy for saying yes or does it make them smart? Either one could be argued as being the right answer but really its the person who makes the decision who decides whether they are insane or brilliant  It’s the person who has the decision or idea that has the final say if they are brilliant or insane.

Some of the best speakers in the world have said some insane things, but because they are powerful they are taken as brilliant saying. Here are some examples:

“I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.”
~Winston Churchill

“No excellent soul is exempt from a mixture of madness.”  ~Aristotle

When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained. ~Mark Twain

All these people are known for being brilliant and powerful in the history of the world. They all talk about madness, insanity, being crazy but because all of them are respected men who proven to the people that they have a brilliant mind but they all have a hint of insanity that they could cross over at any moment. The line of brilliance and insanity is most vaguely when someone speaks up for their idea and proves that it can and will happen.

 

Is suicide ever justifiable?

Suicide is never justifiable. If a person has to take their own life then they are just trying to find an easy way to deal with their problem. I believe that it is one of the most selfish things a person can do. When they are dead they leave all the people who loved them to deal with their loss that never should have happened.

In the book Its Kind of a Funny Story, a teenager named Craig is depressed and considers taking his own life by jumping off the Brooklyn Bridge. Thankfully he calls the suicide hotline where he is told to go to the hospital. He makes a very good decision by doing this because then he isn’t leaving is friends and family to mourn the loss of him. Even though he is depressed, he realizes that he needs help and goes to find it. I think this makes him very brave and sane.

Teen suicide is an issue that is being talked about more and more. Schools and social media are now showing teens that there is hope for them and other ways to handle their problems then to take their own life. This website,http://www.teensuicide.us/, has all someone needs to know about suicide. They provide statistics, research, and how to prevent suicide. There are many teens that have chosen to take their life’s thinking there was no other way to turn. We need to talk to them about all the other ways they can deal with the troubles they are having and let them know that suicide is not the answer before its to late.

So does someone have to be insane to commit such an act? I don’t think so, I think they just don’t know where to turn or what to do. If a person tries to commit suicide and then doesn’t succeed in doing it, then tries again, I think they are insane. I think this because they went through all the people coming to them telling them who much they cared about them, how happy every body is that they are still they alive, and how they are going to do anything that has to be done so this person can get the help they need. If after all that they still want to kill themselves then they are crazy and extremely selfish. People don’t realize what others need from us and if we aren’t there for them, then that’s our fault not theirs. Even if a person doesn’t know where to turn and thinks the only way to solve the problem is to kill themselves, then they need to step back and look at all the people who are around them. If they do this then they will see that there are people who love them and want them to get the help they need. There is always a person there to get you through tough times. So I think suicide is never justifiable because then you are just giving up and not fighting for yourself or the people who love you.

Do you think the world is more or less sane than during your grandparents teen years?

I feel that the world I grew up in is a lot saner then when my grandparents were growing up. They had to deal with teenage problems without being to express themselves as openly as people do today. They grew up in a time period that if you had a problem you had to suck it up and deal with it your self. In today’s world teenagers can talk about their feelings and get help when they need it. We are taught now from a young age to seek help if we have a problem but back in the day this wasn’t the case.

My grandparents grew up in the 50’s where everyone had a perfect life and everyone was always happy. I wonder though if they were as happy as they seemed or if it was just a face you had to put on every morning. Girls were taught that they needed to always look amazing or they would never find a husband and boys were taught to be hard workers so they could provide for their wife and family. The thought of having to pretend that everything was perfect must have driven people mad. My grandma for example knew that her friend’s mother was being beaten by her husband. She couldn’t tell anyone because a women never disrespect a man and his rules. Still to this day my grandma holds her self to the same standard she did in her teenage years. She keeps to herself and always in the kitchen doing her “duties as a good wife”

The world I grew up in was very different. I could do whatever I wanted and could express myself in many way. I believe this is a very healthy thing for people to do. If we can’t express ourselves then we keep everything bottled up inside until one day BOOM we explode. In today’s world people are less likely to hide their emotions because as a society we have learned that people can go insane if they all have to act and feel the same way. I could never live in the 50’s like my grandparents without freaking out.

Also during this time our nation was having a cold war. There where nuclear threats happening all the time. The government instructed people to build a bomb shelter in their backyard to protect themselves from the nuclear bombs, children should practice drills that included ducking under your desk and hiding your face. The U.S was very tense, something bad could happen at any moment and time. This wasn’t the only thing the government was frightening people with, they were also telling people about communism. The awful people who were going to invade the U.S and control the people. The worst part about this is that people couldn’t show that they were scared, they had to remain calm and act like everything was normal.

We are in a war right now, but it is hardly as scary as being threatened each day that our nation would be attacked. People know that our government are keeping things over seas and making sure the U.S is safe. There is more protection than in the 50’s so people don’t have to worry as much when it comes to their safety. If something does go bad, then there is so much technology now that people can be updated right away. We don’t have to wait for the evening new to tell us what tragic event happened, we can look it up on our phones and not have to question what might being happening around the world.