Empathy

[BlinkThink]

I do not know how many of you are still in school, however I wanted to share a personal anecdote with you guys to see if anyone has experienced this or what they think

On Monday, I was assigned to do a current event about anything thats is affecting us. Some students shouted out current events such as the Iraq war, terrorism, and pesidential candidates. Innately, I did my assignment on the ignorance (or denial of acknowledging our ignorance) and the “dumbing down” of this country (generally speaking, of course.)

I began by mentioning that we do not acquire true freedom. You see, the United States promotes it’s “freedom” like a corporation advertises it’s product, and yet, there are still people that are dumbfounded when immigrants continue to migrate into the U.S. Many psychologists and sociologists believe free will is an illusion that we WANT to believe is true. However, thru Operant Conditioning and the Observational Learning Theory, it has become clear that our deicisions such as whether we are attracted to Red or Blue, or to the degree that we are racially prejudiced is already decided for us.

By now the class started to giggle and rudely object the belief that their actions are already prearranged.

I moved on to media manipulation of the vulnerable adolescent mind, as can be seen in Myspace, Facebook, and the such. As individualism declines, and the dependency on attention from others excels, the average teenager now uses music, clothing, and style, as a tool for attention.

I was bombarded with ridicule and called a “hippie” (which doesn’t offend me at all) for criticizing the lack of desire for adventure and creativity of these people.

I for one, do not mind remaining quiet and observing my environment in a roudy atmosphere. People would feel bad for because of my tendency not to interact, however I pity them for living in a myopic state of mind.

I once read that many philosophers such as Virginia Woolfe were depressed. If this is true can anyone verify?

Bottom line, the students and teachers didn’t understand what I was trying to convey to them, and I’ m sure many of you are familiar with that feeling. Is it the way they think? Or my inarticulate way of expressing my opinions? Would anyone like to extend to this?

[Philihp]

Good post.

There is no true free will just like there’s no chance or randomness in the universe. We just use those words so we can appear to be more of an individual. Corporations use it to flame our greed so we’d consume more.

Virginia wolfe was a good observer of human character. Yes she was depressed a lot and she ended up killing herself. People that are depressed think too much.

People don’t want to hear anything negative, especially about themselves. It’s a self-defense mechanism. They ignore negative things so they can be more positive.

[Carleas]

I think that the problem is their way of thinking, but it is a serious worry that your way is the same. If what you said is true, who’s pulling your strings? If there isn’t free will, criticizing someone for being part of the herd is absurd, both because they can’t help it, and because your criticism is equally programmed.

Even given what you reported on, perhaps their ridicule is well placed. Culture is expedient. It selects against trouble-makers and rabble-rousers, and provides an easy common background in which people can work productively. If you value productivity and progress over idividuality as an end-in-itself, the connection you make may be true while the moral judgement you attach to it is inappropriate. At the very least, it’s important to acknowledge that there are positives to the position you reject, and to show that they do not outweigh the negatives.

[nano-bug]

Its the reason i come to ILP, because i cant get thru to anyone in the real world.

I went back to college after 10 years and i couldn’t believe how uniterested the youngsters were in learning. They just wanted to class to end. They just wanted the piece of paper degree.

Forgive me if i raised a hand to ask a question.

[stephenstillwell]

@BlinkThink

I began by mentioning that we do not acquire true freedom. You see, the United States promotes it’s “freedom” like a corporation advertises it’s product, and yet, there are still people that are dumbfounded when immigrants continue to migrate into the U.S. Many psychologists and sociologists believe free will is an illusion that we WANT to believe is true. However, thru Operant Conditioning and the Observational Learning Theory, it has become clear that our deicisions such as whether we are attracted to Red or Blue, or to the degree that we are racially prejudiced is already decided for us.

I moved on to media manipulation of the vulnerable adolescent mind, as can be seen in Myspace, Facebook, and the such. As individualism declines, and the dependency on attention from others excels, the average teenager now uses music, clothing, and style, as a tool for attention.

I for one, do not mind remaining quiet and observing my environment in a roudy atmosphere. People would feel bad for because of my tendency not to interact, however I pity them for living in a myopic state of mind.

The only true freedom is acquired by the sociopath, until someone makes them stop.

Observational learning is dependent on how the observer reacts to a model, and observed cosequences of the models actions. This will vary based on the attitude, interest, empathy,…etc of the observer, and can not be predetermined for a specific observer with any real accuracy.

Operant Conditioning is a bunch of behaviorist dicks removing any and all options and declaring that they can predict an outcome, DUH.

An individual who progresses, learns, changes, will necessarily change their opinions and preferences.

A person attracted to red is said to be at base level of need because they have not acheived fulfillment of a higher need, like acceptance, so they devote their energies to acquiring what they know they can get.

Skinner is to Maslow as Eichmann is to the Dhalai Lama