June 3, 2013: A [t]Raining Day
Small Pri..
READ ME
(This post has been written with the expectation that there are very few people who will easily 'get it' all on the fist read through. Contained within are a
number of links, each intended to supplement the post in providing specific
examples of what is being introduced and to show what connections are being made. Allowing
for the videos, the only thing required on the part of the reader is roughly
ten minutes of valued time for the
first look. Throughout the post, there are a number of questions you may choose to answer. This is not an empathy test; it's not even a test. Everything after ***** is extra. There are no 'Easter eggs' hidden in this post - not in a technical sense.)
You are under no obligation to solve or unlock this post. However, you may wish to read the directions first.
Directions (optional):
1. Read through without clicking, except where there is an asterisk *.
2. Read through again, clicking where supplemental information is necessary.
3. Leave a comment.
(Addendum: Comments will be responded to in order received with individual consideration applied to each.)
PART I
Just recently, a now-more-famous-than-ever politician from Osaka had said some things that have stirred up a bit of controversy. Quite frankly, I'm pleased to see that people are questioning their perception of where they live.
And...
In the context of living in Japan, I was asking myself, “What would
make a person not simply ‘go with the flow’ and violate established social
code?”
Going with the flow... thinking about the consequences of going with the flow and understanding what that entails had me curious.
First, I went to look at
Ki11010gy.
And saw:
“Grossman further argues
that violence in television, movies and video games contributes to real-life
violence by a similar process of training and desensitization.”
The video is something I'd seen seven days prior to June 3, while learning how to pack stuff. This is one of the coolest instructional videos I've come across on the Web so far. Schr03d3r does an excellent job at presentation. If only everyone was able to give instruction the way he does, there would be a lot less mess to deal with. The video is roughly six minutes long. If you are already familiar with the process, please skip ahead to the 5:30 mark.
Question #1.
Can you see how the Grossman quote is
related to the video…can you make that connection?
a. yes
b. no
After reading what is quoted
above and making the connection (1.a) I continued to learn about the M!1gr4m experiment. And I thought to myself, “Oh, yeah…that one. The one most of us
have heard about and perhaps even participate in to varying degrees.”
 |
| "Morality of ELTs" |
(I'm kind of nervous when people ask me questions.)
For some reason, I began
thinking about my recent reintroduction to probabilities through the kind
wisdom found in Joker’s Three Door Monty problem.
TO READ JOKER'S POST
CLICK HERE *
(Which game show? Which studio? Why would I be in a studio on a game show?)
You see, regardless of where or
when the M!1gr4m experiments allegedly take place, roughly 2/3’s of the
subjects are “prepared to inflict fatal voltages” - something that is noted as
being “remarkably constant”.
Question #2.
Can you see a connection
between Joker’s lesson and the shock experiments?
a. yes
b. no
Regardless of your answer,
what do you think it could be?
(Yes, there is a specific
answer. However, all attempts are appreciated; you may be more attuned to this
than I am.)
PART II
Related to the M!1gr4m
experiments are the H0f1!n hospital experiments.
M!1gr4m’s experiments were
controlled. No one was being shocked. However, in this case, the tests were
carried out in the real world, with real people in very real situations.
“What,” might a person ask,
“is the mechanism for this…how the f*#@k does this happen?[!]”
Back to those three doors
now, one of which has already been opened for you.
FOR JOKER'S SOLUTION
CLICK HERE *
Question #3.
Even after knowing or
understanding what the odds or probabilities are, after having had them
explained to you…do you still want to stick with the first door you chose?
a. yes
b. no
The A$ch conformity experiments all seem to boil down to a bit in the last paragraph :
Which only really sunk in
after I’d read the whole article.
All I had to do was replace
this
 |
| (I think of these as the 'four seasons' of Japan) |
with this
Learning and thinking here at this point
is very seldom, from my experience, ever done in an
environment where normative influences are not present.
Normative influences…when an
individual finds time to do her or his own thinking outside the box and submit
their ideas anonymously, they are “not subject to social punishment or reward
on the basis of their responses”.
Question #4.
 |
What color is the circle on the right?
a. red
b. green
c. blue
d. yellow
Question #5.
Are you sure you do not want
to change your answer?
a. yes
b. no
You may click here later.
Wikipedia’s information on
the conformity experiments are
very helpful. It’s much easier
than I thought and very similar to how I remember one of my own special 'sessions'. I actually remember the specific answer I chose. And my response was predictable.
I had trusted one of ‘them’.
Ironically, for me, it remains a moral
question.
PART III
Moral Disengagement
If you look it up on
Wikipedia, you will find the quote attributed to Voltaire.
“Those who can make you
believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities”
Of the following list, I am
only concerned with the first one in how it applies to the current situation.
- Reconstructing immoral conduct
- Displacing or diffusing responsibility
- Misrepresenting injurious consequences
- Dehumanizing the victim
Tentative Conclusion:
When I ask myself, “What
would make a person not simply ‘go with the flow’ and violate established
social code?” - I do not have a
clear answer for that. But I do know that I need to be aware of how authority
works especially when the odds are so heavily stacked in its favor. For the System, it doesn’t matter which
door you choose as long as you choose from the answers that are provided. Or that you are watching.
Looking forward to your responses.
Fortunately, reaction time is not a factor.
*****
After-math
Somebody really asked me about someone the other day.
And the person asking the question was surprised by my response, which caught him off guard.
This Father's Day is when I will post about a number of 'them'.
Thanks for reading.
PS
The local honu are returning.
Nice tie-in with question #2. I won't give away what should be obvious to those who've completely read through, but I will give you two big thumbs up for linking those.
ReplyDeleteThink about Kamikaze pilots, endless 'Banzai!' charges until all soldiers's lives are spent... then think about a pie-eating contest in, say, the US. I like blackberry, but you can have blueberry if you like. In Japan, they have shit-eating contests. Every day. He who eats the most shit and stays on his feet is the ideal contestant. If I give a blackberry pie to my Japanese friend and he shows up at the contest and proposes that the excrement be switched to the lovely dessert in his hands, hammers come out and my friend is down. Nobody saw anything and the contest continues...
Thank you for reading through and giving your response.
DeleteThe ‘tie-ins’ are something I have not been trained to notice. Only recently have I learned about RATS – those associate testes are something I do not like; that is not what I am attempting to do here.
The connections I make are the connections I have somehow always been able to make, but not in an attempt at cherry picking (I prefer blackberries – they are so sweet and do not require any sugar).
Connections and tie-ins.
I imagine the city is like a huge circus tent where select people are invited to see the best show on earth. The best seats are awarded to people who are good at the contest you have mentioned. And anyone who performs there has to be good because the highwire has no safety net; they have to be good enough to stay on their feet.
With people so focused on being such ideal contestants in order to get on those game shows, I do seriously wonder if people realize what they have in their hands.
Picking blackberries is one of the coolest things I’ve ever done. Thank you for helping me remember.
I would shoot you sooner than answer a post about shit that was written by shit people with degrees being honest with themselves and shining a light on their own shittiness for reasons I can only imagine.
ReplyDeleteYou do know...I know you do...that this is all bullshit. You know who needs a group to hide behind and wash their hands like Pontius Pilate?...other group members. Who's in the military? Group members..who tells them what to do? Sociopaths who can move a marker on a map and send 1,000 young boys to their death or bomb children and old folks by the tens of thousands and then go eat dinner and sleep like a baby...you think that's a skill Will? That's a personality type. You think a person that would use the IRS to crush opponents in a key state 2 years before an election and dwarf Watergate in the process is not one of them? Everyone running your life are the ones who would shock those fuckers to death because they could and it's not because they think they can excuse themselves it's because they are not like you. Applying your views to folks who don't share them is very very odd. Killing is so fucking not difficult Will it's a thing that could easily be a habit were it not for "morals" and "laws" and other bullshit that is applied when convenient.
I got a neck problem that is gonna get serviced soon and the irony is not lost on me or God or whoever is watching? Someone is cuz there is no way this is a coincidence.
Good post BTW it's a shame that most folks won't spend the time...I did and decided to go off the reservation because that's what I do best...being "me" I mean.
"You are...what you do everyday whether folks got an eye on you or not"
I typed that an hour b4 coming here in a rant post i may or may not publish.
I cannot fathom the energy it takes 98% of the humans who put on 2 faces without thought? The other 2% don't care or don't try or both....much fucking easier than the rest. The genetic flaw has not infected us all.
When I woke up and approved your comment this morning, I was only able to preview up to a little past halfway through the second paragraph. Which is to say that, I was mentally preparing to answer a question (the least rhetorical one) and then check to see if I was bleeding.
DeleteWhere I’m coming from is not quite ‘markers on maps’ territory, though I have been around people who I suspect fit the profile (other than one who ended up officially certified).
Experiments and people who conduct them…are not so much my concern. Though I do think about them. In particular, one individual who designed a special component, a kind of ‘dial’ – if you will – that allowed particular devices to do very specific things. He encouraged questioning. He encouraged questioning, even if it meant expulsion from ‘heaven’.
A lot of things happened literally a lifetime ago. What I realized I have been doing here is piecing things back together with whatever is lying around. Kind of like Neuromancer in a way – which is a book and a game (with a cool soundtrack - that’s where the pong video comes in, Biggie liked it and for some reason, I can see that he would).
Piecing things together and seeing how well they all fit.
“You are what you do everyday…” – this is something I am aware of, painfully sometimes. Those ‘two faces’, those masks, one of mine functioned a lot like what’s in one of the very first blog posts. I wore it for years.
‘I cannot fathom the energy it takes 98% of the humans who put on 2 faces without thought?’
Baby steps. We crawl before we can walk. Movements become habitual, second nature even. Kids start out with what seem like so many opportunities and are systematically, in an institutional sense, conditioned to respond to stimulus in a specific… a hell, ain’t it funny how what starts out using so little energy ends up requiring so much to sustain? More and more in the name of convenience.
In a way, I’ve taken myself out of the game and I’m now looking at the mask that I’ve made, maybe stripping it down before it goes on one final time when I seriously doubt anyone will need to ask that I sit still.
Thank you for being you.
I hope to see some Honu.....not dead in nets or choked on garbage...which comes from China apparently even though they are on the other side of the other ocean....weird tides round' here.
DeleteSoon.
DeleteDesensitization… maybe. I used to watch a lot of Operation on TLC and it grossed out the family. I never became a surgeon… but seeing insides still doesn’t bother me. UNLESS it is something breaking or being ripped apart for nefarious purposes (Men Behind the Sun) then it does pull at my moral strings. Maybe men more than women are desensitized by media? Not sure. Maybe it has something to do with the mindset of majority of people ? Not sure again.
ReplyDeleteAs for authority… maybe my ‘label’ (BPD) may have a ring of truth to it somewhere in there. But like astrology, that shit can ring true for anyone if viewed with the right set of glasses right? Never one to toe the line, I would not have been good candidate for the Milgram Experiments. Maybe I am just more in tune with my inner what’s wrong/right scale that most? Maybe most people don’t think things through and are eager to pass blame or give hallow apologies? Then there is that part in my brain that would want to ‘shock’ (oh so punny) those conducting the experiment by purposefully being hurtful. Then again I would be unable as my right/wrong scale would be imbalanced, too much imbalance for my mind to cope I would think (one would hope).
Not going with the flow was the most trying for me during my pre-teen to early 20’s. For friends I never had much because I was always the ‘nail’ that refused to be hammered down. Even now I can count my number of long-time friends on one hand… and they, for the most part are nails themselves.
I just learned about green being blue being green. www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxyO-uo3th4 first proverb is where I learned about green/blue just a few weeks ago. Unless I was color blind, that light is green. I almost wonder if (excuse my ignorance as I do not know Japanese) at some point the green light was seen by a person in authority who was color blind? (This color stuff reminds me of the old IQ tests that children were asked to say what was the color of milk. Poorer class folk that drank powdered milk would answer blue and get the answer wrong. So trending the idea that poor=low intellect. I digress.)
All this stuff about comfort women, back pedaling on statements, necessities during war in general. Maybe I am not the right gender to be giving an answer… but then again this goes much further than gender/cultural difference. This goes deep into human psyche and morality… no matter if it is a man, woman or child. Oh shit I just made a mess on your pristine, white-shag carpet!!! I know, let’s cover that stain up with some dye. (The stain is STILL there!) Sorry it took so long, read through once and then life happened. Just got around to the second read through plus the click-throughs. I enjoyed this post immensely. Thanks for taking the time and effort. Sorry for the novel of an answer.
Thank you for your time - totally appreciate the novel response. I do understand that you are busy (and then some) with a lot of stuff. The uncertainties of moving and getting a new addition to the family makes for good drama and comedy.My step-parent(s) piece is auto-loaded for that special day coming up this weekend. One of your posts kind of triggered something or ‘hit the switch’ so to speak.
DeleteOn to your comments, from top to bottom.
Desensitization, from what I understand for those who require it, can be systematically. I fall into that range of people who, depending on circumstances, might be squeamish at first. A paramedic in training once explained to me how it might be gross at first, but once you can identify what’s going on, doing the job is not so difficult. At least at the beginning. Fortunately for me, the only cadavers I’ve been exposed to have been appropriately graced with age. It’s natural for old people to die. What’s tragic is when it happens to children through no fault of their own. I kind of think of those baby turtles…
For the most part, desensitization seems to be working.
It’s not the violence or the gore that is somehow bothersome to me, it is the nefarious intentions. Why it happens to be that way with me, I do not know. I do see, whether intentional or not, the screens numbing people out when it comes to violence. Recovering from and kind of serious injury puts the body under a lot of stress. I don’t think your average person understands this until they’ve actually been through it. Like having a wisdom tooth removed, my body can feel what’s going on despite the painkiller; there’s an increase in heart-rate, perspiration, and the horrific sensation of having such an act performed that almost triggers instinctual aggression. I could feel my rational mind slipping. I can guess how torture breaks most people. I wouldn’t be an exception.
BPD… so hard to say who is within normal range and what isn’t. Not like it matters. You’re really bright, quick, and driven. In my opinion, the educational/social system in California isn’t really set up to accommodate those who excel. What’s interesting to see is how those nails that stick up are coping within the new and enhanced environment where technology enables people to literally see what’s going on. I got through my own difficult stage by numbing out while consciously embracing the system for what I believed it was. Just long enough to get by.
Although I might have been one of the people who could push any button the authority ordered, once a flaw in the authority’s reasoning became evident, I see no reason for feelings of remorse. When it gets strapped into the machines it creates… “Now, what was the progression?”
Desensitization really seems to be working.
The green and blue thing… after downloading St. Francis’ thesis, I didn’t find much in the way of background regarding the 'decree'. With 500 pages, I went directly to the part that deals with traffic lights. There are lights that are as close to blue as possible while technically being on the green side of the green-blue spectrum. I’ve had the same thoughts as you regarding the color-blind thing.
Desensitization... sight.
The milk IQ tests reminds me of a story about a teacher in Japan trying to teach students about snow. One of the test questions wasn’t so clear when it attempted to ask about its melting point. Think the kid answered something like ‘spring’. In the harsher climates, people need to be much more attuned to the seasonal changes (big picture) in order to survive. Proud city people kind of just focus on the isolated technical details and confuse what they ‘know’ with actual knowledge. Most of us, me included, don’t know jack.
About that carpet… admitting to a mistake is one of the first steps in learning. If I can’t see the mistakes I’ve been making, I’m pretty sure I’ll keep repeating them and maybe even get pretty good at it. When one of my ‘friends’ points something out, I should probably listen.
Thanks again for your time.
Regards.