Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Reflection on Feb.22,2011

Why do you think that people engage in immoral acts??
My definition of immoral is something that is not right, not moral. Immoral acts are something like cheating, stealing, bullying, and killing. I think most of the immoral acts involve around greed. People are greedy, they always want more even though they already have lots. Moreover, I think immoral acts also involve around power. The idea hit me after I saw a movie. It is then I realized that power is such a scary, horrifying thing. There is this movie I saw, I forgot the name of it, but it's all about the evil side of power. The story goes like this: So there was a doctor and he was trying to testify an experiment, therefore, he gathered about thirty people and he divided all of them in to two even groups. One of them being the prison guards and the other group being the prisoners and he also gave them a place that looked just like jail. The doctor didn't give them any instructions, he only assigned them roles. At first, everyone was happy (they're getting paid for doing that) and they thought that doing this was such a good deal. However few days later, some uniformed guards decided to force the prisoners to doing something that they didn't want to do. The fight started here. Somehow the guards thought that because they were assigned the role of guards, they are allow to control all prisoners. They then started taking control of everything, even like the little things such as eating their meals. Without any doubt, the prisoners are going to think this is unfair. Thus, a person started to rebel, he began to go against any thing that the guards said. The situation then got so intense and out of control. Guards began to do terrifying things to that prisoner like bully him in front of the crowd, humiliate him and take all his cloth away from him. After all those horrifying and unspeakable things that the guards and prisoners did to each other, some of the people started to make the matter worse, they started to kill. As you can imagine, the story's not going to end pretty. Some people died and others are just injured very badly. When I recalled it and think about it thoughly, it all started with power!! Everyone likes power and fights for power. It can be like the greatest thing in the world if you use it properly, but it can also be the most evil thing that you can ever imagine.

Why do I engage in immoral acts??
But I remember Ms. Knittel telling us that If you can't say that to a person's face, you might as well close your mouth and just don't say anything.

When you think of the long and gloomy history of man, you will find more hideous crimes have beem committed in the name of obedience than have ever been committed in the name of rebellion. -C.P.Snow

Ted Talk Notes: What makes people go wrong?? Philip Zimbardo

7 social processes that grease the slippery slope of evil
1) mindlessly taking the first small step
2) dehumanization of others
3) de-individuation of self (anonymity)
4) diffusion of personal responsibility
5) blind obedience to authority
6) uncritical conformity to group norms(all about fitting in with people, don't care what they're doing)
7) passive tolerance of evil through inaction, or indifference(no involving)

" The line between good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being" - Alexandre Solzenitslyn

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