One thing I’ve always wondered about the Milgram experiment - why didn’t anyone wonder why on earth they needed to pay a volunteer to ask the questions and apply the shocks if the experiment were really on the learning? I mean there was an experimenter right in there with them coaching them to apply the shocks - didn’t anyone say, “Hey? Why do you need me to do this? This makes no sense if what you are testing is this other dude’s ability to learn. YOU could save yourselves $4 a pop and just read the words and administer the shocks yourself. ”
I’m sure I must be missing something important here. Otherwise can someone say “Knock, knock - anybody home?”
We had a little halloween “party” at the end of the session, where the students would go around to various different tutors and they’d have to answer allegedly grade appropriate questions in order to get candy.
A tutor asks one of the students what grade he’s in.
“Seventh”
She proceeds to ask him to name a foreign country. He has no idea what that means, so she explains “a country other than the United States.”
He thinks for a moment and offers “New York?”
She says, “No, that’s a state. What about one of the two countries that border the US?”
He says, “huh?”
How disturbed do you think I should be?
M just started second grade.
“So, M, what sort of things do you like to do?”
“Playing Grand Theft Auto 4″
“So you like video games? Are there any other video games you enjoy?”
“The ones with shooting. . . and killing.”
“So, what are you reading in school, M?”
“I don’t read.”
“Oh I’m sure you can read something. You write your name so well.”
“I don’t read”
(Pointing to a piece of paper with the word “the”) “You can tell me what this word is, right? Do you know how to sound words out?”
“No. I don’t read.”
Today’s sermon wasn’t as killer as some of the other ones have been, but it contained a very nice and important reminder.
When we choose to take “the road less travelled” (or even the one more travelled, for that matter) it not a single choice which then dictates how our life will go. It is one choice, just one, in an endless (until we die) series of choices that decide the shape and substance of our lives.
This point I think is at the heart of the idea of conscious living. When we live consciously, every step we take is a choice considered and made. Most of our choices are not considered. We simply take the same path we see other people take, or the same path we’ve taken before in this situation, or the path that seems immediately expedient. But we don’t THINK about this. We don’t say, “I think I will do this, even though I COULD do this, that, or the other, because I’ve always done it this way before and it has worked well for me.” We just do it, almost as a spinal cord mediated reflex rather than anything our brains actually touch.
It is so difficult to live consciously when one has spent one’s entire life practicing living in a less-than-conscious, fairly reactive, state. So this week I’m going to make a concerted effort to consider every thing I do as a choice made and acted on. I’ll probably make notes on this in posts or tweets throughout the week.
See MSNBC article:
Iowa gay marriage ban ruled unconstitutional
State supreme court says law violates rights of gays and lesbians
Again - disclaimer: My happiness at this decision does not mean that I believe that the government has a right to be involved in parts of one’s personal life that don’t affect parties that are not directly involved - this includes marriage. But if marriage is to be a state sanctioned institution - then it should be open for all.