All Along the Firewall: Bullying Monkeys and Attack Ads

Maybe I could look into this and tell you whether the story is a metaphor or reality-based, but that would be a bit like committing sociology.  I'd be better off spending that time creating attack ads - after all, that's how things are done around here.

A group of scientists placed 5 monkeys in a cage and in the middle, a ladder with bananas on the top.

Every time a monkey went up the ladder, the scientists soaked the rest of the monkeys with cold water.

After a while, every time a monkey went up the ladder, the others beat up the one on the ladder.

After some time, no monkey dare[d] to go up the ladder regardless of the temptation.

Scientists then decided to substitute one of the monkeys. The 1^st thing this new monkey did was to go up the ladder. Immediately the other monkeys beat him up.

• After several beatings, the new member learned not to climb the ladder even though he never knew why.

A 2^nd monkey was substituted and the same occurred. The 1^st monkey participated on [sic] the beating for [sic] the 2^nd monkey. A 3^rd monkey was changed and the same was repeated (beating). The 4^th was substituted and the beating was repeated and finally the 5^th monkey was replaced.

What was left was a group of 5 monkeys that even though never received a cold shower, continued to beat up any monkey who attempted to climb the ladder.

If it was possible to ask the monkeys why they would beat up all those who attempted to go up the ladder ... I bet you the answer would be ... "I don't know — that's how things are done around here" Does it sound familiar?

Don't miss the opportunity to share this with others as they might be asking themselves why we continue to do what we are doing if there is a different way out there.

This seems like an experiment, but now I'm wondering... Was this experiment ever conducted? If not, was any similar experiment conducted that shows the same effect?

"There must be some kind of way out of here,"
"Said the joker to the thief..."

But we won't find it by walking in circles.

 

The TTC: The Truth Will Set You Free

Created in March, the blog has more than 40 photos of riders with everything from their lunches to purses, grocery bags, a hockey helmet, a mop bucket and a dog taking up an extra seat on buses, streetcars or the subway.

Photos aren’t just taken by Takasaki himself; he’s also receiving and publishing online submissions from other, similarly disgruntled riders. Takasaki, who works as a senior copywriter, said there’s been a bit of backlash to the public shaming, but for the most part the response has been positive — even from TTC’s head office.

It's easy to not pay attention, when the consequences aren't looking you in the eye; if you're confident the other guy is passive (or not as aggressive as you are) then you don't need to worry whether you're picking a fight on a streetcar, smoking in a no-smoking, standing at the top of a subway exit or putting your feet up on a seat.  

To some degree, everyone does it; to an even greater degree, we get annoyed when others do it.

But you know what's even easier and provides a sense of gratification?  Posting pics of thee offenders online.

Now, you can question the legalities of this - is it an infringement of one's rights to have your pics posted acting poorly?  But then, wasn't it infringement of someone else's rights that got you in trouble in the first place?

Particularly as we see top dogs getting off with crimes that would put regular people in jail, people are growing frustrated with our justice system.  Fortunately, thanks to modern tech, today's lynch moms are social posters. If there aren't enough police resources to catch minor criminals, there certainly won't be for this kind of infraction - unless, of course, it starts involving enforcement officials themselves.  There's a tricky line there that can shift in some interesting ways.

Social media is helping to bring village-level personal accountability from the individual to the community.  It's not just about what you get out of it, it's the price that access comes with.  This calls upon the individual, at whatever level they're at, to start thinking through the personal consequences they face (like employers being punished for posting drinking pictures on Facebook) but also start to see the value of being recorded by strangers doing things like practical giving up your seat to a pregnant woman or helping a stranger get their stroller down stairs.  

The Objectivists out there will hate this trend, but societies have always involved mechanisms of social control, ranging from the rite of marriage to the shivaree.

Of course, humans are social animals - always have been.  It has only been recently people have forgotten this.  Well, as they say:     The truth will set you free.

Designer Families

 

The role of the family in shaping individuals' ability and inclination to make use of the means of cultivation that capitalism offers is hard to overstate. The household is not only a site of consumption and of biological reproduction. It is also the main setting in which children are socialized, civilized, and educated, in which habits are developed that influence their subsequent fates as people and as market actors. To use the language of contemporary economics, the family is a workshop in which human capital is produced.

 

There's a direct correlation being made here between family, home and where youth spend their time (acquiring socialization). 

 

Kids spend a lot less time with their parents today than they did in the past - teachers are among those assuming many of the duties that were once the sole purview of parents.

 

Homes aren't the hubs they once were.  Where are those hubs being found today?

 

How can we better design our social institutions and programs to suit emerging behaviour patterns but lead to socially beneficial results?

 

If you fear social engineering, you're gonna hate this emerging trend but consider - justice is a form of social engineering, too.  Imprisonment costs a lot yet produces no social value.

Stress Response and Emotional Inoculation

"It took me a second to figure out what was happening ... I saw the lights in the distance. My mind was to alert the train," Abbasi said.

This is a tragic story about an unnecessary loss of life.  It's also a fascinating look at how people react.  The man who took this picture has responded to questions about why he took a picture by instead focusing on how upsetting he found the behaviour of people closer to Mr. Han than he was.  Why did he feel this necessary?  Probably because he's got some internal cognitive dissonance between what he knows would have been "moral" behaviour (help Han up) vs. what he actually did.

 

Hindsight is a funny thing; it forces us to offer logical rationalization for reactive behaviour that is more gut instinct than logical reasoning.  Reactive behaviour relies on pre-programming, which happens much more quickly than abstract thought.  It shouldn't really be a surprise that a photographer would respond to an uncomfortable situation by turning to comfortable, established behaviour - like taking pictures.

 

Police, soldiers, fire fighters, even CPR students all go through test-case scenarios that help build familiarity with the sorts of stressful scenarios they could encounter in their jobs; consider it a kind of emotional inoculation.  While some people are more naturally inclined to react well under pressure, everyone can learn to handle prescribed situations better.  This principle underlies everything from cognitive behaivoural therapy to improv class.

 

There will be a lot of focus on what didn't happen in this situation; it's an instinctual approach to take.  A more useful one, though, might be to think about what could be learned to prevent such tragedies in the future.

Why Some People Don’t Know Who They Are (Christine Hammond)

I particularly like the caveat at the end - that's where referencing is headed.

Why Some People Don’t Know Who They Are

By Arlene

Friday,August3rd,2012

By Christine M Hammond

Have you ever watched someone struggle with answering a simple open ended statement such as, “Tell me about yourself”? They seem to get lost often looking like a deer caught in the headlights and respond with confusion, “Well, what do you mean?” Or “What do you want to know?” Occasionally they may even give with overly generic statements that by the end you still have no idea who this person is in front of you. Their struggle is not because they don’t know how to answer as much as it is because they really don’t know who they are and how they fit in with society.

 

These adults have not yet mastered Erik Erikson’s fifth psychosocial stage of development called Identity vs. Confusion. During the years of twelve to eighteen, most teenagers begin the search for who they are in comparison to the other adult and peer influences in their lives. Around twelve years old, a teen develops the cognitive ability to critical think instead of just rote memorization. All of the information the teen has learned is now being simulated into their life. This is why the most frequently asked question by a teen is, “Why did I need to know this for my life” especially when it comes to something they are not interested in such as trigonometry, biochemistry, or metered poetry.

 

The Psychology. Developing a sense of identity requires all of the years between twelve and eighteen and cannot be accomplished early. It is not until the teen has reached past eighteen that a person is able to properly assess whether or not they developed a strong sense of who they are. Understanding who you are means that you can identify the characteristics, traits, talents, gifts, and interests that distinguish you from the other members of your family or your peers. Not only can you identify these things but you must also be comfortable and appreciate your uniqueness. A person who is confused takes on a similar personality to a parent or peer instead of developing their own or they take on a personality designed for them by a parent or peer. In either case, they do not develop their uniqueness nor take pride in it.

 

The Never Ending Teen. A common belief that came out of the 1970′s generation is that a person needs to “find themselves”. While this is true, it should be done during the teen years and be completed just prior to entering into adulthood, it is not supposed to be a life-long exploration. The never ending teen is one who goes to college to have a good time and leaves still having a good time only to move back home when the money runs out usually without any prospect of a career. They are in a state of confusion as to who they are, what they can contribute, how they fit in, and were they are headed.

 

The Adult. Even sadder is an adult who still struggles with these issues twenty or forty years later then they should. The adult remains confused and frequently blames society, parents, spouse, children, or anyone else for the shortfalls in their life. This is not to be confused with a mid-life crisis which is entirely different as a person reflects on their life and frequently makes major changes because they are unhappy with the direction they are headed. Rather, this is a lack of direction from the beginning or a lack of desire to even have a direction.

 

The Cure. In order for a person who is confused about their role in life to continue on that journey into adulthood, there must be another person enabling them. This person makes excuses for them, indulges them, minimizes their behavior, or likes them just the way they are because they are more easily manipulated and controlled. So to change the confused adult, the adult who is enabling them needs to stop. Otherwise, the confused adult will have no motivation to change their behavior. Once this has happened, the confused adult can begin the hard work of figuring out who they really are.

 

The good part is that God did create everyone for a purpose so the confused adult is not on a pointless journey into never-never-land. An adult who can identify their special gifts and talents and who knows how to use those gifts and talents contributes well not only to their family but to society.

Chris Hammond is a Registered Mental Health Counselor Intern at LifeWorks Group w/ over 15 years of experience as a counselor, mentor & teacher for children, teenagers & adults.

 

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Office Politics:You Get What You're Looking For

"To paraphrase the old saw about suckers at a poker table, if you can’t spot the sneaky gossip at the office, it’s probably you. But you probably shouldn’t be looking for him or her at all."

How often do we hear someone say "politics is a bloodsport" or that "it's a dog eat dog world" out there?  Why is that when we fixate on troubles lapping at our shores, we seem to find foes aplenty?  When we act like pit bulls, why are there always more fights to be fought?  Why do control freaks or micromanagers always have justification that their direct influence is necessary to keep staff in line?  Heck, why is it that when we're convinced we're right, everyone who disagrees with us just seems unable to see our truth?

 

It's really not that hard - the world as we see it is a reflection of what's happening in our own head space.  If you've just lost the love of your life, the world can seem a grim place.  If you're going on a date with your dream partner, it can seem a place brimming with butterflies of opportunity.  Of course, if you're drunk, over-caffeinated or even sleepy, those states change how you see the world, too. 

That's what anger, fear, hope, despair, desperation, rage, ambivalence are - chemically induced states.  If you have a mood disorder, anti-anxiety or anti-depressant medications change your moods chemically.  Environmental changes (a walk in a park, playing music, etc) or conscious changes (exercise, thinking happy thoughts, etc) do the same thing to a lesser degree.  If you speak a few languages/have experience of different cultures, you'll note how those external/internalized factors change perspective, too.

 

The worlds we experience are literally shaped by our own, ever-changing human lenses.  When we're conscious of this, we can manage that experience. 

Self-control?  Consciousness?  Awareness?

Tell me those aren't things worth looking for.

"I am all that was, is and will be, and no mortal has yet lifted my veil."