Friday, March 12, 2010
Posted by Cassie and Aaron at 12:52 PM 2 comments
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Cutting by Steven Levenkron
Posted by Cassie and Aaron at 12:33 PM 24 comments
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
In that moment (internal monolouge)
Lord help me. I am not sure if that was an obscenity or an actual plea for celestial help. Help? I don't want help I want someone to do this for me. I want someone who will wrap me in a blanket of peace and comfort ,take that stage and preform brilliantly. That said person will then allow me all the credit when it is over. That is how God works, right?
That does not sound right, but I have no faith in myself to handle this. I am at one of those moments right now, that happen all too often, where the nature of my charter, the content of my heart, my abilities as a holistic individual are to be summed up and presented in a few sentences. I become either great, horrid or not good enough in moments to swiftly over generalized.
It is at these moments that we exist so close to the flames of hell and the glory of heaven that we have a hard time telling the difference. What do I say? Do I want to keep it simple allowing others to make assumptions, draw there own conclusions and in turn allow myself personal denyability. Or, do I make a strong statement allowing for no deviation reflecting assurety and courage?
I know the reaction I want. I want them to come up to me staring, blinking with astonishment, shaking my hand with vigour and a simple statement. " That was great son, thank you" That is how you know reality from the play. The face tells you all you need to know about true gratuity. I have seen it before and I want that now, but how do I get it?
The right person would know the right thing to do, or do they? Are we all actors, playing a role assuming a part that gives us what we want? Are most of our conversations telling people what they want to hear, or as close as we can do that? How good of a salesmen am I at selling myself?
Damn it! This has become too complicated. I resign myself to the natural state of my words that have more of a reflection of how I feel at the moment rather then who I am and how I really feel. If only I could get you to understand that, but that is probably not what you want to hear and will not get me any where.
Posted by Cassie and Aaron at 1:33 PM 0 comments
The Lucifer Effect by Philip Zimbardo
So the question and answer the book proposes is: what makes good or ordinary people, felons, murderers, drug addicts, thieves or more generally speaking, bad?
Do not want to read the book to find the answer? Well, I can give you the abridged version. We all have the capability to assume one of the roles listed above. Don't believe you have it in you? Look into the Milgram experiment wherein we first realize that any where from 60 to 80% of the population has the mentally justifiable resources to take innocent human life. The experiment has been done umpteen times over 40 years and the out comes rests between 60 to 80%
Here is a simple list of mental or psychological resources used to allows us to be bad
1. dehumanization: The typical German population thought of the Jewish community as monsters. The U.S. government demonized the whole Asian population by making brash and over generalizations and stereotyping "Japs" as something other then men.
2. Deniablity/Rationalization/3rd party influence: " I was just following orders". "Satan made me do it". " The ends justified the means". "Every one was doing it". " I did not know any better because I was beaten as a kid".
3. Moral disengagement: In a firing squad it was typical for only one person to have a working bullet and none of them knew who had the blank and who had the real bullet. Jews themselves decided who was to go into the gas chamber that day. The guy turning the knob to turn on the gas never watched them die nor did he go in to make sure all were dead, he just turned the knob.
4. Autonomy: They do not know me and I do not know them, therefore it is easier.
That is a short list but I think you get the idea.
It was an interesting book. It requires constant thinking and the ability to read pass the ego, as is the case with most psychology books that I have read.
Some may recognize the name of the author because he was the leader in a highly publicized experiment at Stanford during the late sixties. He rehashes the whole experiment in the book, which is relevant, but it does not take log to realize where the experiment is going and does become tedious. I did not become depressed reading the book thinking that any moment I could randomly kill but realized I was human and therefore capable of making mistakes. The author does well to keep the book intellectual and does not project his psychological theories on the reader but is obviously less then pleased with the Bush administration and goes through many chapters regarding the Abu Ghraib incident.
If you are in a thinking read mood then give it a try but do not expect it to be a quick read. I would even suggest skipping the chapters that do not interest you.
Posted by Cassie and Aaron at 12:46 PM 0 comments
Monday, June 8, 2009
Yeeeeeeaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!! Its finally happened, I am starting a new job at Heald college in Rancho Cordova on the 22nd!! So this means we can finally move. I will be posting pictures of our move and new place and farewell parties as we go.
Posted by Cassie and Aaron at 9:22 AM 1 comments
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Posted by Cassie and Aaron at 10:07 PM 0 comments
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Cassie: So can I be real witchu?
Posted by Cassie and Aaron at 11:52 PM 0 comments
Monday, April 20, 2009
Crazy
Posted by Cassie and Aaron at 11:56 PM 0 comments
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Nephews
These are some pictures of my younger nephews. Red head is David and the blonde is Doug. Thought I should post some recent pictures. David was on the brink of a melt down before Aaron hitched him on his shoulders. A whole new perspective!!
Posted by Cassie and Aaron at 9:18 PM 0 comments
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Posted by Cassie and Aaron at 10:49 PM 0 comments