Today marks the sixth day on the East Coast. Alot has happened, some little bad situations, but alot of learning experiances. Today in lecture, we talked about the relationships between first-born and last-born siblings and being independant and interdependant. We learned about what exactly is the self. It turns that "self" is a body, subject of experiance, and a moral agent. We then continued the lesson in our seperate discussions. We watched a movie about the Stanford experiement, that put some college boys through a prison stimulation, where there were gaurds and prisoners. The outcome is very shocking and eye-opening. The gaurds almost became monsters, using their powers to abuse and humiliate. This experiment had to be ended early because the stimulation started to become too harsh. This taught many how far a person can go when it comes to violence, something that we might have once thought we would never do. The scary part of this situation is that it is actually happening around the world, such as the prison in Iraq, Abu Gharib. (That Leadership and Global Engagment class came in handy with that fact.)
Besides learning the coursework, I am also learning a few other things. I am noticing the difference between class here at Cornell, and class back home in the WCCUSD. Here in class, people participate more, and it seems that I am learning much more here. Which is weird, because back home is somewhat the same situation age-wise, and there are even smaller classes there. It seems that here at Cornell, people learn more because they want to, and its something they choose, something that interests them. Sadly, this is not the way it is back home.
Maybe that could be changed?
Who knows, but now I need to go check in. Goodnight.
~Yoline Banerjee
Cornell & Brown Depart
8 years ago
1 comment:
I'm glad you had an opportunity to learn about that Stanford study. That study was successful beyond anyone's imagination.
Although the scenario simulated a prison, it's structure can be found in many everyday settings like classrooms where teachers feel empowered by their position of authority, offices where there's a hierarchy where a boss has complete control over the workers and even whether they'll continue to have a job, and even social settings where one member of the group takes control of the others in the group.
This study suggests that when the laws of common decency we've all embraced in the society as we know breaks down, then humans will return to "survival of the fittest" and it's dog eat dog.
If you've never read it, check out Lord of the Flies which writes about this very type of scenario.
Also, I loved your analysis of how the members of your group seem to be working so much harder than your pals you left behind. You were able to see very clearly that when people want something, they'll find a way to make it happen. So many of your old associates are just going through the motions. They have found the motivation to do what's necessary to take best advantage of the educational opportunities in front of them. And just like in that Stanford study, all it takes is a couple of miscreants to take a leadership position and instead of helping to bring everyone up to a higher standard, they tend to bring people down to the lowest basest standard.
Sounds like the little you've learned so far has justified the expense of the trip. And to think you're just touching the tip of the iceberg. I can't wait to hear more about what you're learning.
I know it's only been six days now but I haven't read once yet about any great adventures with the laundry from your group. Another milestone...
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