Putting Procrastination to good use
I should be studying for a midterm right now, but as has been the case this whole term (as well as last), I have been having trouble studying. I find the closer I am to being done school, the harder it is to take mid-terms seriously. It's not because I don't think school is important. Au contraire, I recognize it is a wonderful privilege that 92% of the world doesn't get to experience. I can see how far I have come from 6 years ago (I have finally learned all the ins and outs of APA format, and I can actually say I remember some of what I've learned (which is more than I could say about high school). I think I'm just getting to a point where I'm seeing past school...seeing that there is life beyond school, and whether or not I do well on a mid-term isn't going to impact my life in any way. I have also come to disagree with the general existence of tests, in that they encourage mindless cramming of the brain, mechanical memorization of concepts, only to be forgotten in a week or two (or in my case, in a couple days). Why is this method of study seen as valuable, when in real life we can always consult books and seek discussion from others? I only remember practical experience, anyways. Theories dissolve in my mind about as quickly as hot chocolate powder dissolves in hot milk (unless the milk isn't hot enough, and the powder stays lumpy and you swallow lumpy lumps of powdery lumpiness--I'm not claiming to be an English major)

Qualms about Human Nature Disputes
So while I'm here, I might a well put my procrastination to good use, and study while I complain (no, not complain...make "critical observations"). I'm taking a compulsory "Critical Encounter with Human Nature" course right now, which is the course I have a mid-term in. The whole class is about either/or, black & white, this or that, as regards human nature:
1. Are we inherently good or evil?
2. Are we conformist or self-determined?
3. Are we influenced by nature or nurture?
4. Are we changing or unchanging?
***Feel free to provide your input on any of these questions. I encourage discussion*** (I know that sounds ironic, given the title of this section, but I really do enjoy discussion)

My question to all of this is, can't we just be both? Doesn't history show that human nature is both good and evil, conforming and self-determined, etc.? Why does it have to be one or the other?
1. Humans are both good and evil. Humans are both responsible for the Holocaust, the Apartheid, Native Residential Schools and wars....as well as World Vision, MCC, and figures like Pierre Trudeau, Mother Theresa, Victor Frankl, etc. On the subject of Frankl, at the end of his book Man's Search for Meaning, he writes: "Man is that being who invented the gas chambers of Auschwitz; however, he is also that being who entered those gas chambers upright, with the Lord's Prayer or the Shema Yisrael on his lips"
2. We are both conformist and self-determined. When we are in large groups we follow others, but there are always leaders, free-thinkers to lead the rest. In Milgrams shocking experiment (pun intended) on "Obedience" (where the "Teacher" had to shock the "Learner" everytime they got an answer wrong, going higher and higher on the voltage meter each time, to see how far people would obey out of fear), 50% went all the way to the highest voltage (what they thought was 450 V, but really it was all staged, of course), but 50% followed their conscience and refused to continue.
3. The Nature/Nurture debate, in my opinion, is cyclical and pointless . I definitely think we are influenced by them both, equally, but at different times in our lives (based on studies of identical twins and feral children). But to base understanding of human nature as being only Hereditary/Inherent vs. Environmental/Cultural influences is redundant. Is society and culture not created by human beings in the first place? So, any good or evil societal influences are still based on "inherent" human nature anyway, which leads us back to the "hereditary" argument.

I'll stop there. I'm getting carried away. Will is going to regret letting me loose on here. Time to stop procrasti-studying (maybe I should be an English major).

   [ posted by Anabee @ 12:56 PM ]