Originally posted by supercheetah
I'm not talking about taking away people's responsibility for their own actions. I'm talking about understanding the science of behavior, and the
science of influence.
Influence only works on you if you decide to be influenced.
Originally posted by supercheetah
Yes, but someone told them that they are righteous in their actions. No person is immune to influence from the outside world, unless we all decide to
lock ourselves into small boxes.
If that were true then all people in the Middle East would be like those who killed this girl, yet they are not.
One of the main problems of society these days is that people always want to claim "the fault is because of someone else"... but at the end,
whatever decisions you make, it is up to you.
Originally posted by supercheetah
I didn't say that I was one of those people. I just said those people need to be praised (and also recognized). And yes, they are better than the
flock. It's the person who jumps onto the tracks of an
oncoming train to save someone when everyone else just stood by and watched. I'd like to see you claim that Jonathon Burbea in that article is
no better than anyone else.
Jonathon Burbea is not better than any other regular person. He is a good man, and did a good deed, but that does not make him better than other
regular citizens.
Just because some people are able to react under certain circumstances, it does not make them better than others. It would be like claiming some
people are better as human beings than others because of their different skills.
What that man did makes him a brave person, and a good person, but not a better human than you or me. Unless you are some maniac murderer.
Originally posted by supercheetah
Now you're just contradicting yourself. So people's personality can't change? Once a criminal, always a criminal? Once a hero, always a hero?
I'll admit that changing a person isn't easy, and some people may never change, but
there are programs that reduce recidivism
(and have the science to prove it), and society needs to try damn hard to change those who can be changed or continue to harbor
criminals.
You are twisting what I said. Most criminals after spending time in prison, they go back to the same old criminal activities, some might change, but
many criminals "decide" not to change, and instead keep blaming society, or their parents for the crimes they commit.
People do decide what their actions are going to be like, and those actions are what makes them good or evil.
Originally posted by supercheetah
I don't disagree with you on this, but to deny that people aren't influenced by the outside world is to deny that we're social creatures when all
the evidence shows that we are very much social creatures. We can never deny the influence of peers, family, and environment, or else we must deny
our own humanity.
On the contrary, being human is what defines us as the different people that we are, otherwise we would all be robots just going about mindlessly
doing what everybody else is doing.
Being human we can decide whether we will let outside influences decide our actions, or whether we become stronger human beings by those experiences
we have gone through.
Two people going through the same exact experience can do quite the oposite. The difference is in the decision of each one of those people to either
let themselves be controlled irrationally by what they went through, or use those experiences to become stronger.
"What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger", except that there are people who instead of becoming stronger they let their past control them.
It is up to every person to decide whether they are going to be controlled by those experiences they went through, or whether they will learn from
them and instead be stronger.
There are many people who live in societies that would instill criminals, yet not all these people
decide to be criminals.
For example in the Middle East there are many tribes who are extremists, yet among them there are Muslims who
decide to be moderate and not
become murderers for what in many societes is considered as "normal".
Stoning people like what happened to the poor girl in the story in this thread is considered normal in some societies, yet not everyone living in
those societies see it as normal. Many moderate Muslims have died at the hands of extremists because
those moderate Muslims decide not to be
murderers like the extremists are, and because these moderate Muslims decide not to follow the extremist path they are murdered by Islamic
extremists who claim the moderates are not following Mohammed and Allah's wishes.
People decide their own actions. This tendency of blaming societies only makes it worse because it gives criminals an excuse to keep committing
crimes, and instead of blaming themselves for their actions, society, or parents, or some other outside influences are blamed.
That is one of the biggest reasons why there are more criminals in this day and age.
[edit on 6-5-2007 by Muaddib]
sad day when we can justify that behavior . 
