Zuby and Passive People
A rapper named Zuby posted a video of a guy in a restaurant choking. No one did anything. The guy is signaling to people that he's choking. Almost no one even looks at him. It's disturbing. Then, out of the left side of the screen a guy runs over and gives the choking man the Heimlich maneuver and saves his life. The video ended by saying that the guy was a hero. Yes, I agree. But what about all of the other people?
The other people are little better than plants, or pet animals at best. Domesticated, quiet, passive, submissive, and useless in any important situation. They've been trained to be cogs in a wheel. Without being told what to do they do nothing. Bred to be serfs.
I posted this in response to Zuby's post on Twitter.
I was surprised to get so many likes and shares. I figured people would hate it, too much truth too quickly. But, it's rather obvious that heroic deeds require heroes.
Most people seem to spend most of their time in an "agentic state." That's a phrase that comes from the disturbing research of psychologist Stanley Milgram. It means that people become completely passive and not caring when they aren't responsible for something. And, when you are just a cog in the gigantic wheel of society you can make the case that you aren't responsible for anything, so you become passive all the time, even when someone next to you is dying and all it would take to save his life is a few seconds of moderate effort.
I can't exactly tell if it's really just the norm for humans. Maybe it is. We just miss it because we don't care about any of those people. A billion of those passive cogs are less valuable than a single hero, and so we ignore them and forget that they are the norm.
I like to think that Americans are different than the people in whatever European country that was, but even if there is a difference it's not huge. What kind of story do people need to hear to change?
The other people are little better than plants, or pet animals at best. Domesticated, quiet, passive, submissive, and useless in any important situation. They've been trained to be cogs in a wheel. Without being told what to do they do nothing. Bred to be serfs.
I posted this in response to Zuby's post on Twitter.
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It's amazing. The older I get the more I realize that most people are almost completely passive, scared, fearful, and pathetic little creatures. Courage and initiative are rare. We watch and read hero stories so we don't realize that almost no one is willing to be a hero.
- - - - - - -
It's amazing. The older I get the more I realize that most people are almost completely passive, scared, fearful, and pathetic little creatures. Courage and initiative are rare. We watch and read hero stories so we don't realize that almost no one is willing to be a hero.
- - - - - - -
I was surprised to get so many likes and shares. I figured people would hate it, too much truth too quickly. But, it's rather obvious that heroic deeds require heroes.
Most people seem to spend most of their time in an "agentic state." That's a phrase that comes from the disturbing research of psychologist Stanley Milgram. It means that people become completely passive and not caring when they aren't responsible for something. And, when you are just a cog in the gigantic wheel of society you can make the case that you aren't responsible for anything, so you become passive all the time, even when someone next to you is dying and all it would take to save his life is a few seconds of moderate effort.
I can't exactly tell if it's really just the norm for humans. Maybe it is. We just miss it because we don't care about any of those people. A billion of those passive cogs are less valuable than a single hero, and so we ignore them and forget that they are the norm.
I like to think that Americans are different than the people in whatever European country that was, but even if there is a difference it's not huge. What kind of story do people need to hear to change?
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Read more of what Jeff deems worthy of attention at: http://www.JeffreyAlexanderMartin.com
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