“Absolve you to yourself, and you shall have the suffrage of the world.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson

This week, we studied the uplifting ideas of Transcendentalism, a movement which placed  emphasis on the power of the individual mind and the inherent goodness of man. This was refreshing, especially since people my age (including myself) spend so much time on the internet, and it sometimes seems like the only opinions that matter are other people’s.  If you’ve ever scrolled down a YouTube video and read the comments, you know what I’m talking about -- witty and hilarious observations,  aggressive comments alienating other commenters for their beliefs or opinions, critical comments that the uploader is “hot” (or utterly hideous), added to the fact that even these comments are evaluated by other YouTubers through the thumbs up/down feature... These same effects are magnified on facebook in that the responses are from people you directly know (admit it, you feel a little embarrassed when everyone else’s comment has 10 likes, and yours doesn’t have any). Even though the internet does a great job of connecting the world, it has completely amplified the value of other people’s opinions...

We spend so much time worrying about how other people will react to whatever we do. An embarrassing moment is likely to last forever in our own memories, but to a stranger is forgotten in a day. In the end, it is often these moments of embarrassment that give us the experience to succeed -- small failures are inevitable on the path to success, and wondering whether others will accept these failures is a waste of time (albeit one that is difficult to avoid).

The Power of an Individual -- We Are All Connected

As we discussed writings like Paine’s “The Crisis” and Jefferson’s “Declaration of Independence” this week, it became increasingly noticeable how forcefully their writings have shaped the values at the core of the American identity and how incredibly indelible their marks on history are as a result. As evidenced by the Chinese man who was recently jailed for wearing a t-shirt bearing the phrase “Give me Liberty, or give me Death!”, people today are greatly affected by choices made even centuries ago.

According to the “Six Degrees of Separation”, everyone is about six introductions away from any other person in the world, i.e. you probably know someone who knows someone who knows someone who knows someone who knows someone who knows Ryan Gosling. In this light, one can almost imagine humanity as a giant web, threads sprouting from and connecting each of the 7+ billion people of the world together. Accordingly, each person influences those around him or her, who in turn influence those around them, and so on...the fate of everyone is based on individual choices. Obviously, some are more influential than others, and the Paines and Jeffersons of today will go on to change the lives of those living in the 22nd, 23rd, and 24th centuries.

Some wise words from Nick Cage:

Integrity or Death or...?

Should John Proctor have chosen to save his life? I have had a particularly hard time answering this question, and I most probably still won’t reach a conclusion by the end of this post. I think the reason that I struggled so much with it was that I honestly would have saved myself, even though I know the “right” thing to do would be to die. Nevertheless, I will make an attempt to defend my hypothetical choice.

Proctor defines himself with his integrity -- this is his tragic flaw in the play.  Saving his own life with a lie would sully everything he believes in, while sticking to his guns, so to speak, leads to his death. Essentially, his choice boils down to integrity or death.

...But not really. I think there are factors other than integrity and death that must be taken into account in his situation. He has responsibilities to his expectant wife, to the people of his town, and to life in general. If all the decent people in Salem decided to give their lives in the name of integrity, no one would remain to perpetuate the very message they died for. I feel sacrilegious in saying this, but it could even be a possibility that Proctor used the facade of maintaining his integrity as a personal escape from the horrors of life and mass hysteria in Salem. 

People make fun of Romeo and Juliet for killing themselves in the name of love all the time. Why, then, is Proctor’s decision to kill himself in the name of integrity not equally as foolish? In the end, is it really so wrong to choose to live?

Becoming the Role

          As we read The Crucible last week, one theme that repeatedly appeared was the mass hysteria that took control over the citizens of Salem during the Salem Witch Trials. We noted the ease with which the townspeople fell into the roles that contradicted their true characters (or at least what their characters appeared to be outside of the trials). It seemed as though the characters were deliberately directing their eyes away from logic, truth, and reality. Within their disguises, the townspeople truly became forces of evil, condemning the innocent and disturbing the rigid social structure of the Puritan community.
        Although the extreme situations in The Crucible seem almost absurdly impossible, a psychological study on prison life conducted in the 1970’s at Stanford proved how real those situations could be. In this two week long study, 24 average students were selected and assigned to act as either prison guard or prisoner in a mock prison. The students quickly adapted to their roles; in fact, after only six days, they seemed to forget that they were acting in a simulation, and the interactions between the “guards” and “prisoners” became so aggressive that the study had to be stopped.
          It’s so simple to fall into things; sometimes your life just falls into place in front of you, and you’re going too fast to make rational decisions about which path to take. In retrospect, the decisions always seem obvious...Sometimes I look around me and try to figure out who, out of the people I know, would be the “good guys” in these scenarios of mass hysteria (and who would I be?).  It’s truly scary to think that we can become so easily what we pretend to be, that we can so mindlessly throw away our identities for new ones.
For more information on the Stanford Prison Experiment: http://www.prisonexp.org/