Why a single cry for help is easier to awaken human compassion?
It is interesting that a article The problem with human compassion tells us that a dog tugs our hearts more than a distressed nation of millions. However, it only shows a fact by the experiments that our empathic telescopes are activated when we hear a single cry for help because we fall back on rules of thumb, on feelings, on intuitions. Leaving aside the accuracy of the experiments (they should be taken into account their scope, the objects, the methods, the frequency etc.), the author doesn’t explains why or how it happens.
In my view, it is more social study than scientific. Perhaps the main reason is a psychological reflection to jungle principle. In Darwin’s jungle principle, the mass or community represents formidable and powerful, the individual or single represents small and weakly. In general, sympathy for the weak is a universal human emotion. That perhaps can explain why Nazi Germany killed millions of people in cold blood. They could not feel any sympathy when they killed the Jews because of their large population. The nazis even have a kind of psychological emotion of self-defence because of their small population in concentration camp. No matter whether you are aware, human is so stupid that they always use the animal’s principles to treat themselves. They are cheated by their undevolped evolution subconscious.
Another reason maybe is person's sociality essence. The demand of social interaction is one of primary needs of humanity. When a person is isolated from group or society, he will be thought as his basic human right had been deprived. Then, our empathic telescopes may be activated, regardless of a lonely person or a lonely dog.
Third, dog is a part of American culture. I have never seen a nation which loves dogs more than America. American see dogs as their family member, So it is not surprise that the American would cost $ 300,000 to save Hokget when she was both lonely without help and in the danger.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
When I Saw the Liberty Statue Finally......
This weekend my friends drove me to New York for travelling. This was a leisure trip, we all had nothing special plans and goals, so we drove slowly and often stopped in highway’s roadside to appreciate beautiful scene or enjoy ice creams in MacDonald. The scenery was exquisite along all the way, especially in the boundaries of the Connor state, our car as if went through a forest without terminus and continuously passed by the bright lakes and winding rivers.
The first stop was Time Square when we entered New York. This is a center of the metropolis. We witnessed its lively and noisy. The dazzling lights of the Great White Way's theaters have fascinated fans nationwide and Broadway shows have attracted millions who deeply love the play and dream of becoming a star. Then, we went to Rockefeller Plaza and soared 70 floors high and experience the exhilarating joy of unobstructed 360º city views from the Top of the Rock Observation Deck. At the time, there eas the lights sea in our eyes. From the green of Central Park to the thrilling city skyline, I believed nowhere else could you see New York so spectacularly.
The following two days, we visited Statue of Liberty and Elis Island, walked along Wall Street and visited two museums. However, the Liberty Statues, who is named Mother of Exiles, didn’t make us feel freedom or excitement, perhaps we had too high expectation before. We had to queue for hours to get in a tent where people were requested to go through the strict safety inspection. When we got on Liberty Island by ferry there must have been several ten thousand people present. Before we climbed to the pedestal of the statue, we had had to stand in line for half an hour to experience safety inspection again. We were too tried to enjoy our freedom. But the museums made us pleasant. Metropolitan Museum of Art and American Museum of Natural History impressed us deeply. From the splendors of ancient Egypt to the spectacular New American art, with over two million works of art spanning 5,000 years of culture, the museums present the best of human creativity from across the globe. We lingered and forgot to return.
New York is a prosperous place just like my hometown Shanghai. In my eyes, its streets is dirtier than Shanghai, but it has more cultural element and better art atmosphere than Shanghai.
The first stop was Time Square when we entered New York. This is a center of the metropolis. We witnessed its lively and noisy. The dazzling lights of the Great White Way's theaters have fascinated fans nationwide and Broadway shows have attracted millions who deeply love the play and dream of becoming a star. Then, we went to Rockefeller Plaza and soared 70 floors high and experience the exhilarating joy of unobstructed 360º city views from the Top of the Rock Observation Deck. At the time, there eas the lights sea in our eyes. From the green of Central Park to the thrilling city skyline, I believed nowhere else could you see New York so spectacularly.
The following two days, we visited Statue of Liberty and Elis Island, walked along Wall Street and visited two museums. However, the Liberty Statues, who is named Mother of Exiles, didn’t make us feel freedom or excitement, perhaps we had too high expectation before. We had to queue for hours to get in a tent where people were requested to go through the strict safety inspection. When we got on Liberty Island by ferry there must have been several ten thousand people present. Before we climbed to the pedestal of the statue, we had had to stand in line for half an hour to experience safety inspection again. We were too tried to enjoy our freedom. But the museums made us pleasant. Metropolitan Museum of Art and American Museum of Natural History impressed us deeply. From the splendors of ancient Egypt to the spectacular New American art, with over two million works of art spanning 5,000 years of culture, the museums present the best of human creativity from across the globe. We lingered and forgot to return.
New York is a prosperous place just like my hometown Shanghai. In my eyes, its streets is dirtier than Shanghai, but it has more cultural element and better art atmosphere than Shanghai.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
My view on the news of A Growing Environmental Disaster
Is it self-destruction of mankind? Is this the final century of civilization? I always asked myself since I watched the film Earth 2100.
The disasters keep on up everywhere, such as the global warming, the frequent natural disasters, the growing environment pollution and resource deficiency. People seems to be so accustomed to living. Americans believe that their way of life will not change, although Obama has been realized that, in a recent television interview before he will visit Australia in June, if over a billion Chinese citizens have the same living patterns as Australians and Americans do right now then all of us are in for a very miserable time, the planet just can’t sustain it. I wonder if this accident will cause the cost of gasoline to skyrocket, I hope it will. Then few may be able to afford to maintain the lifestyles to which we’ve grown accustomed and the gas-fueled cars will become possible economically. But will that convince us to change our ways?
Today, I can see the painful death of the marine creatures who suffered the oil pollution in the Culf of Mexico. I can hear the tragic groan of the fish families because they are out of breath. Although it is a small probability accident of the oil leaks underwater, as Diana said that it’s a lesson to humanity, for people has become a hazard to nature and they must responsible for their own actions.
The disasters keep on up everywhere, such as the global warming, the frequent natural disasters, the growing environment pollution and resource deficiency. People seems to be so accustomed to living. Americans believe that their way of life will not change, although Obama has been realized that, in a recent television interview before he will visit Australia in June, if over a billion Chinese citizens have the same living patterns as Australians and Americans do right now then all of us are in for a very miserable time, the planet just can’t sustain it. I wonder if this accident will cause the cost of gasoline to skyrocket, I hope it will. Then few may be able to afford to maintain the lifestyles to which we’ve grown accustomed and the gas-fueled cars will become possible economically. But will that convince us to change our ways?
Today, I can see the painful death of the marine creatures who suffered the oil pollution in the Culf of Mexico. I can hear the tragic groan of the fish families because they are out of breath. Although it is a small probability accident of the oil leaks underwater, as Diana said that it’s a lesson to humanity, for people has become a hazard to nature and they must responsible for their own actions.
My weekend (30, May – 1, June)
A week ago, Prof. Gao and his wife who live in a small town named Amherst which is in the west of Massachusetts told me that they were going to visit me this weekend. It was an important thing for me because this will be my first time to entertain friends here since I have been to America for 4 months. So several days ahead of the time, I started to look for travel information of Salem and made a schedule for them.
It took them 3 hours to drive to Salem when we at last met at the door of my landlady’s house in Sunday morning. To my surprise, they were far more familiar to Salem than I was since they had been here for many times. So my plan which included visiting museums and old houses became invalid completely.
After lunch, my friend suggested to take the Salem Ferry to Boston to enjoy the picturesque New England coastline. When we embark on the boat, I was immediately attracted by the vast blue sea, the cool sea breeze, the flocks of gulls and the numerous white sailings and yachts. After 55 minutes, we reached the New England Aquarium dock where the lively Italian Fair was holding. There was a large open-air folk concert on the grass and lots of people enjoyed and was singing with the singer. There are also many small stalls to sell souvenirs of the Italian style. However, I am most interesting in the freedom trail, along which foreigners can be easy to explore the history of Boston.
The following day was Memorial Day of the U.S. One of my friend of a local church arranged us to take part in the festival parade and then go fishing in Marblehead Harbor. I was so happy to run into my classmate Su who also was invited to join the day’s activities. The wonderful experiences which occurred in that day she already had told to everybody in the classroom, So I no longer was redundant.
I am so tied in this weekend, but it is really memorable.
It took them 3 hours to drive to Salem when we at last met at the door of my landlady’s house in Sunday morning. To my surprise, they were far more familiar to Salem than I was since they had been here for many times. So my plan which included visiting museums and old houses became invalid completely.
After lunch, my friend suggested to take the Salem Ferry to Boston to enjoy the picturesque New England coastline. When we embark on the boat, I was immediately attracted by the vast blue sea, the cool sea breeze, the flocks of gulls and the numerous white sailings and yachts. After 55 minutes, we reached the New England Aquarium dock where the lively Italian Fair was holding. There was a large open-air folk concert on the grass and lots of people enjoyed and was singing with the singer. There are also many small stalls to sell souvenirs of the Italian style. However, I am most interesting in the freedom trail, along which foreigners can be easy to explore the history of Boston.
The following day was Memorial Day of the U.S. One of my friend of a local church arranged us to take part in the festival parade and then go fishing in Marblehead Harbor. I was so happy to run into my classmate Su who also was invited to join the day’s activities. The wonderful experiences which occurred in that day she already had told to everybody in the classroom, So I no longer was redundant.
I am so tied in this weekend, but it is really memorable.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Thursday, May 27, 2010
My View on the Play of Tape by Jose Rivera
The play of Tape causes me to think deeply, although it very simple, the simple setting which only includes a boring small room and a large reel-to-reel tape recorder, and the simple characters who are two men, even they have not their names.
The plot is also simple, which launches in the two men’s dialogs. At the beginning, I thought the ‘person’ was put under house arrest, because he was limited some of the personal freedom and the ‘attendant’ was friendly to him. Then, I was shocked by the men’s situation, because both Person and Attendant were not allowed to have a name, confidant, confessor, friend, even their dreams were forbidden. As the dialogs develops, I thought they perhaps were engaged in a very special work, such as CIA, spy or some highly secret job. Finally, I found I was wrong, the Person just was forced to accept his proper penalty for his lies before.
How can his lies was accumulated to ten thousand boxes of tape? Does he never tell the truth in his life? On my view, he must be a politician, due to his occupation, he has to lie all the time and has no choice. And why the Attendant has suffered such counter-humanity job? Maybe he had lied a lot before as same as politicians’.
Does the play take place in purgatory, or is it just a nightmare? Anyway, I would hope that is realistic. That will alert peoples to always be honest to his promise, his actions and his own thought.
The plot is also simple, which launches in the two men’s dialogs. At the beginning, I thought the ‘person’ was put under house arrest, because he was limited some of the personal freedom and the ‘attendant’ was friendly to him. Then, I was shocked by the men’s situation, because both Person and Attendant were not allowed to have a name, confidant, confessor, friend, even their dreams were forbidden. As the dialogs develops, I thought they perhaps were engaged in a very special work, such as CIA, spy or some highly secret job. Finally, I found I was wrong, the Person just was forced to accept his proper penalty for his lies before.
How can his lies was accumulated to ten thousand boxes of tape? Does he never tell the truth in his life? On my view, he must be a politician, due to his occupation, he has to lie all the time and has no choice. And why the Attendant has suffered such counter-humanity job? Maybe he had lied a lot before as same as politicians’.
Does the play take place in purgatory, or is it just a nightmare? Anyway, I would hope that is realistic. That will alert peoples to always be honest to his promise, his actions and his own thought.
About Rumpelstiltskin
Rumpelstiltskin is a character of a fairy tale, which originated in Germany, however, the same story pattern appears in numerous other cultures. The tale was collected by the brothers Grimm, who first published it in 1812.
The story is about the miller’s daughter who was demanded to spin the straw into gold, and a dwarf who helped her completing this incredible task. But the help was at a price, the most serious one was that she had to give the dwarf her first-born child.
When the time for her keeping the promise was due, the girl, who now has become a queen, was frightened and offer him all the wealth she had if she could keep the child. The dwarf refused but finally agreed to give up his claim if the queen could guess his name. Fortunately, the queen’s massager eavesdropped the dwarf’s singing by accidently, so she got to know his name that is Rumpelstiltskin and kept her child.
This is a interesting story and the Rumpelstiltskin must be the funniest name I have ever heard.
The story is about the miller’s daughter who was demanded to spin the straw into gold, and a dwarf who helped her completing this incredible task. But the help was at a price, the most serious one was that she had to give the dwarf her first-born child.
When the time for her keeping the promise was due, the girl, who now has become a queen, was frightened and offer him all the wealth she had if she could keep the child. The dwarf refused but finally agreed to give up his claim if the queen could guess his name. Fortunately, the queen’s massager eavesdropped the dwarf’s singing by accidently, so she got to know his name that is Rumpelstiltskin and kept her child.
This is a interesting story and the Rumpelstiltskin must be the funniest name I have ever heard.
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