Showing posts tagged power

holymoleculesbatman:

What makes people go bad?

What is evil? Where does it come from? Does everyone have a dark side? These questions have been keeping scientists busy for quite a while. Does evil arise through a neurological process in our brains? Or does it have to do with the psychological circumstances of our daily lives?
Where is the tipping point?

Philip Zimbardo, whom most of us probably know from the Stanford Prison Experiment (1971), has been exploring these issues for more than 30 years. 
In this video he explains his theory about why ordinary people can suddenly turn evil, or on the contrary: do good.
He hereby introduces the concept of a tipping point. A critical moment where the decision of doing good or doing evil is made, and how it works. 

Philip Zimbardo has broadly explained this groundbreaking theory in his book, The Lucifer Effect (2007).  

(Source: ted.com)

(Reblogged from brooklynmutt)
“
Here’s the thing about being a girlie girl. I think there was a generation before us that felt like they needed to act like men to be taken seriously, like they had to use their sexuality to take control of people. I don’t judge people for that. But I don’t want to take all my clothes off and use myself as an object. It’s part of the machine and I don’t think that necessarily pushes us forward as women. I think you can still be girlie and maintain your power. The fact that you associate being girlie with being non-threatening, that is … I mean, I can’t think of more blatant example of playing into exactly the thing that we’re trying to fight against. I can’t be girlie? Why do I need to be defined aesthetically by someone else’s perceptions of what makes me seem like someone who should be taken seriously? I’m going to wear whatever I want to wear, because I’m expressing myself, and I deserve that right. And I like the way that looks. You’re not demeaning yourself by acting girlie. I think the fact that people are associating being girlie with weakness, that needs to be examined. Not me dressing girlie. I don’t think that undermines my power at all.

Zooey Deschanel via NEW YORK MAGAZINE

Though I have yet to see THE NEW GIRL, I am so thrilled with the success of a female led comedy-I can’t wait to check it out!

(via shopmyrtle)

(Reblogged from the-sprawl)

Four Horsemen

rtamerica:

Thom Hartmann: Life in Post-Legal America?

Steal 50 bucks in candy bars from a 7-11 - go to jail. But if you steal 50 MILLION bucks from public pensions on Wall Street - here’s a bailout. It appears as though our rule of law breaks down once you pass the 6th zero in someone’s bank account. But it’s not just this tale of two justice systems that’s weighing down the rule of law in America. It’s our foreign policy strategy too. Our current war in Libya is raging for more than 2 months now without legal authority. So while the crimes mount - and our politicians and CEOs don their immunity badges - the rest of America is going head to head against monster security machines like the PATRIOT Act and the Nixon War on Drugs. So the question…When the rule of law has broken down within a nation built on laws…what is left?

(by TheBigPictureRT)

(Reblogged from liberalsarecool)
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Not only does the concentration of power tend to cause wars, but, equally, wars and the fear of them bring about the necessity for the concentration of power. So long as the community is exposed to sudden dangers, the possibility of quick decision is absolutely necessary to self-preservation. The cumbrous machinery of deliberative decisions by the people is impossible in a crisis, and therefore so long as crises are likely to occur, it is impossible to abolish the almost autocratic power of governments. In this case, as in most others, each of two correlative evils tends to perpetuate the other. The existence of men with the habit of power increases the risk of war, and the risk of war makes it impossible to establish a system where no man possesses great power.
Bertrand Russell, Proposed Roads to Freedom (1923)
(Reblogged from mohandasgandhi)
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In 2009, fewer civilians were reported killed in the war zone of Iraq than were shot, stabbed, or beaten to death in Guatemala.

Rodrigo Rosenberg’s Murder in Guatemala : The New Yorker

THIS ARTICLE IS ASTOUNDING

(via ohheybill)

This is a long article, but a worthwhile read.

(Reblogged from ohheybill)
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That an arch-conservative pro-life zealot like [Steve] King is eager to restrict women’s health care options is not news, but the reason King gave last night for defunding Planned Parenthood was straight out of a 1950s sex ed class. “Planned Parenthood,” King said gravely, “is invested in promiscuity.”

To be fair, King implied he might offer a fuller explanation of Planned Parenthood’s “investment” at another time, but this comment by itself is revealing. By suggesting that sexually active women who use family planning services just want license to be “promiscuous,” King’s speech exposes the current anti-abortion drive in the House for what it is: a condescending effort to punish women for some imagined “promiscuity.”

via Political Correction (via citysleep)

Like I said before, this new found zeal from politicians for saving fetuses isn’t about saving fetuses at all. It’s about power. Specifically, power over women who they think should be punished for having sex and should be kept barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen.

(Reblogged from turnabout)

Is February "women-hating" month?

motherjones:

A Georgia bill would outlaw ALL abortion and any action that could possibly cause miscarriage.

I try to be mindful of my dystopian literary comparisons, because sometimes references to 1984 are overused, but if this isn’t foreshadowing for The Handmaid’s Tale, then what the fuck is it?

(Reblogged from motherjones)
motherjones: Eight charts that explain everything that’s wrong with America. View high resolution

motherjones:

Eight charts that explain everything that’s wrong with America.

(Reblogged from motherjones)

It’s about power

This attack on Planned Parenthood and the increasing restrictions on abortion around the country has a lot less to do with any “pro-life” stance than we think, though it’s certainly a convenient cover and gets support from a large religious base.

No, let’s face reality — it’s really about power and the ability to dictate when and how women have sex, and to punish them for having it at all.

If it wasn’t about that — power and control — then they’d be throwing money at Planned Parenthood for contraception and education, allowing women under 30 to get their tubes tied, and focusing some of their abundant attention on ensuring men take responsibility for sex as much as women are forced to.