I said, "Obie did you think I was going to hang myself for littering?"
I nearly did. In my recent distress over the turning and turning of our world's widening gyre, I almost dug myself a hole and pulled the dirt in after me. Confidentially, all that was left was the dirt-pulling. But thank the Universe, Richard came back and told me I was still a "good child". ;-)
So here I am doing my good, pain in the ass child routine for all to see.
This is your assignment. It involves reading and thinking and angsting, but I know you're all up to the task. In light of all that's happening in our very skewed world, the very warped US of A, I want you to read some of the works of the social psychologist Phillip Zimbardo, recently retired from Stanford University. He was the man who authored and supervised the Stanford Prison Experiment in the early 1970s. I'm not going to front-load this. You will have to read it for yourself, if you're inclined, and let me know your thoughts. While you're doing that, read the PDF of one of his recent papers.
The links:
The Stanford Prison Experiment ... at the top is a link to the Slide Show. It is long and worth the effort.
Next: Current essays ... click on the one that reads: A Situationist Perspective on the Psychology of Evil: Understanding How Good People Are Transformed into Perpetrators (2003)
My husband, my dear heart, tells me that I should not let this stuff consume me. He worries. I tell him that I don't know how it can't consume me. I can still get to a Buddhist sort of "still point" inside me, but I live in this world, ... and many things are coming apart. (Some of those things need to come apart, don't mistake me for some sort of reformist. I'm not that. I'm nutty, but not that nutty. LOL) I wanted to post a nifty photo of our Happy Planet from space but couldn't find one. I'm hoping Richard can help me out.
Addendum 3:28 PM PDT: I found a wonderful photo of Earth from Mars. It's too big to link here for you to see, but you can see it here. I just put it on my Mac G4 desktop. Black background. It's magnificent. Enjoy our big blue, green and white marble in space.
Update 10:40PM EDT
