Canary in the Coal Mine - Day

8:03PM

Until it's proven otherwise, why not assume that consciousness does not play a significant role in human behavior? Although the idea may seem radical at first, it is actually the conservative position, the one that makes the fewest assumptions. The null position is the antidote to philosopher's disease—the inappropriate attribution of rational, conscious control over processes that may be irrational and unconscious. The argument is not that we lack consciousness but that we overestimate the conscious control of behavior.

( ... tālāk ... )

9:15PM - Cibas Nostradamus

Blakus Saeimai ir glauno dzērienu veikals, kura vitrīnu izšķaidīs vienu no pirmajām.

— unpy, 2009. gada 9. janvārī

Cilvēku rīcība nonācis jau viens Latvijas Balzama veikals.

— Reportāža no Vecrīgas, 2009. gada 13. janvārī

9:21PM

mežaparkā dzirdu daudz sirēnu un blīkšķu

10:25PM

In his book, The Psychology of Group Aggression, psychologist Arnold Goldstein explains theories behind group aggression. Goldstein defined mobs as “a crowd acting under strong emotional conditions that often lead to violence or illegal acts.” He further explained that a riot is “an instance of mob violence, with the destruction of property or looting, or violence against people.” To Goldstein, “mobs are the product of a process of evolution” and they are formed by people sharing the same “conscious or unconscious needs.”

( ... tālāk ... )

10:56PM

[Terrible] is the danger of going along with the crowd. In truth, there is no place, not even one most disgustingly dedicated to lust and vice, where a human being is more easily corrupted — than in the crowd.

Even though every individual possesses the truth, when he gets together in a crowd, untruth will be present at once, for the crowd is untruth. It either produces impenitence and irresponsibility or it weakens the individual's sense of responsibility by placing it in a fractional category.

Therefore everyone who will genuinely serve the truth is by that very fact a martyr. To win a crowd is no art; for that only untruth is needed, nonsense, and a little knowledge of human passions. But no witness to the truth dares to get involved with the crowd.

Those who speak to the crowd, coveting its approval, those who deferentially bow and scrape before it must be regarded as being worse than prostitutes. They are instruments of untruth.

— Søren Kierkegaard