Vaennessa Eng 216 blog

I will say that this video got my gears turning. I always thought of prejudice as being bad. It's always had a stigma and negative connotation swirling around it. For that reason, I've kind of steered away from talking about it. Depending on the context, it's quite controversial. In the beginning of the video, I thought to myself, "where is this going? This dude is bold for making such an unheard-of statement." But, as Dr. Bloom continued his presentation and elaborated on his interpretation of prejudice, I totally saw where he was coming from. Prejudice is this natural instinct that all humans have. When used to stigmatize, belittle, and spur hatred,  prejudice is a nasty concept. When used to make general associations and serve as a general guideline in decision making, it can be quite a useful tool to us. A point that Dr. Bloom brought up was that if we weren't able to make guesses about new situations, we wouldn't survive. He quotes William Hazzlet who...

  I'm actually super surprised that I didn't have an automatic association between male and female with science and liberal arts. That actually makes me super happy because I was brought up in a household that emphasized science for the men and arts for the women. I am a naturally gifted artist and musician which I've always felt extremely blessed for. I often dabbled in them in my down time. It never took much training, so I'd be able to pick up a pencil and draw portraits or listen to a song on the piano, YouTube it and then play it. The thing was, I didn't want to make a career out of those subjects because doing so would make my hobbies and passions feel like a chore. I liked the freedom to choose when I drew and when I played. With the sciences, I felt differently. I was never encouraged to participate in that, and I was didn't know if I'd ever be good at it. Truthfully, it was quite intimidating at first, and the fact that I felt so behind and lacking ...

I was not able to view the first YouTube link, so I won't be able to answer questions or reference my blog to that. However, I was able to view the video Evolution Explains Kindness. I think this video offers a lot of interesting points about the complexity of human behavior and human evolution. I personally think that kindness is the loophole we have found that helps in the preservation of our species as a whole. Many people think that kindness is a weakness, but it has been proven that kindness is a valuable asset to survival and can be genetically passed down through natural selection. So although it may not make sense to help others outside of our gene pool from a Darwinian frame of reference, it does make sense from a humanistic one. Dr. Bloom made a statement that I really understood and felt connected to. "There's one puzzle that often comes up concerning cases where people risk or sacrifice their life for a stranger. People often refute this concept. They believe i...

What do we get out of the pain and suffering we choose to experience? What does it add to our lives? Does suffering make us better, stronger, or more moral? Is there a pleasure in suffering so we can search for meaning? What categorizes the term suffering? What is the spectrum of suffering? Why do we seek out suffering? One of the points Dr. Bloom made was that we seek out voluntary suffering as a means to serve other goals in life. The reward of achieving that goal is greater when we put ourselves through the "suffering". Suffering is a very broad term. As stated in the video, it does not have to mean a deeply traumatic experience. Suffering can be something as simple as a minor inconvenience such as choosing to stay home and study for an exam instead of going out to a party with friends.  Ultimately, I think we put ourselves through involuntary suffering because it creates such a contrast with joy. It makes us acknowledge our happiness because we are grateful that the suffe...