A really interesting read on how dystopian narratives can incite real-world radicalism. By dystopian narratives, think something like the Hunger Games novels.
To test the impact of dystopian fiction on political attitudes, we randomly assigned subjects from a sample of American adults to one of three groups. The first group read an excerpt from The Hunger Games and then watched scenes from the 2012 movie adaptation. The second group did the same, except with a different dystopian series – Veronica Roth’s Divergent (2011-18). It features a futuristic US in which society has split into factions dedicated to distinct values; those whose capabilities cross faction lines are viewed as a threat. In the third group – the no-media control group – subjects were not exposed to any dystopian fiction prior to answering questions about their social and political attitudes.
What we found was striking. Even though they were fictional, the dystopian narratives affected subjects in a profound way, recalibrating their moral compasses. Compared with the no-media control group, subjects exposed to the fiction were 8 percentage points more likely to say that radical acts such as violent protest and armed rebellion could be justifiable. They also agreed more readily that violence is sometimes necessary to achieve justice (a similar increase of about 8 percentage points).
It's a beautiful Friday today. Well, it looked beautiful outside, based on what I saw from when I went out to bring in some packages. We are still very much under stay at home orders here. Still very much working from home. Anyway, let's listen to some music shall we? I have 3 songs for today. Let's get started.
To start off, we have “Crawling” by the band Dream State. This is a cover of Linkin Park's original track. It starts out slow, almost like a somber cover of the original, mourning the loss of Linkin Park's Chester Bennington. Thankfully the band does the song justice when it brings in the guitars and the drums and lets the song soar at the end. This is a proper rock cover of the original.
Yeah the world is contingent and everything in it. It comes to be, it passes away. What does that tell us? It tells us that nothing in the world contains within itself the reason for its own existence. Nothing in the world explains itself. If it did, it would always exist. It would have within itself the reason for its being. So, since it comes into being and passes away, we know it doesn't contain in itself the reason for its own existence.
Therefore, by a very healthy instinct, and every single scientist in the world knows this, by a healthy instinct we begin to look for... causes.
– Bishop Barron
All it took was for me to watch the intro to this video and I was hooked. You don't even have to be religious to be intrigued by what was said in the intro. Bishop Barron doesn't even mention the word “God” until the last 2 minutes of the video.
He goes on to discuss about contingency and contingency of the world. I was blown away. It's something I've never even considered or much less thought of.
After a very hectic week where I had to work overtime to finish my task, yes just one task for a single 2-week sprint, I'm so glad that it's Friday and that we're on a new, hopefully, much less stressful sprint. I'll celebrate by writing a music log entry for one of my favorite rock bands, Finch.
It all started with this track, “What It Is to Burn?” This song was my first introduction to “Screamo” back in the early 2000s. I've heard of other emo, post-hardcore bands back then, but no one combined screaming with beautiful melodies like the band Finch did. When I first heard the song, I was amazed that a band could make a song sound so good even when it featured some all-out screaming vocals. It sounded insane and blissful at the same time.
Finch was one of those bands that got me through a tough time in college. Their music was basically the soundtrack of my life then and it served to form the basis of my musical tastes going forward. While I'm still very much into pop-rock and pop-punk, I would never be listening to post-hardcore and metalcore bands nowadays if it wasn't for Finch.
It's not Friday, but I have been struggling through work, trying to come up with a solution that fits the requirements listed in the user story. I'm struggling because I cannot come up with a solution that doesn't involve blowing up other parts of the code. Obviously that's not good, but I'm also running out of options. Anyway, I want to clear my mind. So let's listen to some music shall we?
If you think emo music is dead, well think again. First up is the song “The Fire, The Dark” by the rock band As It Is. It is a pretty good track that sounds like it very much fits into the emo pop category.
I did not pick up this book on my own since it was a Christmas gift. That said, it was on my “to-read” list, which is how my sister figured out what to give me for Christmas.
I first saw this book while browsing at Barnes and Nobles. The word “Contentments” in the title caught my eye. I have been looking for books that can help me understand how to be happy with what I currently have, how to be content with the life I have. This book seemed to fit the bill, so I added it to my list. Plus, it is a beautiful book, what with its hardcover and full colored pages.
What I have in this music log are two songs from some rather unfamiliar bands. I only came upon their songs from the Discover Weekly playlist on Spotify. But just because the songs are from unfamiliar bands, doesn't mean the songs aren't any good. I invite you to give them a chance and take a listen.
First up is the song “Arrows” by the band Last Winter. I tried looking for a music video for this song on Youtube and couldn't find one. I tried looking for lyrics to this song on Bing and couldn't find them. So, like I said above, unfamiliar bands. The only link I could find to this song is through Spotify, so Spotify it is then. Anyway their Spotify bio suggests that they are a pop rock band, which I guess is only partly true. This song is more than just a pop rock track though, as it has hints of pop punk or emo pop to it. Either way, a pretty good song.
In my journal entry from yesterday, I made a note to myself to write a proper music log entry for the three rock songs I liked after listening to the Top 50 Rock Songs of 2019 countdown. So here they are.
First song is “Degenerates” by A Day to Remember. This is not your typical ADTR track. This one is a little too soft compared to the rest of their tracks, but it is a good one nonetheless.
It's been almost a month since my last music log. Some significant things have happened that prevented me from having enough free time to write down music logs on Fridays. Anyway, it is Friday, I have a bit of time after an exhausting session of running into one bug after another, none of which are caused by the code changes I'm trying to test.
Anyway the two songs I have lined up today are inspirational and uplifting songs. How much of a coincidence is it, that these are the songs that are next in my list to share in a music log entry, all while the world is going through a global pandemic?
First up is the song “Brave” by Skillet. I love, love, love the lyrics on this song. This song goes out to everyone on the front lines fighting to keep this virus from overwhelming the world.
Wherever I will go
Wherever you will lead
I'll never walk alone
Your spirit is with me
oh oh oh oh oh
You're with me as I go
So I will not be afraid
You call me to be brave
In you, in you
Brave
In you, you call me to be brave
Finished reading The Simple Path to Wealth a few days ago, so I thought I'll share my thoughts on it.
Why did I pick up this book?
I don't exactly remember how I heard about JL Collins' book, but somehow I did and that lead me to reading the first few pages of his book. I liked what I read and decided to purchase the book. Before picking this up, I was looking for another book on personal finance that is mainly focused on getting out of debt. That wasn't exactly what this book focused on, but I liked it nonetheless.