Sunday, May 6, 2012

Humans, Monkeys, and Intellectual Decisions

I often refer to the American Population as being stupid and I often make reference of people as monkeys. How intelligent are people? Why does history consistently repeat and why do people make the same mistakes over and over? Where did the cliche "monkey see, monkey do" come from? I absolutely love this video of Laurie Santos speaking of her research using monkeys to answer a question about Human Beings. I am guessing that this discussion may not grab the interest of most Americans considering it requires thought. I know that the few who see this and understand what she is talking about and can follow what she is saying and then follow up by relating it to what they see around them will absolutely get this whole concept. Those who are capable of thinking on their own may even form a logical opinion of their own. This is a 20 minute video but it goes by quickly if you pay attention and understand what she is saying. I wanted to share this on my blog because in my opinion this points out the major flaws in our society and I think that this information gives an extremely important perspective on how Human Beings make decisions.




So many times I was involved in a conversation on a social media site and everyone involved in the conversation are putting in their thoughts and opinions as to what they believe and how they feel about the subject including me. I will then share a link to an article from a credible site that I thought would be a good valuable piece of information that would add value to the conversation. Every single time with out fail, the group participating in the conversation will make a comment or a judgement about the title of the link with out even opening the link and viewing/reading the contents. Usually I link short articles that should only take 5 minutes of a literate persons time to read. They make a judgement on an assumption of what the contents are about with out even looking at it first. People often make decisions or form an opinion on something with out getting all the information or even enough information to make a logical decision. I will use the recent event of Treyvon. Only a small part of the facts were disclosed to the public and because one side was screaming the loudest with a twist on a small portion of the facts, the general public made an uninformed decision and formed an opinion as if it were the absolute truth. The public were outraged by the half truths that were made public and they were outraged with out asking for all of the facts. Turns out Treyvon was not the innocent little 14 year old boy he was portrayed to be although the public made a decision on only a limited amount of information.

I received the request in my email to sign a petition that did not have all the information and was only filled with claims of a crime that was obviously void of facts. I did not sign that petition because I needed more information to make my decision, I needed to know all the facts that were available. I tend to see things from a different perspective. I don't really believe it has anything to do with I.Q. at all. I actually believe it has to do with how we think, how we choose to see the world. I believe it is our choices that are skewed.  Our choices to make a decision with out asking any questions to get the rest of the facts.  Choices to let others do the thinking for us. I believe Americans are Lazy in very many ways.

Keep in mind I do not believe I am SMARTER or BETTER than the rest. I just believe I ask more questions and am capable and willing to THINK for myself. The world would be a better place if it were filled with rational, logical, people who are willing to work their lazy minds and actually think for themselves. The way we process and make decisions goes back hundreds of thousands of generations. I hope you can listen to this very bright woman, Laurie Santos, and form an opinion of your own.


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