Archetype Writing Blog

Q: What would it take to set off a killing spree in 2 angry teenage misfits? Would the more people they kill the more they go insane? Would their fractured mental state and loose view on morals be obvious?

New Article: The Line Between Good and Evil Lies in the Human Heart: Philip Zimbardo's Prison Experiment & The Lucifer Effect

Summary: An overview of the infamous Stanford Prison Experiment, along with discussion of Phil Zimbardo's new book, The Lucifer Effect, and his comments on it at a recent talk.

What I want to know right before I get on an airplane is that I'm especially likely to blow up today.

People are already paranoid. And being crammed in a metal tube with a bunch of strangers so you can all hurtle through the air at several hundred miles an hour (after having your sealed Diet Pepsi taken away at the gate In The Interest of National Security) is already stressful. (Especially after being forced to pay three times the price of your soda for a bottle half the size.)

So the most obvious question here is, "What purpose does a sign like this really serve?"

Terrorism: "the systematic use of terror, the deliberate creation and exploitation of fear for bringing about political change." - Prentice Hall

Now let's think about this. Who is scaring us with this sign? And what is they're hoping we'll do? You decide, but here's a little blast from the past to consider:

"Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger." - Adolph Hitler, repeated later by Joseph Goebbels

Now, I'm not saying we haven't been attacked or that there are no threats.

I'm just asking if signs like this might not benefit our government juuuuuust a little?