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Vashna
Toucan
Joined: Apr 20, 2008
Posts: 253
Location: Illinois
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 Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 3:40 am Post subject: Airplane Activity |
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I was not sure if this was the right area to post this in, or if I should have posted it in school. Sorry if it is out of place.
I have to take this bothersome 'Introduction to College' course over the summer, regardless of the fact that I have been in college for some time now. In the class we did an activity last week that consisted of a hypothetical (And admittedly wholly unrealistic) situation where eight hostages are on a hijacked airplane and you have to select the four most useful to live, while you allow the terrorists to take the lives of the remaining four. As absurd as it sounds, this was supposed to teach time management by way of analogy.
Ever since I did the activity, I have been questioning the value of life and no matter how much I tell myself otherwise, I can't shake the idea that I shouldn't be alive because someone else better than me could take my place.
Any advice? |
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CanyonWind
Phoenix
Joined: Sep 12, 2006
Posts: 1346
Location: West of the Great Divide
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| Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 4:17 am Post subject: |
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Like you being on earth is preventing somebody else from being here?
You mean a better singer, or a better hockey player?
_________________
Yet could we turn the years again,
And call those exiles as they were
In all their loneliness and pain,
You'd cry, 'Some woman's yellow hair
Has maddened every mother's son.' -Yeats |
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Vashna
Toucan
Joined: Apr 20, 2008
Posts: 253
Location: Illinois
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| Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 4:21 am Post subject: |
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| Right, like someone else deserves to be here more than me. |
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MrEckshun
Tufted Titmouse
Joined: May 09, 2008
Age: 28
Posts: 31
Location: Northern Colorado
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| Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 4:21 am Post subject: |
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| Yowza! That seems like a slightly TERRIBLE thing to base a "learning exercise" around. I'm probably the wrong person to be giving advice at the moment, so I won't. But to equate the unemotional intellectualization of murder with effective time management systems? As if people need to care LESS about each other? Sign that bozo teacher up for every free product-trial you can find. |
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matsuiny2004
Phoenix
Joined: Mar 23, 2008
Posts: 1443
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| Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 4:21 am Post subject: Re: Airplane Activity |
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| Vashna wrote: | I was not sure if this was the right area to post this in, or if I should have posted it in school. Sorry if it is out of place.
I have to take this bothersome 'Introduction to College' course over the summer, regardless of the fact that I have been in college for some time now. In the class we did an activity last week that consisted of a hypothetical (And admittedly wholly unrealistic) situation where eight hostages are on a hijacked airplane and you have to select the four most useful to live, while you allow the terrorists to take the lives of the remaining four. As absurd as it sounds, this was supposed to teach time management by way of analogy.
Ever since I did the activity, I have been questioning the value of life and no matter how much I tell myself otherwise, I can't shake the idea that I shouldn't be alive because someone else better than me could take my place.
Any advice? |
your life has just as much meaning as anybody elses, you have a right to exist.
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A person that does not think he has problems already has one-Me |
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Aaron_Mason
Phoenix
Joined: Jul 04, 2005
Age: 23
Posts: 630
Location: Bathurst, Australia
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| Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 4:50 am Post subject: |
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I agree with everyone here - it is a terrible way to teach time management - I fail completely to see what relevance it has, actually.
Also, you have as much right to be here as anybody else. In the grand scheme of things, we all have a part to play - however obscure that part may seem.
_________________
We are one, we are strong... the more you hold us down, the more we press on - Creed, "What If"
AS is definitive. Reality is frequently inaccurate.
I'm the same as I was when I was six years old - Modest Mouse |
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sgrannel
Phoenix
Joined: Feb 21, 2008
Posts: 550
Location: USA
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| Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 7:21 am Post subject: Re: Airplane Activity |
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| Vashna wrote: | I was not sure if this was the right area to post this in, or if I should have posted it in school. Sorry if it is out of place.
I have to take this bothersome 'Introduction to College' course over the summer, regardless of the fact that I have been in college for some time now. In the class we did an activity last week that consisted of a hypothetical (And admittedly wholly unrealistic) situation where eight hostages are on a hijacked airplane and you have to select the four most useful to live, while you allow the terrorists to take the lives of the remaining four. As absurd as it sounds, this was supposed to teach time management by way of analogy.
Ever since I did the activity, I have been questioning the value of life and no matter how much I tell myself otherwise, I can't shake the idea that I shouldn't be alive because someone else better than me could take my place.
Any advice? |
Wow, this is ridiculous. Is it any wonder college students have so many difficulties these days, on top of rising tuition costs. Don't buy into any of the guilt trips, like how all men are rapists and women don't deserve to eat. People have become very unhealthy because of things like this.
If I thought this way, I would have guilted myself out of existence by now, and then none of the things I'm doing now would ever get done. Think of it the other way. You are taking the place of someone less deserving, such as a former mailbox smasher/current pedestrian terrorizer like myself.
 
But seriously, pressure tactics don't work on some people, even when there is a genuine need to get things done more quickly. I'm one of them, and maybe you are too.
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You should get to know me better. No one's ever what they seem.-- Shirley Manson |
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roguetech
Deinonychus
Joined: Feb 14, 2008
Age: 35
Posts: 350
Location: Climax
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| Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 4:17 pm Post subject: Re: Airplane Activity |
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| Vashna wrote: | | Ever since I did the activity, I have been questioning the value of life and no matter how much I tell myself otherwise, I can't shake the idea that I shouldn't be alive because someone else better than me could take my place. |
You have to first place parameters on that question. Evolution and life in general places the emphasis on virality, ability to survive, and (for humans) raise our young. Intelligence, generosity, humor, creativity, etc., etc., only factor in to the extent that they facilitate having young and fostering their survival to reproductive age.
So first provide us the parameters of the "most useful" people.
Quite frankily, if I am one of those eight people, I'm at the top of the "survive" list. My parameters of "most useful" would be those that are most likely to assist me in a comfortable and happy life, so obviously, I'm at the top of the list.
I assume they gave ages, whether they were married, had kids, what profession, etc... My questions would be which are the richest, and which most likely to give rewards for saving them...
I'm not as self-centered as this may make me seem, but the people who "make a difference" to the world at large (Einstien, Hitler, etc.) are so very very few. You could make a statement like old people are less valuable than a child, but... an old person is going to die soon, therefore they help by not being a burden on others. Or that a doctor is more important than a ditch digger. But the doctor may be depressing the employment market for other doctors, or causing people to be a greater burden on society by keeping alive people who are less productive. Even those who "make a difference", the difference they make may be good or bad. Really, the only objective way to deal with a question like that, is to look at how a choice benifits you, or just randomly pick them... There's no way you can pick the "wrong" person to live. Especially if the choice is yourself. |
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flailure
Phoenix
Joined: Dec 13, 2007
Posts: 632
Location: my office
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| Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 5:36 pm Post subject: |
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Those "exercises" are so damn ridiculous. They are designed to make you believe that you only have a limited number of options in any given scenario. Bullshit. They're also designed to see how you would deal with a no-win scenario. I say there's no such thing. Kobayashi Maru. Never mind that the arguments are entirely ludicrous: "What if the guy you're saving would go on to become the next Einstein?" Who gives a sh**? If steinie part zwei is going to sit there and let his fate be decided by a group of misguided freshmen rather than using his genius to outsmart the terrorists then what good is he anyway?
What is your place, and what makes it so important that you're not even qualified to occupy it?
The paradox of purpose: there's a grand design for our lives, yet we're unworthy of fulfilling it.
I spent most of my life thinking that way thanks to religion, and still struggle with echoes of it, in fact, but it's total and complete garbage. I no longer concern myself with the concept of personal value. I'm liberated from the shackles of predestination. I embrace free will.
On a personal level, one reason I could think of for you to stick around a bit longer is that we need more people like you who can actually craft an intelligent sentence. It's like food for my soul and gives me hope that we're not on a total decline as a civilization.
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"What if there were no hypothetical questions?"
- George Carlin |
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Vashna
Toucan
Joined: Apr 20, 2008
Posts: 253
Location: Illinois
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| Posted: Sat Jun 28, 2008 12:51 am Post subject: |
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| You've all really made me come around (And see how ridiculous that assignment was in the end.) I want to thank everyone who responded to me - you all really have helped me out. |
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LostInEmulation
Penguin
Joined: Feb 11, 2008
Posts: 1271
Location: Germany
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| Posted: Sat Jun 28, 2008 6:37 am Post subject: |
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I don't know what this situation is supposed to teach but an unhealthy approach to ethics. The value of a person is not the money they earn or the job they work in. It is the fact that they all are humans. Every human being has the same inherent value. If I came into such an assignment, I'd quote the quran (the part which says that if you kill one person it is like killing humanity entirely) and leave (I am not even a Muslim, I just think this is an awe-inspiring way of putting it).
_________________
I am no native speaker. Please contact me, if I made grammatical mistakes in the posting above.
GENERATION 20: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation. Social experiment. |
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Vashna
Toucan
Joined: Apr 20, 2008
Posts: 253
Location: Illinois
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| Posted: Sat Jun 28, 2008 9:08 pm Post subject: |
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That comment especially reminds me of another horrifying activity I had to do in college. We had to decide who to save, assuming that the Earth was overcome with such pestilence that only 200 individuals could survive. It was supposed to be for the 'team building' value of it.
Hey, do you guys mind if I bring up another problem? Another one that makes me question the validity of my existence?
Basically, I am a hobby photographer. Whenever I try to photograph things in public, I always get questioned about what I am doing. As can be expected, I don't have the greatest of social skills. So this is usually pretty hard for me to articulate my words into something understandable. Nevertheless, people usually think something suspicious of me. I really have begun to think I should just give the whole thing up. |
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matsuiny2004
Phoenix
Joined: Mar 23, 2008
Posts: 1443
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| Posted: Sat Jun 28, 2008 9:47 pm Post subject: |
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| Vashna wrote: | That comment especially reminds me of another horrifying activity I had to do in college. We had to decide who to save, assuming that the Earth was overcome with such pestilence that only 200 individuals could survive. It was supposed to be for the 'team building' value of it.
Hey, do you guys mind if I bring up another problem? Another one that makes me question the validity of my existence?
Basically, I am a hobby photographer. Whenever I try to photograph things in public, I always get questioned about what I am doing. As can be expected, I don't have the greatest of social skills. So this is usually pretty hard for me to articulate my words into something understandable. Nevertheless, people usually think something suspicious of me. I really have begun to think I should just give the whole thing up. |
do not give up the photography. It is ok to photograph things in public as long as it is not people. If they do not believe you or have problems wiht you besides that then it is their problem.
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A person that does not think he has problems already has one-Me |
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Vashna
Toucan
Joined: Apr 20, 2008
Posts: 253
Location: Illinois
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| Posted: Sat Jun 28, 2008 9:52 pm Post subject: |
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| Technically, here in the US you can photograph people who are in public and are in full view, but I don't out of respect. It seems a good bit rude, and there is a whole mess of copyright things to deal with. Thank you seriously for your vote of confidence. |
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