A Persuasive RSAnimate
View two or three examples of RSAnimates and then choose the one you find most persuasive.
In a paragraph, explain why you find it persuasive (in a way, persuade us that we should also watch it!). Post your paragraph here (150 to 200 words) before coming to class.
Be sure to bring your work to class, word processed, next Wednesday.
19 comments:
“The Paradox of Choice” presented by Renata Salecl is the most persuasive lecture. The author reveals the fears and the anxiety we incur in front of everyday choice, ever more so when we realize that for every choice we make we lose the possibility of another. Mrs Salecl recalls Freud analysis of individual and society – the civilisation influences the individual and vice versa – while the Capitalist society is creating sterile individuals. The consequence of this individualism is the belief that we are in charge of ourselves although we are not, and this belief takes us to the extreme (anorexia, bulimia, and workaholism). Renata Salecl asks herself, ‘“Why the freedom of choice is not an optimistic ideology and why is [..] preventing social changes?” She came up with the theory that we are taking personal responsibilities instead of organising ourselves in order to change the society. In other words, we let the society change us because we have the fear of changing it. I recommend viewing “the Paradox of Choice” to understand that the freedom of choice can be only a belief and not a fact.
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Today I watched a few of the RSA Animated lectures, the one I found quite interesting and persuasive is "The Secret Powers of Time." I think everyone should take the time and watch this video because, it took many examples out of today, and the past how different religions/cultures, countries, and age groups spend there time today. For example in the video the man took the country Italy and split it into North and South. The North was said how everyone there is always so much more in a rush, and work harder, while those who are in the South are way more laid back and care more about creating and spending time with there families. Another example would be analyzing between our parents generation, and today's young kids. Kids have been so fortunate to have the technology we have today, but unfortunately due that they have no patients what so ever. For example they have no patience to wait in a line up, or they even go nuts waiting for a computer game to download. Comparing to our parents generation they did not have the luxury of what we are getting introduce to, they had to make time by playing outside. This video really made me realize that you can not have the best of both worlds where your either wasting time, or your not sacrificing enough time. I suggest that everyone should take the time and watch this lecture.
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Smile Or Die by Barbara Ehrenreich, combines both negative and positive aspects of how a human being can internally feel, as well as their external reactions one person may have in being able to stay in a positive mindset. Barbara was able to have the audience seek beyond what a person may think inside their mind, to be more open minded and see things outside the box. The mind focuses more on the bad aspect’s causing our thoughts to be bubbled up with confusion and have delusional thoughts on, what ifs, buts, and can not’s. One very big key to this lecture was learning about the physical world and how effective positive thinking can change a person physically and emotionally worldwide, with as simple as being happy!
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The Power of Quiet
"The Power of Quiet" by Author Susan Cain is worth viewing since it is infused with distinctive personality. Mostly, we describe characters in two ways: extroverts and introverts, extroverts are prized above introverts. Our society is inclined to extroverts as leaders. In contrast, Cain has a opinion of personality that introverts bring extraordinary talents and abilities to the word, and should be encouraged and celebrated. She argues that the world needs an equal space between introverts and extroverts. A symbolic example is that we tend to associate Apple with Steve Jobs( but really it was). In the meanwhile, as we know, two Steve(Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak) create Apple, the world would be creative with the two coming together. The creative world needs teamwork. Cain's talk is infused with typical messages, I guess you will find "The Power of Quiet" quite a thing to see.
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The Crises of Capitalism
" The Crises of Capitalism," by marxist geographer David Harvey, had a deep and immediate
impact on me. His explanatory lecture on the capitalism problems, was extremely unique. He
divided these problems into the five parts : (1) The human frailty which is the human nature
and " we can't do anything about that." , (2) Institutional failures which have to be
reconfigured by the system, (3) Everybody was obsessed with a false theory which is about
efficiency of market,(4) Cultural origins , and (5) Failure of policy. He really enlightened me
by his explanation. I felt the weight of his words when he talked about media's devastating
effects on people who live under the rules of capitalism. They are confused by their
propaganda. On the other hand, the capitalism doesn't let workers to form an alliance which
endangers the capitalism life. Therefore , " they sent many of them to the jail" - especially in
the Reagan presidency- , and they controlled their excessive power. I really agree with David
Harvey when he said, " the capitalism never solves its crises problems. It moves them around
geographically! ".
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“Crisis of Capitalism”, by Marxist geographer David Harvey, presents some interesting ideas about capitalism after the financial crisis happened in 2008. The lecturer gives us five genres of the financial crisis: human frailty, institutional failures, obsessed with a false theory, cultural origins, and failure of policy. His opinions help us to understand why the crisis is unavoidable in the capitalist society. Then, he thinks the financial crisis is caused by the systemic risk of capitalism, and he describes the history of capitalism. Furthermore, he tries to find a method to solve this problem with the Marxist theory. His idea is capitalism never solves its crises problems. According to his lecture, we can review several crises since 1970s. These crises have the same genres like the financial crisis in 2008. Current capitalist system cannot prevent the crisis from happening again. A new phenomenon is that some countries like China and India have the competitive advantage against the western capitalism. This change makes us “have a duty to change our mode of thinking.” As a person from China, I believe it is a special view to observe capitalism by listening to “Crisis of Capitalism.”
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RSA : “Language as a Window into Human Nature
“Language as a Window into Human Nature,” by Professor Steven Pinker describes key features of a language. His lecture is well worth watching for anyone who had experienced confusion in conversation with others. No one can deny, “Language is a window into social relations.” Two things language has to do is to convey content and to negotiate a relationship. He divides language into two categories: explicit language and innuendo language. Explicit language is a good way of creating mutual knowledge whereas innuendo provides individual knowledge. Regardless of age, improving proper conversation skills and selecting adequate and sophisticated words for conversation is an ongoing process toward better relations in society. By watching this animation, I am sure you can obtain a deeper knowledge of communication, which you might otherwise had missed. This lecture can be a good source through which you will improve your speaking skills.
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“ The Truth About Dishonesty” by Don Ariely is the most persuasive and interesting RSA Animate I found. The video interests me because it explains why people want to lie - to benefit themselves and why do people be honest- to feel good about themselves. It is very persuasive because lying has happened to every person in the world. People lie everyday. It can be insignificant or as serious as a crime. Most of the people choose to rationalize things like the video has showed. To both benefit and feel good about themselves at the same time. The most interesting fact of the video is that out of 30,000 people 12 of them are big cheaters whom steal 150 dollars in total. However, there are 18,000 little cheaters steal 36,000 dollars. This static overturns my view about dishonesty. At first I do not understand it. Why is little cheaters steal more than big cheaters? Until I hear the joke that Dan Ariely told; the son came home from school and had a note in his bag wrote that he stole a pencil from the kid next to him. The father was furious, he grounded his son for two weeks, and told him: “ if you need pencils, I can always bring dozens from the office.” It is very true that people think steal from somebody is stealing, but take something from their workplace is not consider stealing. This rationalized thinking has caused the society to lose money. It is a persuasive video which worth the time to watch because it relates to our real life and it shows where have we done wrong, where have we think wrong. Now I have a new understand of our behaviour.
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I reviewed Drive:The surprising truth about what motivates us. It was really interesting and thought provoking. In the lecture he talks about rewarding an employee and the problems that can occur. It can work if you are given a mechanical task, the higher the reward; the better the performance. Once a task goes beyond a mechanical task and into a rudimentary cognitive skill, no matter how enticing a reward offered, the performance was still very low. The lecturer says there are three factors which leads to better performance and personal satisfaction which are: autonomy, mastery, and purpose. Autonomy is the desire to be self directed, I agree because self direction is when you can have great ideas and do your best work. Ultimately motivation comes from within, no reward is going to make you perform better. The drive to do a good job stems from loving what you do and believing in what you are doing.
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With couple of other RSAnimate videos, “The Secret Powers of Time” by Philip Zimbardo caught my attention the most. I learned that there are six ways of how people live their lives in the matter of time. According to the speaker, most of us live for the future, aiming for our goals, success and money. Our time orientation is influenced by religion, culture, country where we live and our age. One of the examples was Italy, where the north is more future oriented and the south more present and past oriented. Another statement suggests that the Catholics are past and present oriented and the Protestants future oriented. In our times people more and more want to do the best in their jobs, sacrificing time with family, friends and their sleep. As it was said, giving them one more day in week would not result in a day of free time. They would work instead. Overall, I assume this lecture is worth watching.
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RSA Animate: Smile or Die
"Smile or Die", by social critic and author Barbara Ehrenreich, explains the new way of thinking positive differently. The realistic thinking is positive, but the dark side of the overdue positive aspect is "delusional". Delusion creates the unreal world that applies to us. The bigger organizations like the workplace, business, and politic would take this advantage from us. For example, Ehrenreich’s lecture mentions the mortgage company created the positive policy; no one can’t say bad thoughts. “It is cruel”, Ehrenreich said. Sometime the negative attitude can change the new image of the world. We allow seeing things negatively and adapting them (negative thoughts) in the supportive method. What the most important to us is we have “collective power” to desire our own world to be happy in the reality life. We can “Smile” or “Die” with it. I suggest that everyone should watch this lecture; your time is worth viewing .Also, there are about 2,175,304 views on YouTube.
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Dan Pink talk about hidden truths behind what really motivates us at home and in the work place is quite interesting. He led us through the scientific facts and studies about the human behavior. The interesting thing was that the study at MIT University did the testing in two different countries and ended up with the same result.Both results showed if the test included mechanical skill, the contestants did as they were expected, however when the task called for more cognitive skill the higher reward led to a poorer performance. The science also showed the three factors that lead to a better performance.Self direction- people that are more engaged at work, also, mastery- to get better at things, practice something for fun, and purpose- to do something that has a purpose. Ultimately, if you give people purpose and freedom to do their work under less pressure, better the outcome.
I watched two RSA lectures, "The Secret Power of Time" by Phlip Zimbardo was more persuasive video for me, so I choose it. This lecture presents that people live in three different way according to time; there are present oriented and future oriented. It is really interesting idea that I have never heard. The choice of the time orientation is easily influenced by our religion or country. He used the example of Catholic nation(people tend to be more present or past oriented) and Protestant nation(they tend to be more future oriented). Also he used the other example case of two shared Italy, and explains the reason why people in Sicily, the south Italy tend to be more past oriented or present hedonistic-because there's no future tense verb in Sicilian dialect! Phlip Zimbardo says, kids who live in nowadays are distinct from adults. They don't want to waste their time for waiting, and today's environment makes most of them are more present hedonism. However, our educational messages are designed for future oriented kids, so our kids will never fit in it. I am so agree with that, for our next generation we have to consider about more fittable and effective way of education. This lecture is very tempting, and the time orientation is such a novel view. I'd like to recommend this to others!
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Compelling Dishonesty
In the RSA Animate “The Truth About Dishonesty”, Dan Ariely provides a great look into the way people view their own actions. He proposes a novel view on how people take morality and unconsciously bend it to suit themselves through rationalization. This bending through rationalization is further biased by peoples inability to view things with true objectivity. Ariely points out that this gives people --who are already inclined by self interest-- extra motivation to come up with reasons why their actions are morally acceptable. He also says that people subconsciously rationalize in this way as a way of continuing to believe that they are, at heart, good people. This means that the desire to be a good person acts as a self regulator for moral behavior. One of the funniest portions of his lecture stems from this and what he calls the “What the hell effect”. This is where people realize that they no longer see themselves as good and stop trying to be so. Dan Ariely takes these points and speaks on a interesting topic in a entertaining manner making “The Truth About Dishonesty” something well worth watching.
Word Count: 190
In the RSA Animate "First as Tragedy, Then as Farce" by Slavaj Zizek shows that charity giving is not as good as it seems. It threatens the addition of poverty to the world as Zizek said "People rebuild with their right hand what they have destroyed with their left." This implies that people wish to give charity but little did they know that they actually increase it. Not only is poverty increased but no matter how much a person tries to stop poverty; it will never diminish. So the question is: how do, we, humans put a stop to this problem? According to Zizek it is to reconstruct the society into making it a better place. So, a bit of giving and receiving (greed) should be found in a person. As well as putting an end to the liberation papers which are only ink on paper and not in actions. Thus, when these conditions are combined, society will become better and less filled with poverty.
Word count: 165 words
It is incredible how the largest and strongest World Economics were frustrated during one-two weeks in 2008 y. In his lectures “Crisis of Capitalism”, Marxist geographer David Harvey, explain why the crisis was unavoidable. I found his explanation the most persuasive and clear because his lecture was organized in perfect way (divided into the five separate but connected parts) and it was supported by very instructive examples. The lecturer gives us five genres of the reason of the financial crisis: human frailty, institutional failures, obsessed with a false theory, cultural origins, and failure of policy. I strongly agree with him when he told about “institutional failures”; “ regulators were asleep at the switch.” It is sad truth; the topmanagers of world banks got the huge annual salary bonuses as if they were not the main authors of crisis. Furthermore, he tries to find a way to solve this problem inside the frame of the Marxist theory. He shows us capitalism never solves its crises problems (all of crises since 1970s have the same scenario). In contrast he says about new phenomenon of Chinese and Indian Economics that have the competitive advantage against the Western Economic. By listening the “Crisis of Capitalism” I believe it is time to change our mind about “efficiency of markets” and try to find compromise between Western and Eastern ways for going out beyond Geography.
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The Truth about Dishonesty
This RSA animate by Dan Ariely is extremely interesting and eye opening. I found this animate helpful and I would recommend everyone to watch it. It is about dishonesty and cheating in our lives. We live with dishonesty and think of not looking bad because we are not “Big cheaters” according to Dan Ariely. He brought up a simple example: He surveyed 30,000 people and only 10 out of them stole $100 each (total of $1000), but the rest all together stole $18,000. The pitty cheaters stole more money than the “Big ten thieves”. Our communities are affected more by the pitty dishonest people than the big crooks. Everyone cheats a little bit, but they can’t think of themselves as big crooks and that’s why they keep doing it. The only time they stop is when they get reminded, but the affect will go away after awhile. According to Dan, cheating can be as small as taking someone’s pencil without their consent, but no one actually thinks of that as stealing. Overall, I enjoyed watching it and got reminded to be honest with everything and everyone.
186 words
Mateen Aminie
RSA Animate: Smile or Die
“Smile or Die,” by the RSA Animate acclaimed journalist, author and political activist Barbara Ehrenreich, explores the darker side of positive thinking. This lecture is persuasive and full of sense of dispute. It gives another perspective on how to face your difficulties. She raised two typical delusions, which are both based on positive thinking used to comfort people during difficult times. The first delusion is people who suffered from problems were forced to smile in order to survive in the problem system. People who notice and raise problems would be shot down. The second are some said beliefs misled helpless victims, which is a moral callousness. Using the examples from Wall Street’s greed and George Bush’s invasion to Iraq, Ehrenreich pointed that there is magnetism on social control. She appeals people to get rid of the delusions, and be realistic when encountering problems. She believes by changing the attitude, these people can form “a collective power to end a great deal of unnecessary suffering.” “Smile or Die” is very worth viewing.
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