Discover Top Posts Tagged with #john ronson

The great thing about social media is how it gave a voice to voiceless people, but we’re now creating a surveillance society where the smartest way to survive is to go back to being voiceless. Let’s not do that.

Jon Ronson | How one tweet can ruin your life

#John Ronson #TED talks #cyber bullying

War and Psychopathy

In studies carried out after the Second World War by a military historian, General S. L. A. Marshall. He interviewed thousands of American infantrymen and concluded that only 15 to 20 percent of them had shot to kill. The others had aimed high or hadn't even pulled the trigger, and instead had dedicated themselves to doing what they could at the time.

On the other hand, it was discovered that 98 percent of the soldiers who did shoot to kill had been deeply traumatized by their actions. The remaining two percent were diagnosed as "aggressive psychopathic personalities" who essentially didn't care about killing people under any circumstances, whether at home or abroad.

The conclusion - in the words of Lieutenant Colonel Dave Grossman of the Killology Research Group - was that "there is something about continuous, inescapable combat that drives 98 percent of men mad; "The other two percent were already crazy before."

#raw data #john ronson #quote #book quote #about war #war #mental health

Some Special Forces officials concluded that it was virtually impossible to form emotional bonds with a goat. According to the animal rights organization PETA, goats make up a significant percentage of the estimated one million animals that have been victims of secret U.S. military experiments.

Most military activities involving goats remain classified, but details occasionally leak out. When an atomic bomb was detonated in the sky near Bikini Atoll in the South Pacific in 1946, for example, most of the 4,000 animals sent by the military to sail under the blast on a ship known as the Atomic Ark were goats. They wanted to see what effect the radioactive fallout would have on them.

The Men Who Stare At Goats, John Ronson

#raw data #goats #john ronson #quote #quotes #book quote #us army #us armed forces

“A life had been ruined. What was it for: just some social media drama? I think our natural disposition as humans is to plod along until we get old and stop. But with social media, we’ve created a stage for constant artificial high drama. Every day a new person emerges as a magnificent hero or a sickening villain. It’s all very sweeping, and not the way we actually are as people.”

― Jon Ronson, So You've Been Publicly Shamed

This book is a fascinating exploration of shame and the process of de-shaming. I find early chapters quite intriguing, albeit Ronson’s accounts on individuals that have fallen victims to online shaming are highly anecdotal. He examined the ensuing social repercussions of online shaming which has gone rampant and spiraled out of control when people socially marginalize those who deviate from their way of thinking. A few high profile cases of a distasteful tweet taken out of context or an inappropriate selfie serve as an example of how something as trivial and innocuous can completely ruin someone’s life and obliterate all future possibilities of ever getting a decent job as long as the internet and background check exists. Ronson argued that it is inherently problematic because we shouldn’t be defining normality by tearing nonconformists to shreds. This act of online shaming will eventually lead to a more conservative age where people who think differently from the majority can have their lives publicized and destroyed by something as trivial as sending a controversial tweet. This begets an era where the act of destroying someone’s life online is seen as normal without realizing the underlying sinister intent that aims at tearing another human being apart and lashing out their anger at the victim. Shamers are applauded for the heroic act of slaying ‘the other’ whereas, the shamee is dehumanized and depersonified to a great extent. It creates a pathway for people who care so little about the morality of the cause to abuse ‘the other’ by spewing out death/rape threats or celebrate when someone’s life has been destroyed. Who can draw the line where the shaming ends?

As someone who does not endorse online shaming or public shaming. I think the act of shaming someone thwarts us from being receptive to new ideas and engage in a discussion with people we may not share the same viewpoints with. It robs us of creativity and the ability to remain open-minded, therefore by shaming someone because they don’t agree with us in a certain way, turns us into a thoughtless, narrow-minded creature who lives in its own bubble of its version of truth, unperturbed by other noises from the outside. It’s disheartening as it insinuates that there’s only one way of thinking and perceiving the world which can only be defined by one group of people (the majority).

However, as much as I like the first half of the book, the second half was merely satisfactory. Instead of diving into the psychology behind online shaming, the author chose to lace the book with the process of de-shaming. He believes it is possible as it has been empirically studied. Ronson went full-on investigative journalist mode by embedding himself in a de-shaming group and interviewing his subjects. De-shaming works when people who have experienced a deep sense of shame are willing to face their fears (and as paradoxical as this may sound) by publicly shaming themselves and learning to accept love and forgiveness others have shown them despite knowing the root of their shame, this social validation/acceptance leads the shamees to learn to de-shame themselves in the process. The writing lose its momentum from there and spiraled into a disjointed series of interviews and quotes. Which is a bit of a shame (no pun intended) for a journalist like Ronson - whose writings are never boring as he writes with humor and heart with an emphatic undertone. This book could have been read just for the first half alone. More depth and breadth is needed to illuminate the psychological aspects and underlying causes, but still I think this was a worthwhile book to read about how social media facilitates shaming and the social repercussions of online shaming.

#books #book blog #nonfiction #john ronson #so you have been publicly shamed

John Ronson's documentary about the enormous collection of boxes that were left behind after Stanley Kubricks death. Absolutely fascinating. I couldn't recommend it more. (via Stanley Kubricks Boxes on Vimeo)

#John Ronson #Stanley Kubrick