Still Working on Blog Gods....

I'm working on noms and awards as I sit in a public health theory class. The professor just recommended a book called, The Lucifer Effect, by Zimbardo. Here's a really great quote from the preface:

Finally, when most give in and few rebel, the rebels can be considered heroes
for resisting the powerful forces toward compliance, conformity and obedience.
We have come to think of our heroes as special, set apart from we ordinary
mortals, by their daring deeds or life-long sacrifices. Here we recognize that
such special individuals do exist, but that they are the exception among the
ranks of heroes, the few who make life-long sacrifices. They are a special breed
that organizes their lives around a humanitarian cause, for example. By
contrast, most others we recognize as heroes are heroes of the moment, of the
situation, who act decisively when the call to service is sounded. So, our The
Lucifer Effect journey ends on a positive note by celebrating the ordinary hero
who lives within each of us. In contrast to the “banality of evil,” which posits
that ordinary people can be responsible for the most despicable acts of cruelty
and degradation of their fellows, I posit the “banality of heroism.” It unfurls
the banner of the heroic Everyman and Everywoman who heeds the call to service
to humanity when their time comes to act. When that bell rings, they will know
that it rings for them. It sounds a call to uphold what is best in human nature
that rises above the powerful pressures of Situation and System as the profound
assertion of human dignity opposing evil.

When I lived in the Dominican Republic, a major hurricane hit the island. The dam overflowed and over 1,000 people were washed out to sea. I was working with a group of missionaries - good, young kids who came to the island to help the people in various causes. On the day of the flood, many of the people were on the banks of the swelling river, loading frightened people into a truck in order to save the most people. Heroes seemed to rule the day.

Then the river dried. Food was scarce. Our leadership - well, I don't know where our leaders disappeared to in those 6 weeks after the hurricane. We were scared, at risk, alone, hungry, thirsty, and vulnerable. Those same amazing men and women who had plucked children out of the water changed quickly. In the island shelters, stories emerged about alcohol abuse, violence, and an attempted rape.

I was sent to staff the shelter soon after the disaster. I am not known for my conformity. I threw fit after fit and blew the whistle as many times as it took. And I paid a heavy price for my social rebellion. I spent 8 months in open ostracism for telling the truth and stopping the violence. While the people who were abused loved me dearly, I never regained my footing on the island and I left a hated person amongst the leadership.

There is good and evil in every person. Most people live in the middle of the bell curve - their behavior is defined by the 68.24% of persons who fall in the mass of normality (however that is defined). However, there are tails on that curve - some people commit cruelty beyond the limits of normal behavior. They have a purpose, too. In some ways, they keep the curve out of the cruel levels of behavior, pushing 'normal' always back towards the benign areas of human behavior.

And some, like me, are never in the middle of the curve because we are not naturally social beings. Is that good? Can it be bad? Sure. But every person is needed to keep humanity on its course, keep us alive, and keep us all from killing each other. Read the book. You'll never be the same if you let yourself believe his postulate - and you just might be a better person for it.