Chubby Nickel Audio Vlog

This morning I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts, best of the left, it was a back episode aired on the one year anniversary of Obama’s inauguration. And I remember why I voted for the guy, his speeches were very motivational and concise not derisive nor negative like another campaign I remember. It seems to me to be the largest part of his election was the fact that he promise grandiose things which seemed to be the best thing we could possibly hope for in this country. And it should be expected that these things would take time (except repealing don’t ask don’t tell which seems to be the next thing this administration is working on). Health care has all but failed this time around because of the lack of public interest in further enriching corporations who insist on a welfare program namely forced participation in their health insurance plans. The health care issue is by far the largest issue that has come out of this administration so far and it seems he doesn’t quite know what the people want even though the polls have consistently shown that people want a public option. But it seems that our elected officials have given up on what the people want because the pressure of the six health care industry lobbyists per congressperson has drowned out our voices and I am going to propose two ways to solve the problem, eliminate lobbyists or constitutional amendment. to be continued…

Before you answer, try to look at your behaviors from an objective perspective. Ask yourself questions like: when I do the same things as everyone else, do I have my own reasons for it or do I just do as others do? Do you feel it’s easier to “get into the spirit” of things when there are others in the spirit or do you just do what you feel like doing? Are you with the crowd or are you a loner?

This is an important question to ask yourself, not because one is better than the other, but just so that you have a good idea of who you are. Solomon Asch conducted several experiments to determine how likely it is that a person would conform when they can clearly see that the majority is wrong. His study had shown that  virtually everyone would give an obviously incorrect answer just because everyone else was giving the incorrect answer. The study had also shown that just one person going against the majority resulted in the person giving the correct answer even when the dissenter gave a different incorrect answer.

What does this mean? Well it could mean very little for you, but it means a lot to me. I want to be right all the time, and if I can’t see when I’m wrong because everyone else is also wrong, it worries me. I need to make sure the concepts that define my reality are as close to reality as possible, this is important because I make decisions, I vote and I talk to other people. So are you the helpful dissenting voice even when you’re wrong or are you the harmful conformist who doesn’t care if you’re wrong?