Crowds, Blog 2

I was able to observe two different crowds and honestly got very different information from each one. To start off, since I am a barista at starbucks, I decided to observe the crowd there. Le Bon claims that crowds have several different characteristics such as impulsiveness, irritability, incapacity to reason, the absence of judgement of the critical spirit, the exaggeration of sentiments, and others..." At starbucks I can definitely notice that people are irritable, they also seem to be very critical as if they deserve to be helped before everyone else. There is also some sort of privilege that people seem to cary, when you are serving them they expect you to only be worried about them. I also got to observe another, pretty different crowd.  I observed the women's soccer team here at NDNU (since I am on the team). Le Bon also speaks on how crowds seem to be influenced by others and criticism are made. I think this was very apparent in this specific crowd. I can tell when certain girls are influenced by the actions of other girls. Or some people will act one way around coaches and completely differently when they are gone. 


Aristotle states that "Man is by nature a political animal". "Aristotle insists that man is either a political animal (the natural state) or an outcast like a “bird which flies alone” (4thC BC)" 
Aristotle believes that those who turn their back on the violence inherent in politics, also turn their back on society. He calls people who are not considered political animals " bird that flies alone"

http://files.libertyfund.org/pll/quotes/164.html
https://oll.libertyfund.org/quotes/164

“A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence”

My first time reading the article Looking Back, Looking Forward by Katherine Reynolds I interpreted it way differently compared to the second time reading through it after our class discussion.

During class there was a lot of different discussion, but I think the topic that obviously stood out to most of us was the discussion on abortion. 
Discussing "The Erosion of Scientific Rationalism",  truthiness" was described as the belief that what is true is what you feel rather than what the facts support. Everyone has a different view and opinion on abortion, it isn't always based on facts rather what people feel. People often seem to attach their feelings to their opinions. Feelings and opinions can change. "Post-truth” relates to circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief. 

This is a good segway to " Measurement and Prediction". This section talks about how technology and social media has helped us to understand public opinions and the data that is received. Technology is so advanced that we are now able to break up public opinions into sections and see what group of people feels what way. Technology has made a huge impact on how people deliver their political messages to specific groups of people. 

Reading this article after our class discussion was very helpful. I was able to understand certain ideas a lot better because I am able to relate it to different topics.