I enjoyed watching The Empathic Civilisation, The Power of Outrospection, Changing Paradigms, First as Tragedy, Then as Farce, and Craigslist Joe during class this week. All of them made me think about an aspect of my life and how I could change it for the better. They were all fantastic videos and it was important to show the class these because I think they help everyone realize what this world is like, how we can improve, and to be sympathetic towards others. First, was The Empathic Civilisation which discussed how humans feel empathetic towards each other and how that has developed over time in different ways. He talked about mirror neurons which are neurons that make us feel whatever emotion we see another person feel. If we see someone crying then we feel bad for them and get sad because our neurons mirror the emotion they are experiencing. "All humans are soft wired with mirror neurons, so that if I'm observing you, your anger, your frustration, your sense of rejection, your joy, whatever it is, I can feel what you're doing. The same neurons will light up in me as if I'm having this experience myself," (Jeremy Rifkin). I could relate to this because whenever I see anyone crying I feel sad as well because I want to make them feel better and know that they are crying from something that mad them sad. It makes me sad in the same way that they are crying. Later, Rifkin went on to explain that we feel empathetic towards others because we all realize that everyone has one life and that their life could end just as easily as ours, so we feel emotional towards everyone. This helped the class because everyone can relate to feeling bad for someone else and it helps us realize that we are all humans living our single life. Then, we watched The Power of Outrospection, where Roman Krzarnic describes stepping outside of our bodies to really feel the same emotions as others, either from mirror neurons or because we can relate to them. "We need to shift to the age of outrospection, and by outrospection I mean the idea of discovering who you are and what to do with your life by stepping outside yourself  and discovering the lives of other people and other civilizations," (Roman Krzarnic). Affective empathy is the same as mirror neurons which we saw in the last video, but cognitive empathy is where you can relate to someone which makes you feel the same emotions. It's interesting seeing the different ways that we feel empathy towards one another and I think it helps the class realize that we are all related and should be kind to everyone.

The next video we watched was a lecture by Sir Ken Robinson called Changing Paradigms. Robinson discusses how a majority of the world wants education to change in the way that it is taught. Specifically standardized testing because that is simply memorizing facts and regurgitating them on paper rather than actually learning material and being able to apply knowledge to something. He compares the growth of ADHD with standardized testing. "It seems to me, not a coincidence totally, that the instance of ADHD has risen in parallel with the growth of standardized testing," (Sir Ken Robinson). He then goes on to talk about how ADHD pills are an anaesthetic, which is unhealthy. "An aesthetic experience is one in which your senses are operating at their peak... an anaesthetic is when you shut your senses off and deaden yourself to what is happening. And a lot of these drugs are that," (Sir Ken Robinson). Everything about those statements is completely true and needs to be progressed. Robinson knows what he is talking about and I think that that he brought up many good points that made the students re-think about everything and question the entire education system. Which led into the last video, First as Tragedy, Then as Farce by Slavoj Zizek. Zizek lectures about cultural capitalism and how everyone plays roles rather than actually being a true, compassionate human being. "When you go to a store, probably you prefer buying organic apples. Why? Look deep into yourself. I don't think you believe that those apples, which cost double the good old genetically modified apples that we like, that they are really any better. I claim we are cynics, they are sceptics, but you know it makes you feel warm that 'I am doing something for our mother earth'," (Slavoj Zizek). I agree with Zizek in the fact that some people play a role and don't actually feel sympathetic towards something, but that they just do it to seem good. However with this example of the apple, I, respectfully, disagree because genetically modified apples are bad for human health and nature. It causes insects to die that are part of the environment and growth to apples and the GMO's in apples cause cancer in humans. Other than that, I agree with all four videos that we watched and I think they were beneficial to the everyone in class and changed some perspectives for the better.