Hugh Laurie Video breakdown.

This was a pretty funny clip. I think a lot can be said for sub messages in the whole thing. The first thing that I notice is that Hugh is dressed up in what outside people may believe we all dress up in. Flannel shirt opened with a white tee shirt. He is also wearing jeans, but now days this is not just a symbol of the US. The next thing is that he is wearing a camouflage bandanna. Citizens across other nations may view the US gun toting people ready to defend our country.

I believe that during the song it is saying that we are full of ourselves and believe that we are the best. Now, I don’t think that there is anything wrong with pride, but it may be a little overboard. I think that the audience is laughing at the song because they see our flaws and realize that we are not as great as we believe we are.

The ending I believe is construed as a typical reaction from the United States. If someone is picking on us we will use force to bring peace between the nations and stop the ridicule and “injustice”.

I don’t know if I am analyzing this video properly or not but this was what I was thinking while view the clip.

Prison Experiment

I believe that the experiment started ethical but by the end of it I would have to say it changed to unethical. How could you have known that this was going to be the results of the study? Studies and experiments occur all the time with surprising results. This result, I believe, was not one that was expected. In a prison setting there needs to be a clear cut line of who is in charge or else there is chaos and danger for the guards and the inmates. I believe that this is the line that the student guards were trying to create because they knew what needed to be accomplished. Placing a student into any of these roles will change there actions and personalities to match these roles. Like I said before, you never know how something will turn out until you try it. I think it would have been more ethical to follow a first time offender in the prison system to see the social interactions between guards and current inmates. This would not involve innocent people trying to play roles that they are not use to.

While viewing the video I was thinking was this a sociological or psychological experiment. After watching the comments by the professor I think this was mainly a psychological experiment that also has sociological results. Like I had said above, a clear line of authority needs to be established and human nature is to push those boundaries and they were pushed on both sides. The players in the experiment had to place themselves into what they believed the roles encompassed. This portion I think is the psychological part. Seeing what fellow students were doing and following would be the sociological part.

The last comment of the student prisoner I find was incredibly interesting. When the student guard asked him what would you have done if you were in my position. I believe his response was extremely accurate. I don’t know.

As a little bonus I will let you know what I was thinking while watching this video piece about the prisons. I was a Military Police Officer in the army for 7 ½ years. I was trained in the basics of prison set ups and operations. More in depth training was given to the corrections personnel. Looking at the sequence of events, the “prison punishment”, looked more like a basic training situation then a prison scenario. In basic training you try to break a recruit down and rebuild them into what you want them to be. A prisoner is a totally different entity. If you have a prisoner that is misbehaving you don’t punish by having them do pushups. You place them into isolation to remove the problem from infecting the rest of the population. This punishment could relate directly to sociology. The general population will feed on the prisoner’s misbehavior and spread like wild fire. Before you know it a whole cell block is out of control.

Week One Blog Entry: Introduction

Hello,

I am 36 years old and have started my college education a little later then normal. I am a Firefighter for Prince William County. I have been there for almost 10 years (in July). My major is Fire Science Administration. I started this process in 2005. It seems like it has taken forever to get to this point. I am hoping that during my career I will be promoted through the ranks to Battalion Chief or even an assistant Chief in the department.

I am enrolled in both NVCC and TCC to complete my degree. I had to enroll into TCC to take some of the fire science classes online because NVCC doesn't offer them at this time. I am unsure of which college I am going to transfer to after I graduate for NVCC. As of right now I am tired of taking two or three classes a semester so all I can say is it will drop dramatically soon.

I enjoy fishing, boating and camping. I haven't been able to do any of these recently due to college work load but after my VA benefits run out in March I will be reducing my college load to one class a semester.

I am married and have two kids, three if you count the dog. We live in Fredericksburg.

That is all I have to say for now. I look forward to getting to know all of you during the studies of this course.

Bill