TED Community » Aaron Nielsen

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I'm passionate about

Art!

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  A comment on Conversation: Killing love by antidepressants to bring a desperate lover back to life. (Is extreme love a disease ?)

  Mar 1 2012: Personally, I do believe obsessive love could be thrown into the DSM as another mental illness, or at least labelled as pathological behavior (unless it is already covered under Dependent Personality Disorder or another diagnosis), for no other reason than it seems like it belongs there with the rest of the disorders that are listed. And there is no doubt that a significant number of people in the world are so obsessed with an individual that it impairs their quality of life, so I definitely think that such people could benefit from therapeutic approaches tailored to deal with that particular issue.
  
  I would draw the line at treating such a disorder with medicine, however. But this says more about me and my views on psychiatric medication than it does about the potential efficacy of such medication in treating people suffering from extreme-love obsession. It should be a treatment option available to those who wish it, but it bothers me tremendously because I feel like it's a great mistake to force yourself to fall out of love with a person via meds.
• +1

  A comment on Conversation: What is happiness?

  Mar 1 2012: To me, 'happiness' is basically the interval between a relatively bad mood and a better one. I'm in a pretty bad mood right now. If something positive were to happen in the course of the rest of my day, then I would move from this mood to a more elevated one, thus becoming happier. So I guess I believe that happiness is a psychological experience and not really a state of being.

• A reply on Conversation: Prison Reform: how can we make them more effective?

  Feb 29 2012: I like that idea of "designer prisons". I have to admit, I have been a little ignorant because I thought we already had separate institutions for different kinds of offenders. We definitely need to! It really doesn't make any sense to include minor criminals with organized ones, and then throw them all together with serial killers and psychotics.

• A reply on Conversation: Prison Reform: how can we make them more effective?

  Feb 29 2012: Thanks for sharing your insider's knowledge with us; it's always valuable to have a closer perspective on things.
  
  To be clear, I am not a rosy idealist who believes that inmates are misunderstood saints that are constantly being maltreated by those who are charged with watching over them, and I apologize if I seemed to imply that all (or even most) authority figures within prisons are corrupt or incompetent. I realize that the job of managing a prison isn't easy, and as you have helped to underscore, it takes courage to even sign up for such a job.
  
  When I look at prisons, I see their flaws and recognize their shortcomings, and that's why I posted this TED debate: I want to know what ideas are out there for improving the penal system so that it *can* be more geared towards rehabilitation instead of merely incarceration and "survival", as you put it. Surely, if it is at all possible to make prisons into places where inmates can be reformed, it would be worth it to society to make this happen. I think that going in the direction of making prison an even scarier place that criminals will fear will only embolden them in their efforts to avoid capture, and perhaps make them even more violent.
  
  We can't expect a prisoner's nature to change overnight. It takes time, resources, and the application of innovative techniques to do that. I'm trying to provoke a conversation about what innovations would work best, not only for the rehabilitation of prisoners, but also for improving the safety of prisons for those who work within them as well. Is it feasible to accomplish this? Maybe, maybe not...but it would be a mistake to let the formidable nature of the task deter us from thinking about solutions.

• A reply on Conversation: Prison Reform: how can we make them more effective?

  Feb 29 2012: That's an interesting angle regarding the insurance liability thing; I hadn't thought of that, but it probably is a contributing factor. Another factor would be education, of course--many inmates are high school dropouts, and only a very small percentage of the prison population has education beyond high school. Because of this, a lot of ex-convicts are simply not qualified for jobs outside of minimum-wage territory. For that reason, helping prisoners to receive GEDs and higher education from within the prison is essential, and we also need to make it easier for them to become educated on the outside.

• A reply on Conversation: Prison Reform: how can we make them more effective?

  Feb 29 2012: Yeah, I go down there often! small world I guess =)
  
  I think you raise a very important point about reintegrating ex-convicts into society upon their release. Naturally, when a former prisoner is allowed to leave after serving their term out, they need to be able to secure gainful employment and any assistance necessary in order to facilitate their transition into normal civilian life; the alternative is to perpetuate the vicious cycle where criminals with no prospects for establishing an ordinary life have are forced to fall back into the illegal ways that landed them in trouble in the first place. I would suggest providing incentives to employers who are willing to take a chance hiring former prisoners, and establishing therapeutic networks in cities to help provide the ex-convicts with guidance in adopting to their new lifestyles. Helping released inmates relocate to new localities outside of their native areas might also be fruitful; I think it's important that they are given the opportunity to restart their lives elsewhere, away from bad influences and acquaintances that might linger in their old neighborhoods. It would also limit the stigma that such people face.
  
  I've also suspected that penal systems, as they exist currently, do little more than exact society's punitive revenge on criminals, which is counterproductive in the end. Nothing worries me more than the increasing concerns of the private sector in the prison industry, either; that can only lead to more and more exploitation.

• A comment on Conversation: A worldwide economy law for the benefit of all.

  Feb 28 2012: Something like this is already done for certain industries in certain countries. The lumber industry, for instance, is compelled by law in many countries to re-seed forests where they do extensive logging. The idea, of course is to help promote sustainability of the Earth's resources. But to make laws that mandate *every* industry in every country to "reproduce the resources that they consume in their production process" would be mad, because it is impossible to do so. Even if it were possible, it wouldn't be profitable, so most companies would not have any reason to exist. And even if it were possible and profitable, the process of recreating resources would in itself necessitate the consumption of other resources, leading to an endless cycle XD
  
  A worldwide law regulating the generation of energy and rules for waste management would be a herculean task, and inevitably a huge mess of bureaucratic inefficiency. I think that's a bad idea/ And rules for equal distribution of goods and services to all people...well that is just another fantasy that could never happen, even assuming we could provide an equal share of everything to everyone.
  
  Honestly, these are pretty fatuous utopian ideas. I can tell you're really passionate about making the world a better and more equitable place, but in order to do so it's better to work within the cruel confines of reality, and accept the fact that things will never be perfect, but at best, they can be better. If you gained a better understanding of economics you would be able to propose better stuff.

• A reply on Conversation: Creativity, Innovation, and Change are Side Effects of Empathizing (Please read the description before replying)

  Feb 28 2012: I didn't know at first that the person in the video was you =p for some reason, I just did not make that connection until now lol.
  
  But yeah! I suggest that you include *your* definition of 'empathy' in your introductory post, or else you will have to keep making this same reply to every post =/ Even after watching the video that you recommended in your OP, it was not clear that you were using a different definition of the word empathy than the standard one that most repliers (including myself) had in mind.

• A comment on Conversation: Creativity, Innovation, and Change are Side Effects of Empathizing (Please read the description before replying)

  Feb 28 2012: "Creativity, innovation, and transformation--these are all side-effects of our abilities and desire to empathize"
  
  That is what the guy said in the video, if I remember correctly. It's a statement that I agree with, with the caveat that the aforementioned processes are not only byproducts of our desire to empathize with others, but also of our need to be empathized with by others. Splitting hairs maybe, but I think it's important to note that. By expressing ourselves in works of art that contain our crystallized feelings and attitudes, we are revealings parts of ourselves to the public in the hope that others will identify with them (empathize); by visiting an art museum, we are effectively providing that service for others.
  
  It's a little bit harder to link innovation to empathy, because innovation is something that can be done in the absence of any empathic impulse. For instance, a man on a deserted island with a paucity of supplies may be forced by necessity to find new ways to use old things, which would be a form of innovation. However, no one could claim that he did this in order to connect with others. Still, some instances of innovation (like the invention of social media, for example) definitely have empathic dimensions to them.
  
  Change is the most capacious concept of all that you're suggesting is linked to empathy, but like innovation, there are definitely types of change that are connected with it. So I agree with the idea generally, although I think you have to allow for nuance and say that not all instances of change and innovation are merely side effects of empathizing.

• A reply on Conversation: Using the most logical and simple language versus one as complicated and illogical as English.

  Feb 28 2012: I don't think the guy is arguing for the elimination of the English language, but rather the replacement of it as the "universal language" by something simpler, like Chinese. You make a good point though.