Expectation

I've been pretty slow in reading lately. I'm about 2/3rd of the way through the Men of Peace book. There have been a few things that struck me about the last few entries I've read. Most of the men have reported that they think today's world is much worse off in terms of our propensity for war. They also have told stories about their difficulty finding jobs if they reveal their CO experiences. The last few accounts have been stories from men involved in the guinea pig experiments (starvation and Hepatitis experiments).  One gentlemen stated that 400 people volunteered for the starvation experiment which only required 36.  I thought that the number of applicants really showed how much the men wanted to help. They were told that these starvation experiments would help to determine how best to provide aid to countries in need. For instance, do you send meat or just grain?

Side note.  I listen to a lot of pod casts. One of the most recent was about how expectations affect us. For example, the pod cast told the story of a blind boy who never had the expectation that he couldn't do anything. He learned how to climb trees, hike by himself and even ride a bike. He learned how to use echolocation to lighten up the same portions of your brain that light up in visual people especially those areas associated with motion (but not the areas associated with light and color).  His brain created images that he used to map out his environment using the signals he got back from echolocation instead of the images created from sensory data from your eyes. He grew up to teach other blind children the technique. Most of his teaching was for the families who had to learn to let go and allow the child to explore.

It made me wonder how much of society's propensity toward war may be attributed to the expectation that war is the only way to gain a certain result.  It seems like a very ingrained idea or passion similar to the idea that the blind can't lead the blind (proved untrue at least in the story of the man in my pod cast). It was nice to hear a story about how that had been done in a few small cases. I love people who challenge expectations and ask "why?". Why can't I climb a tree? Why do I need to eliminate this person for the world to be a better place?

Food for thought for this week.

Peace be with you