2:25 Goals:
"And I would say this, and many people will scream in disbelief, but I would say that the worst thing you can do in life is set yourself goals"

This line absolutely, totally, flabbergasted me. I like to think that I am a hard worker and am diligent in what I do, and that by setting for myself steps to rise to success, I will eventually achieve greatness in life. In my mind, I visualize life in a step-wise fashion, and each step is something I have to reach for and then achieve through hard work (and maybe a dash of miracles.) For example, I envision my near future to be something like this: get into a great college. And even then, I have thought farther into the future about why I want to get into a great college, which is because I want a better chance at attaining good jobs. And why do I want to get a good job that I like and pays me good money? Because I want money, so that I can have a comfortable lifestyle. Not anything too fancy, just so I can own a house, a car, have pets, have food to eat, while not having to sit rocking in a corner waiting for day-to-day paychecks. In our society, this is ingrained in our culture: get into a good college, get a good job, earn stable income, then settle down and begin the cycle all over again. Life has always been perceived as a linear entity that has to be taken one step at a time, as long as you know what the next step is. So, this line struck me. I also disagree with him at one point, where he says that if you achieve your goal, then you ask yourself, "now what? I'm not happy." Except, what if I am? What if I'm happy that I have achieved something, and now I can look forward to achieving other things that wouldn't have been possible had I not achieved that first thing? Some people are driven by accomplishment because accomplishment gives them purpose in life. Perhaps measuring purpose against accomplishment isn't a healthy thing to do, but most people would be lost without this concept. We need guidelines in life, and we at least need to know the basic structure of "how to build a life in the 21st century" so that we can move on to pursue the things we love and yearn to do.

6:27 American Whiny TV:
"Oh! Shut up and stop whining. Grow up and get a life, and look around you to other people, and don't expect people to care…if life has any secret, it's abnegation of self, efface yourself, don't talk, just don't say."

This was actually very poignant. It was a wake-up call for me, because just today I ranted to many people about "needing" to get this project done, and "needing" to study for this test, and "needing" to finish my extended essay. Now that I think about it, most people probably don't care that I need to get these things done. I told them that because I needed an outlet for my stress, but that doesn't change the fact that they probably don't care; they have their own issues.

10:29 Perspectives:
"'What do they of England know, that only England know?' And what do you know about your own country, if your own country is the only country you know?"

Since I was 1, I have been traveling in and out of the country all my life. Constant visits to China and then visits between states after my parents' divorce, my perspective on life was forced a little bit wider than most (at least in my opinion.) It's really, really hard to describe to other people what life can be like somewhere else, because a lot of the people I know in Hawaii don't have ties with any ancestral lands, or maybe not even the mainland. To me, life in Hawaii is incredibly strange. It is completely different than life in NYC or Maryland, and definitely different than life in Shanghai. I don't know how life on one planet can be so different, but it is. In each place there is a unique culture and aura that can't be replicated or described to someone else who hasn't had that exposure. I feel grateful for the life I have in America, because going back to China so many times has led me to realize what my own life might have been like if my parents had decided to stay in China. I would be studying day and day out, and that does not suit my personality. I like to do fun things, travel to beautiful places, write literature for fun, goof off on the internet with friends for hours on end, etc. But, perhaps if I had never known what life in America was like, then my personality might've been different. Gasp! Even in NYC, the culture of teenage life is so stressful because it's all about competition and getting better grades than your friends. Thank god I'm in Hawaii for high school, because if I stayed in NYC, I would have gray hairs, permanent eye bags, and an incredibly skewed view of the world.

20:35 "Never stop being a child who asks why":
"Oh I see, this number of days is a life, take one away, now it's just a mass of chemicals. The police enter a room and there's a couple making love and if they had entered the day before, it would've been statuary rape, but because it was the day after the birthday, it wasn't. Now, it's such a peculiar way to order a society like that."

I thought this part was a good example of how structured our society is. Now, I'm not giving any opinion about any of the topics above. I just find it interesting, just as Stephen Fry does. Though this sounds preposterous when stated above in this manner, it wasn't a shock that society runs this way. Everything is about structure and confining people to restrictions for both their well-being, but can negatively affect them as well. Structure is definitely needed in life, even though sometimes there might be odd policies or laws that don't many logical sense, but they just have to be there to provide a sort of guideline for things to run on. Or else, there would be anarchy and endless debates. Someone has to draw the line somewhere, even if it doesn't make any sense. I'm not saying whether I agree or not with any of those topics, I just find that our modern society is very adamant about drawing lines and making rigid pillars to prevent society from destroying itself.

Grace, Selah, Michele, Dana

http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/1461/bystandereffect.jpg
This is a simple cartoon clearly showing the overall meaning of "The Bystander Effect." The two ladies are assuming that he doesn't need any help and he'll be fine, the man in brown assumes someone else will help, and the other man assumes that the person lying down is being stupid. This 2nd man is making an excuse to himself to not help the person lying down. All of their eyes, except for the man in brown who seems too busy to consider helping, are trained backwards on the man lying down. They all notice him, but they are participating in "pluralistic ignorance," where they don't acknowledge that other people may be thinking the exact same thing that they are. Thus, in the end no one helps.

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/evanosnos/2011/10/chinas-bystander-effect.html
This is one of the most horrible portrayals of the Bystander Effect. A two-year old toddler was hit in China by a white car when she wandered into the street. Despite many pedestrians walking by, no one stopped to help. Even more appalling, another car comes and runs over her. This video sparked massive outrage across China. Having lived in China before and being immersed in the culture, it is embedded in the social norm to keep to yourself and ignore all others around you. In a massively populated country such as China, crowds become a constant backdrop to every day life that you automatically tune out. However, this is not an excuse for ignoring a helpless little girl injured in the street. This is the social norm taken to the extreme. Chinese people are not known for being compassionate towards strangers; there is nothing called a 'good Samaritan.' This prompted major discussions about the need for social change in China.