Power of Context

Discussion Questions
1. The story of Bernie Goetz is one of a "regular" "ordinary looking" man in his mid-thirties entering a subway in New York City. When he got onto the subway he decided to seat himself in the back car with four young black teens horsing around and carrying on. When one of the kids asked him for five dollars he told them to leave him alone, as the kid asked again another one smiled and he shot all four of them right there on the spot. One of the kids was stretching out in pain and he shot him again just for moving. Some people see this man as a cold-blooded murderer while others see him as a hero. I see him as a murderer. The thought that someone could get off with three counts of murder alongside paralyzing a teenager for the rest of his life is a murderer. People see him as a hero because it turns out that the four youths had had a criminal background, and they view him as brining justice to these three youths. This is not the way I see it at all. Although these kids looked and were acting “suspicious” they never did anything deliberately to cause for Goetz to act in self defense, let alone shooting and killing them. On top of that no human being has the right to decide when any other human being should and will die. His job is not to bring justice to those who commit crimes on the street, that is the job of a police officer, not a ordinary man off the street. The fact that Goetz already had something against black people, which we know from his quote on page 148 of the Tipping Point “The only way we are going to clean up the streets is to get rid of the spics and the niggers”, causes me to question his incentives. The only reason why I think he had something against black people is because of the language that was used. Completely unnecessary language is used. He could have said criminals, mischievous characters, juveniles, delinquents, felons, and so on and so forth. But this makes me question his incentives, if you already feel some type of way about a particular group of people why would you associate yourself with them as oppose to separating yourself from them? And it doesn’t even have to be a race issue either, if the teens in the back of the subway car already looked rowdy, or suspicious, or dangerous, or threatening to you...why did you deliberately go back there and sit with them? Doesn’t add up right does it? I personally believe he wanted to go back there so they could "set him off" in other words say something to him to get him upset and he’d have a chance or a reason to do what he did, ceasing the opportunity to take action and matters into his own hands. Goetz took matters to far.

Ch 3 Stickiness Factor

Queastion 1.

One of the examples that my group came up with was the effect that video games have on kids. Video games can have a negative connotation on children, such as Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty. Kids can get the false impression that they can react without consequences in certain situations such a war, theft, and violence.

Question 4.

We came up with the conclusion that television shows such as Sesame Street and Blue's Clues do appear more "sticky" and educational than children because books arent always going to appeal to children at such a young age. They may not even be old enough to read, yet they can understand what is going on in the show

Tipping Point Ch 2

I liked chapter 2 of the Tipping Point it was very interesting to see Gladwelll elborate on the Law of the Few by giving us specific examples we can relate to. The most interesting argument he prestented in the chapter was when he was talking about his friend Horchow. Most of us have acquaintances to try to see if we want to keep them as friends or not. We just pass them on a day to day basis, say a quick hello, or only have a few encounters with them out of the entire year. Where as Horchow sends birthday cards, friendly emails, and referances to restaruants he thinks are good to people. He collected data that everyone could relate to. It made me think how many of my facebook friends do I really talk to and why? Should I delete the ones I do no0t talk to, should I keep them there and get to know them since I already know all of the others I talk to day to day or on a daily basis. I also liked how he further explained the difference between the connector and the maven. Mavens have information to share, a purpose where as connectors just know alot of people. I have found that I have a connector and a maven from two of my close friends in college. Before I probably would have thought they were both just connectors but reading this chapter helped me distinguish between the two. This was a good chapter!!!

Twilight vs. The Tipping Point

When I first think if the kinds of reading that I usually do such as the Twilight Series, not very many simularities come to mind when I think of the Tipping Point.
A comparison that I can think of is Bella(main character in Twilight) shares many of her thoughts with the reader. Gladwell shares a lot of his thoughts with us as well. Another thing that I think of when comapring and contrasting the Twilight series vs. the Tipping Point is Gladwell and Bella have many accounts with several other people. They let us know what those other people are thinking, and what they think those other people may be thinking as well. Twilight makes several referances to other famous romance novels such as Romeo and Juliet as well as Withering Heights and Pride and Prejudice. Gladewell makes severeal referances as well. As for contrasts or differences there are many I can think of. Twilight is a narrative, where as in the tipping point Gladwell doesn't have dialouge with other people he mentions or comes across in the book. Twilight is a fictional novel where as the Tipping Point is not. Twilight has romance in it,and even though we did not get too far in our reading, I doubt there is going to be a sotry about star-crossed lovers in The Tipping Point.

Tipping Point Ch. 1 Summary

In The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell, he raises the issue of social awarness with explaining epidemics and how they get started in three different rules.

The first chapter discusses that epidemics need to be started by three different rules: The Law of the Few, Stickiness Factor, and Power of Context. He uses the syphilis problem that occured in Baltimore Maryland in the mid 1990's to help us better understand epidemics and how it can be started. Basically there is more than one way to tip an epidemic.

Epidemics are a function of people who promotes the infectious agent, the infectios agent itself, as well as the enviorment in which the agent is operating in.

That is exactly how the syphilis outbreak started in Baltimore Maryland. It was started in three different ways: The drug problem increased risky sexual behavior failing for people to be unsafe and not educated or smart about their chocies in behavior. The second was the cut back in medical assistance in the city, and the third was the housing projects being torn down. Each one of these examples caused for this disease to spread outragiously. This happened with only a small population of people, which explains the 20/80 rule.

He wraps up the end of the chapter by stating the three laws of the epidemic, and giving you s preview of what is up ahead. He also asks questions at the end of the chapter to get the readers mind prepared for what they can think about after they close the book, and letting the reader know that the three rules will be later explored in more detail.