Peter Keo

Pahomov

English 2

26 March 2019

With Roles, Come Power

When a person with a given role has more authority, they are more inclined to abuse it against people that they perceive as “less than.” For a vast majority of mankind’s history, a person’s status quo affects their makeup and credibility as a human being. In an interconnected web that is so deeply complex like a simple community, the people with authority act based on their power, and not their morals or values. Rather than having their pride shattered, their egos ripped apart, or their words proven wrong, they choose to unleash their power because that is the only thing of value to them. Without the said power, they are more or less equal to their counterparts. This creates a power dynamic between higher authority and the people who follow it. If a society has a set of defined roles and rules, how can it be fair for everyone?

The Stanford Prison Experiment was an infamous social experiment conducted in 1973. It took place at Stanford University and was led by psychologist Philip Zimbardo. The experiment featured 24 men; 12 given the role of prisoners and the other 12 given the roles of prison guards. Over the course of two weeks, they would live together in a simulated prison experiment. According to the official website of the Stanford Prison Experiment, a quote that was taken from the planning of the experiment said “We wanted to see what the psychological effects were of becoming a prisoner or prison guard. To do this, we decided to set up a simulated prison and then carefully note the effects of this institution on the behavior of all those within its walls.” (Prisonexp.org, FAQ) In other words, it was meant to display how much power a person can have just by their labels and status quos. The experiment was shut down only six days in, and the results showed that prisoners suffered countless abuse from the prison guards, even though before the experiment they were all equal in terms of power. One way guards exhibited their power was striking prisoners with their baton. When given the role of a higher authority, the probability to commit a power trip increases tenfold.

In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, a group of boys just crashed and landed on an island. They all come amongst each other in order to build a basis of civilization. In order to do that, they first choose among them a leader based on a majority of votes. The author writes “‘Shut up,’ said Ralph absently. He lifted the conch. ‘Seems to me we ought to have a chief to decide things.’ ‘A chief! A chief!’ ‘I ought to be chief,’ said Jack with simple arrogance, ‘because I'm chapter chorister and head boy. I can sing C sharp’” (Golding 229-231) This shows that Jack immediately comes to step up in order to take on the role of a leader because of his so-called “abilities.” His proclaimed skills of being able to sing C sharp and also that he already holds a leadership position shows an underlying nature to Jack’s human tendencies.  The choirboys that are associated with Jack reluctantly raise their hands to vote for him. This shows that they may have done this out of fear to not get on Jack’s bad side, or because of naturally wanting to side with Jack because of their already established relationship.

Following the conclusion of the Stanford Prison Experiment, an interview was conducted with one of the participants. He said, “The most apparent thing that I noticed was how most of the people in this study derive their sense of identity and well-being from their immediate surroundings rather than from within themselves… they had nothing within them to hold up against all of this.” (Zimbardo, exhibits.stanford.edu) The prisoner in question, Jerry-8454, provides a hint that helps conclude there was a lining of savagery present during the experiment. This means that when given a set of defined roles that carry different levels of power, there is bound to be chaos and a disconnect of power in a definite society. They become a shell of their former selves and begin to act differently than their normal selves would.

In one scene, Ralph and Jack are in an argument about how much value being chosen as a leader holds. They provide two drastically views on the situation, with one side not budging over the other. The author writes “‘I'm chief. I was chosen.’ ‘Why should choosing make any difference? Just giving orders that don't make any sense—’” (Golding 238-241). What is being represented here is that Golding is essentially writing Jack and Ralph as symbols for two different sides in a common debate. In the case of the Stanford Prison Experiment, one could argue for Jack and Ralph that one of them is the guard with power and one of them is the prisoner who wants power because of the way that power is handled on the island. The choosing of a leader bears some resemblance to how the way the guards were chosen, and the definition of a person based on their role is represented in the boys’ community. If the roles were reversed then, the results would still be the same.

Based on the results of the Stanford Prison Experiment and the events that occur throughout Lord of the Flies, it is safe to assume that defined roles in an established community set different amounts of power throughout everyone. There is a much-needed gap-closer between the abyss that is people with authority, and people who are simply following authority. One word being placed as a label can define the decision making and emotions of one person. A community of people is only just a group of people if there is no leader to place authority in them, but power must be controlled or else, it will get out of hand. With power, there is no morals or values if the commodity of power can stimulate instant gratification.

Works Cited

Golding, William, Lord of the Flies. Penguin Books, 2006

“More Information.” Stanford Prison Experiment, Social Psychology Network, 1999

www.prisonexp.org/faq.

Zimbardo, Philip G., Jerry Shure, Stanford Prison Experiment

    https://exhibits.stanford.edu/spe/catalog/qd146sy3096

It’s ironic how I’m terrified of the one thing that makes up my entire body. Hilarious, isn’t it? It was just 4 days ago, that school was winding down and I was about to start my three-week long winter break. It was always cold in Philadelphia during this time of the year, especially around the Fishtown area. I flipped my shit when I first found out that this year, the School District of Philadelphia was experimenting with a three-week long winter break. It’s literally almost one full month of off from school. I needed this so badly. I thought I was going to relax, wake up around 11:00 am every day, and binge-watch corny Netflix shows. Not to mention, my short film that I have to finish for this upcoming youth film festival that I was participating in. It’s about me and my experiences with aquaphobia. It may sound weird, but aquaphobia is a fear of WATER. Oh and how could I forget Christmas! All my plans were thrown out of the window during the 2nd day of winter break when my mom said to me: “Jaxon, we’re going to the Bahamas for vacation!”

I almost threw my laptop out the window when I heard that. I ran so hard downstairs that you could have put me in a laundry basket and just slid me down the stairs. I really thought she was joking at first, until I saw the plane tickets sitting on the kitchen counter. I thought to myself, ‘Wait a second… aren’t the Bahamas fucking ISLANDS?”. And just like that, I’m here, on a boat in the middle of Paradise Cove, the only divide between me and what it appears to be a vast, clear and blue vacuum, waiting for someone to be sucked in and never escape. Y’know, I’d rather be inside my air-conditioned villa right now, than experiencing what it’s like to be waterboarded for the next 2 hours or so. I tried to argue my way out of it moments before boarding, but my mom said that she PAID for my OWN ticket, and that she is not going to waste her time arguing with me, which is I find completely ridiculous. I am too phased out right now for my brain to work currently, as I didn’t even realize I was the only one left on the boat. Everyone else is already in the water. Great.

I peer over the side of the boat, trying to not vomit, and all I see a deep, blue abyss waiting to claim its next victim. I don’t know if it was my anxiety or if it was just really hot, but the sweat is starting to come down my face now. My right eye slowly twitches as the baking hot sun’s beams reflects off the water, and I heard a faint tapping near the floor of the boat. My legs. It’s not that I don’t know how to swim or not, because I DO. It’s just that I am not so keen on being in this deep section of water with no way of touching the ground. My family has gotten therapy for me, but that’s it. They didn’t take me into consideration when they planned this trip or activity. My dad said it’ll be fine, and my mom says not to worry too much. But they don’t know the FULL extent of it. Most of the times, I always wish that I had a normal life. I wouldn’t even be needing to explain my story right now if this had never happened. Why can’t my family just understand that it’s hard living a fear that is normally not feared? I need to control myself, and yet I dare, I put my feet in the water. As soon as my feet touch, the slightest ripple occurs, and I see white. My mind races back to 10 years ago, everything monotone, dull and faint. A flashback. I see my past self, in the distance, making his way to the deep end, and then it happens. I faint and I’m submerged for about 2 minutes now, bubbles appearing near the surface. The lifeguard on duty realizes what happens and she starts pulling me to the surface, doing CPR on me until I finally awake. It was a close call, but looking back on it now, it would have been very likely that I would be here to tell my tale today. Since then, I have not been able to muster myself any courage to enter deep bodies of water. Anxiety overwhelms my body, and I instantly start to feel dizzy. And that’s just how its been for me, for 365 days, every year, for the past 10 years of my life.

Everything goes black, and I am back in present-day time, still on the rocking boat on the calm Atlantic seas. All my life, I’ve been scared of this one thing that almost 99 percent of all people shouldn’t even be scared of. My mind is telling me no no no, but the water is actually resonating with warmth, and it does not feel too terrible. The warm water is somewhat satisfying against my feet, and I decide to do something that not even I myself wouldn’t expect me to do: I head into the water. The moment my body is covered in water, I start to get anxious, but after a while, I start to see that I didn’t faint or nothing like that, and that I actually survived. I’ve been missing this feeling for 10 years now, and now I realize this maybe this isn’t so bad after all. The colorful angelfish, sea turtles, damselfish, parrotfish, squirrelfish and snappers float by around me, and I couldn’t help but be amazed. Our appointment is up, and I return back to the resort as a changed man, with a big grin on my face as the boat is rushing against the deep, blue paradise, that was once an abyss. I do a huge cannonball into the resort pool as soon as I get changed, and boy oh boy, that was so satisfying to do. I’ve realized now that a world of opportunity has just opened up for me, and now I can do much much more than what I can do before. Prepare to meet your demise aquaphobia, because Jaxon is your slayer.

Introduction

Hello! My name is Peter Keo, and welcome to my blog, where I discuss the 3 strengths that define who I am. Throughout my life, I often don’t notice my own strengths until I take a more closer look with my identity, and there I can see who I truly am. My personality type is the INFJ, which stands for Introversion, Intuition, Feeling, and Judging. INFJ’s make up for less than one percent of the population, so I guess you could say I’m one of a kind!

What Each Letter Means For Me

• Introversion - the opposite of extroversion, the feeling of being an introvert. I usually like to be a lone wolf in activities, and I often almost often go for the solo choice if given the choice between working alone or working with a partner. I don’t mind social activities, but I often tired quickly from it and break away after a short period of time.

• Intuition - Imaginative, Open-Minded and Curious. I definitely would agree that I hold all of these things in my head. I never thought I would thought myself to be the one to be imaginative, but looking back I do often daydream a lot in class, thinking about what-if scenarios and the future a lot.

• Feeling - I make decisions based off values and principles and I usually use my heart more than my head. Sometimes, this is not the right decision for people, but its the best decision for me. I gauge the temperature of the situation based on people’s feelings and what is the best decision in the heat of the moment.

• Judging - One of the traits that determine how we view the external world, and how we do things on a daily-by-daily basis life. People with the Judging trait enjoy being organized and having to work in an environment that is orderly and established. For me, I find this to be the most true. I cannot work without a clean workspace or an organized structured assignment that allows me to follow along easily.

• My element was Gallium, and it's atomic number was 31.
• Gallium was discovered in 1875 in Paris, France by a french chemist named Paul E. Lecoq de Boisbaudran. Before it’s discovery, the father of the periodic table Dmitri Mendeleev predicted it’s place on the periodic table. He named it eka-aluminum as he predicted it would be placed below aluminum on the periodic table. Gallium’s main use is often combined with arsenic to create Gallium arsenide, which is dominantly used in electronics. Such electronics include the circuits of microwaves, infrared circuits, and high speed switching circuits. Also, Gallium is part of gallium nitride and indium gallium nitride, which is used in production of semiconductors mainly for solar panels, and laser and light emitting diodes. Gallium can also be used as a substitute for mercury in medical thermometers. 
  
• My idea for the imagery was that since gallium is often used in electronic motherboards and such, I decided to place it inside of a computer screen, combined with a mouse, and electrical pathways coming out the side, representing the motherboard.
  
• I went through a strict process that I had in mind to create this print. I wanted to dish out as many ideas as possible for my print; some of the prototypes that I came up with was the Ga31 being microwaved in a microwave, lasers shooting at the atomic number and symbol, and the sun shining down on solar panels engraved with Gallium's atomic number and symbol. I ultimately chose the computer design due to it's connection to modern day society, and also it will be easily recognizable.
  
• If I did this print a second time, I would have probably tried to make the colors more full instead of making it look faded, because the fade does not play in with the theme of computers being old and what not. By making my color a bit more stand out, the computer will shine brightly on the print.
• I really enjoyed making the actual print, and using the ink alongside the brayer roller. It was really interactive, and it got me thinking that people do this as a profession, so they could make really cool designs with this kind of technique.
  

Planned, Spent, Wrapped and Sent

Image Credits

    Welcome back! In my first post, I introduced the topic and the importance of poverty in Cambodia. I showed how some factors like education play a role in the issue, and the history of it. In my previous post, I interviewed my father, who himself grew up in poverty. He shared his experiences with me, and made some really key points on what he should believe happen in order for modern day Cambodia to make a change.

    During my time between the last post and this, I’ve uncovered a couple of organizations that do work in Cambodia, primarily towards relief aid and poverty. One I have discovered in particular was Cambodia’s Children Fund, which is a charity directed towards children in poverty. They encourage impoverished children to hopefully turn into tomorrow’s leader. To do this, they take the children in, provide a home for them and enroll them in their “rich and challenging curriculum”, which will hopefully educate and inspire them. The organization has existed since 2004. One example of a major case was when they took in 45 children that was living on a garbage dump in 2009. Their programs focus on 6 core values similar to my own school’s values: Education, Leadership, Community Outreach, Healthcare, Childcare and Vocational Training.

Logo of the CCF

    I believe that this organization is actually very ingenious in how they operate. They plan out their steps to create a better change, which is very organized, and they actually go through with their plans, which in the end results in an improved future for the children.

    As explained in my previous post, I told about my plan to send a care package to Cambodia. I’ve decided to change a few aspects of the plan, since the plan itself is pretty tentative and supple. Originally, I wanted to send multiple care packages, each containing different items for different family members, but I concluded that it would cost way too much due to shipping and handling. In the end, I decided to send on big package, to one family of 4 that contained items that they would certainly prove useful. I included various amenities that you would not find normally in Cambodia or find at a relatively low price; some of these items included various hygiene products, clothing items, educational literature, and toys.

Examples of Items Included in the Care Package

Depicted From Left To Right: Men's Body Wash, Fragrant Shampoo, Mouthwash

My reasoning for including these items in the package was that hygiene products are hard to come by in bulk, and they are usually marked up higher than their original retail price than you would find in say the United States for example. Next, I included clothing because most Cambodians usually sew and stitch their own clothing, which while it is cost-friendly, it is not as durable as something you would buy from a big department store, so these clothes would give them a fresh change. Then, the addition of educational literature was party based that they are learning English in their schools, because most of the education system in Cambodia focuses on English more than Khmer, the national language, in order for them to travel out the country and go study in English speaking countries. With my books, which range from simple coloring books, to books like The Hunger Games and Maze Runner, this gives them a free and cheap source of education and leisure in their free time, which hopefully provides a boost to their English fluency. Lastly, the last example of toys is that most toys that are sold in Cambodia are cheap and break very easily, due to them being manufactured in China at a very low cost, so quality toys that I purchase from a store like Target will last longer, and hopefully the children would have a fun time playing with it!

Depicted From Left to Right: Toothpaste, Various Books

I did not have much trouble in purchasing these items, nor did I have much trouble packaging and sending it to the desired location. The only challenge I had during this Agent of Change was the items that I had to buy. I had to consider the people I was sending them to, so once I did, it made it for a relatively easy process. The package is still currently on it’s way to Cambodia at the time of this writing, so I cannot say for sure if it has made an impact yet on the family I sent it to, but I will provide you all with an update when the time comes. One thing I can say for sure though, is that I hope this will make an immediate impact on how they live for the next few weeks or years, and that I will feel elated knowing they can live in a environment that is a drastic improvement over their previous one.

The Agent of Change is the final part of the trilogy of You and the World and I can’t believe how much I’ve come so far. This has been a wonderful ride, and this is one of the few projects over my 11 years in the school system where it really got me thinking about my world. Multiple parts of the project widened my eyes on the issue in Cambodia, and really educated me about a deep and serious issue that many people do not pay attention to. I knew that there was poverty in Cambodia for a while now, but with the addition of the research conducted during the project, I never realized how serious and problematic the entire situation was. I saw my father in a new light after that interview and reading the transcript. He sacrificed everything he had to come to America, looking for the American Dream, and I am honestly speechless. Cambodia is in a bit of a predicament right now, and it’s up to us to see it. Sending a care package to a family, fixes a minute part of the problem, which is a huge step toward the actual solution of the problem. I wished I would have found a documentary to screen to an audience, but I felt the care packages felt more in theme with the entire problem of poverty in Cambodia. To be completely honest, it is going to take more than me, or you as the reader to put even a dent in the poverty situation in Cambodia. There is always hope, but the light will be at the end of of a long dark tunnel for Cambodia. We must spread awareness for this problem, and my Agent of Change will hopefully inspire you to do something similar. Remember, there are millions living without food or water. It is up to us to help them. Save Kampuchea! (កម្ពុជា)

Take a look at my annotated bibliography!