human-behavior

"Considerable interest in , , and s arose amongst European colonialists who witnessed some of the consequences of Western-style economic development in tropical lands (Grove, 1997). However, the extent of human influence on the environment was not explored in detail and on the basis of sound data until George Perkins Marsh ... published ' (1864), in which he dealt with human influence on the woods, the waters, and the sands."

"and other activities were responsible for pushing populations of animals to extinction long before the , which began about ten thousand years ago. Today, however, our collective assault on animals, plants, and s has reached such a horrendous level that any alarm we might sound will be too faint to match the tragedy that is unfolding. ... In the past century or so, both the and of Homo sapiens have increased spectacularly, and this is this is the root cause of the rapid acceleration in human-caused species extinctions, precipitating what is now called the ."

"When we began and living more closely alongside them, we shared diseases with our new companions. And keeping animals with less than in the wild in crowded, stressful conditions also made them more susceptible to disease. Today, intensive has created highly pathogenic forms of that have infected herds of cattle and their farmers in the US. Then there’s . By and disturbing other habitats, we’ve caused animals stress and forced them to live more closely together. That may have contributed to the spread of from s to apes, monkeys and small forest antelopes known as s. contributes too, by forcing animals and plants to move to cooler regions, and mixing them up with other species. An encounter with a disease that your body hasn’t evolved immunity to is always dangerous."

"It is an erroneous assumption of limited minds that great ones such as Jesus, Krishna, and other divine incarnations are gone from the earth when they are no longer visible to human sight. This is not so... Jesus Christ is very much alive and active today. In Spirit and occasionally taking on a flesh-and-blood form, he is working unseen by the masses for the regeneration of the world. With his all-embracing love, Jesus is not content merely to enjoy his blissful consciousness in Heaven. He is deeply concerned for mankind and wishes to give his followers the means to attain the divine freedom of entry into God's Infinite Kingdom...."

"“It may take either of two forms, according as the sinking into sense directly involves only the violation of the spirit's own self-reverence or the graver assault upon the sacredness of others. In either case it is dishonour of God. The risk of it lies in the nature of our being, goes back to the conditions of our existence, of our self-definition in freedom; is constituent in our freedom as this is defined against the freedom of God. This risk is therefore "original" in a sense even deeper than that in which traditional theology makes sin to be original,”"

"Unless the world is truly set apart from God and possesses a dependent but real liberty of its own analogous to the freedom of God, everything is merely a fragment of divine volition, and God is simply the totality of all that is and all that happens; there is no creation, but only an oddly pantheistic expression of God's unadulterated power."

"The problem with shunning is that it keeps information that can be productive out of the realm of consideration. Healthy discourse means dealing with what exists and coming into some kind of relationship of understanding with reality. Defended discourse forbids or shuns certain perspectives or contexts to information."

"Shunning as an end-point to normative conflict is the definition of absurdity. Shunning is not only a punitive silencing, but it is a removal from humanity, and therefore reliant on the Making of Monsters. After all, no one owns humanity and humans cannot be removed from themselves. It’s a delusion."

"Shunning by family, cliques, or governments is an active form of harassment, and is consistently detrimental to all parties, even as it becomes normalized and status quo."

"The [Belgian Court of] Cassation acknowledges that it would be forbidden to “harass, threaten, or bully ex-members,” but states that this is by no means part of the shunning policy of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. It is true that shunning may lead “to social isolation towards other members of the faith community,” but this should not be confused with a “generalized social isolation.” The Belgian Jehovah’s Witnesses are a “small faith community of about 26,000 members across Belgium,” and those shunned remain free to associate with all the other people living in the country."

"Shunning, an active form of harassment, is never useful in resolving problems; in most cases it is petty and primarily a way to avoid an adjustment of the self that is required for accountability. If it has no terms for resolution, it is simply a form of asserting supremacy and imposing punishment, and punishment, as we know, rarely does anything but produce more pain."

"Those who know may also know that they keep a strict version of the “,” or shunning, as practiced by early Protestants. Few realize that “Meidung,” when it was introduced, was regarded as a progress. The Amish fled to North America to affirm their right to religious liberty. As part of religious freedom, apostates were no longer executed, and physical violence against them was forbidden. They were free to go elsewhere and, if inclined to do so, establish new separate religious communities. The only sanction they were subjected to was “Meidung” or shunning, i.e. strict separation from their friends and relatives, which was perhaps sad but surely better than being burned at stake or drowned in the icy waters of the river, the penalty for apostates in Protestant Zurich."

"On December 14, 2023, the Netherlands joined several other democratic countries that have declared the so-called “shunning” practiced by the Jehovah’s Witnesses and other religions not illegal and protected in its teaching and practice by international and domestic provisions on freedom of religion or belief. The Minister of Justice and Security wrote to the House of Representatives explaining the reasons why shunning should not be criminalized in the country."

"Human life, being mortal, is inherently filled with risk, and one of the greatest dangers is other people’s escalation. It can hasten the inevitable end before we’ve had a chance to really begin. It can be a terrible waste of life and potential. Being the object of overreaction means being treated in a way that one does not deserve, which is the centerpiece of injustice."

"The force that takes Conflict and misrepresents it as Abuse is called Escalation. Escalation is a kind of smokescreen to cover up the agent’s own influence on events, their own contributions to the Conflict. By escalating in the face of nothing, normative conflict, or resistance and acting as if it is Abuse, we avoid having to confront ourselves, or our family, our clique, our HIV status, our country, our own individual and group shortcomings, our anxieties from an unresolved past. Instead, we use accusation to create an artificial furor to override or distract from our own responsibility."

"Escalating Conflict to the status of Abuse obscures our desires, our own contributions to problems in relationships, our own anxieties about sex, love, and HIV, our own projections from our pasts onto the non-deserving present, and it disavows our agency in a manner that enhances the power of the state. Escalation under these circumstances is a resistance to self-knowledge."

"And bear about the mockery of woe To midnight dances and the public show."

"Misery makes sport to mock itself."

"The spirit, Sir, is one of mockery."

"Freedom means that you have the right to do a certain thing; but if you have no opportunity to do it, that right is sheer mockery."

"Though I were gifted with an angel's tongue, And voice like that with which the prophets sung, Yet if mild charity were not within, 'T were all an impious mockery and sin."

"Fielding Mellish: I object, Your Honor! This trial is a travesty! It's a travesty of a mockery of a sham of a mockery of a travesty of two mockeries of a sham!"

"It has taken us centuries of thought and mockery to shake the medieval system; thought and mockery here and now are required to prevent the mechanists from building another."

"Perséverance, dear my lord, Keeps honour bright: to have done, is to hang Quite out of fashion, like a rusty mail In monumental mockery."

"O that I were a mockery king of snow, Standing before the sun of Bolingbroke, To melt myself away in water drops!"

"A delusion, a mockery, and a snare."

"I don't understand guys who whisper 'mashallah' in your face ... like what is this, halal harassment?"

"Studio heads and producers have been relatively quick to welcome back actors, directors, and writers who’ve been accused of harassment and assault, particularly when their status makes them seem irreplaceable. It’s a dual-edged message: Don’t abuse your power, but if you do, you’ll still have a career. Part of the confusion comes down to the fact that these men are seen as invaluable because the stories they tell are still understood to have disproportionate worth. When the slate of new fall TV shows is filled with father-and-son buddy-cop stories and prison-break narratives and not one but two gentle, empathetic examinations of male grief, it’s harder to imagine how women writers and directors might step up to occupy a sudden void. When television and film are fixated on helping audiences find sympathy for troubled, selfish, cruel, brilliant men, it’s easier to believe that the troubled, brilliant men in real life also deserve empathy, forgiveness, and second chances. And so the tangible achievements one year into the #MeToo movement need to be considered hand in hand with the fact that the stories being told haven’t changed much at all, and neither have the people telling them. A true reckoning with structural disparities in the entertainment industry will demand something else as well: acknowledging that women’s voices and women’s stories are not only worth believing, but also worth hearing. At every level."

"In Australia, the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission specifically lists the display of pin-ups as an example of sexually harassing behaviour. While sexual harassment legislation in both Australia and the United States covers sites including workplaces and educational institutions, such legislation has not been designed to include sexual harassment occurring in public space. This article will explore the reality that outdoor advertisements on public display are visually very similar to sexually harassing pin-ups, as will be demonstrated through references to examples collected as part of a year long study of outdoor advertising in Melbourne, Australia. Because of the visual similarities between outdoor advertising and, for example, pin-ups which are prohibited in sites such as workplaces, this article suggests that both media should be critiqued in the exact same manner. This article argues that the specific elements that make sexual harassment inappropriate in the workplace – i.e., the captive environment that is created whereby exposure to sexual images is unavoidable – is a situation replicated in public space with a person utilising space being held captive in a similar manner. Similarly, this article will explore the manner in which pin-ups masculinise a workplace in the same way that sexist outdoor advertisements masculinise public space. The usefulness, limitations and feasibility of the application of sexual harassment discussions to sexist outdoor advertisements will also be considered."

"When part of your brain has to be occupied with workplace stress—from unwanted sexual advances to witnessing abuse between colleagues—you have less to give to your science."

"The former head of an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood watch group pleaded guilty on Friday to charges that he forced a troubled 15-year-old girl to have sex. Brooklyn Shomrim leader Jacob Daskal, 64, avoided trial in Brooklyn Federal Court on allegations he groomed the underage girl and transported from Brooklyn across the state line to New Jersey and then upstate, where he assaulted her at his vacation home and at a campground. As part of his guilty plea, Daskal agreed to a sentence within the range of 14 to 17 years in jail. He is also required to register as a sex offender. The exact details of his sentence will be determined at a future hearing."

"The researchers have several recommendations for organizations looking to reduce harassment, a number of which involve prevention training. Their study shows that traditional sexual harassment training has little effect, perhaps because much of it focuses on helping employees understand what constitutes harassment, and the data shows they already do. Instead, the researchers say, companies should implement training that educates employees about sexism and character. Their data shows that employees who display high levels of sexism are more likely to engage in negative behaviors, and they believe training can reduce those levels. Their data also shows that people of high character—those who display virtues such as courage—are less likely to harass and more likely to intervene when others do. “Though character building in organizations is on the cutting edge and consultants are just learning how to do this, there are training resources available,” the researchers write. ­"

"Racism may well provide the clarity to see that sexual harassment is neither a flattering gesture nor a misguided social overture but an act of intentional discrimination that is insulting, threatening, and debilitating."

"President Moon and the DP's silence on and apparent unwillingness to get to the bottom of the sexual harassment allegations directed at powerful heads of local government, including the highly influential , is yet another example of their desire to make abuse of power and impunity the new norm in South Korea."

"Too often the story is the same: A man sexually harasses a woman, the woman reports it, and she gets told that’s just how it is."

"Saying Mashallah does not make your harassment halal"

"I have watched the #metoo campaign as avidly as anyone. I have gone to bed each night wondering who will be outed as a sexual harasser in the morning, whether it will be another one of my political heroes or someone we all recognize from mainstream media or Hollywood. We’ve seen many of these perpetrators lose jobs, be forced to resign, and face economic difficulty because of their abhorrent behaviors. But I have not gone to bed a single night in all these months wondering what scientist would be sacked in the morning because of his transgressions—let alone be publicly outed—because scientist-harassers rarely lose their jobs."

"Most men know what sexual harassment is, and most women know what it is. The idea that men don’t know their behavior is bad and that women are making a mountain out of a molehill is largely untrue. If anything, women are more lenient in defining harassment."

"Copyright law as it is, it's just completely out of touch with human behaviour."

"I am profoundly skeptical about our abilities to predict the future in general, and human behavior in particular."

"Mankind will possess incalculable advantages and extraordinary control over human behavior when the scientific investigator will be able to subject his fellow men to the same external analysis he would employ for any natural object, and when the human mind will contemplate itself not from within but from without."

"Human behavior is predictable, but, as in physical science, accurate prediction hinges on the correctness of underlying theoretical assumptions."

"Institutions are human behavior, and they are, therefore, to be explained by the characteristics of that behavior."

"I discovered long ago that, if you write a book about cats or dogs, everybody loves you, but if you dare to write a book about human beings, all hell breaks loose. It is impossible to write an uncensored, honest book about human behaviour without offending at least part of your audience. If you feel you have a basic truth to tell, then you must tell it and be prepared to suffer the inevitable criticisms."

"The study of human nature must have profound implications for the study of history, sociology, psychology, anthropology, and politics. Each of those disciplines is an attempt to understand human behaviour, and if the underlying universals of human behaviour are product of evolution, then it is vitally important to understand what the evolutionary pressures were."

"Man can influence his life through his own conduct, and that in this process conscious thinking and wanting can play a part. ... Those who are striving to improve the lot of man may ground their hopes."

"There's definitely, definitely, definitely, no logic to human behaviour . . . There's no map And a compass Wouldn't help at all"

"Oh, I could tell you, but you're far too clever to listen. That said, we're never too old to be students of our own behaviors, Jean-Luc."

"Policies should take account of the emotional dimensions of human behaviour rather than assuming rational action."

"The enduring assumption that human behaviour is governed by innate morality and reason is at odds with the persistence of human deprivation, inequality, injustice, misery, brutality and conflict."