Zimbardo: The Resonance of the Accidental Hero

But a major shift is intended in his latest book. He uses an example. A few months ago, someone had a seizure in the subway, and fell in the tracks. There were 45 people, waiting for the train. The noise of the train coming full speed added what can only be imagined as terror and fascination. No one moved. Except this one guy. He had his 2 daughters with him. He turned to the next person, a perfect stranger, and uttered: "Please take care of my daughters" and without further discussion, jumped into the tracks, and held the man. He said "You had a seizure, the train is coming, please don't move" and the train pass over them full speed, and then stopped above them. The fist thing he screamed, still under the train, but unharmed, was "Tell my daughters I'm ok!” Zimbardo wants to shift his personal quest for understanding how situations can make normal people do evil things, to understand what is the matrix of the situation that make normal people do extraordinary, or ordinary, selfless actions. He wants to shift the focus to the hero in the making we all carry inside, just waiting for the situation. Why? Well, as he put it, as he ended his almost 3 hour, fast paced presentation: I would love to see more of them, especially if I'm the guy in the tracks. CH

Happiness: Life Most Important Skill

Happiness: Life Most Important Skill, Matthieu Ricard. Tr: Jesse Browner; LB Co, New York, 2006

By Christian H

WHAT IS HAPPINESS? Some might claim it's the ultimate goal of human experience. Some are more practical, and reduce it to sensory pleasurable experiences. Matthieu Ricard's compelling evidence argues for the former. He's not alone. Actually, the party grows bigger: not only the Buddhist community advocates that posture but, more recently, mainstream science. It's all part of what we might call the new major translation of Buddhism: From mystic, esoteric Tibet, to rigorous, scientific Western world, ostensibly, America.