Honors Thesis

So, my honors thesis is complete, and for those of you with any interest in what my life has been dedicated to for the past year and a half, here's the abstract of the 80pg monstrosity that I have birthed.

'Leadership is intangible, and therefore no weapon ever designed can replace it.' -General Omar N. Bradley

'I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles but today it means getting along with people.'- Gandhi

'The great leader speaks little. He never speaks carelessly. When all is finished, the people say, “We did it ourselves.”'- Lao-Tzu

Although a prodigious amount of research exists on the topic of intergroup relations in conflict, the argument over the applicability of positive intergroup attitudes and the other ideals of principled nonviolent movements that foster them is not adequately addressed. The role of principled leadership in particular in conflict management and prevention has not been examined. An experimental design for an adaptable conflict simulation addressing this factor; the Leadership, Intergroup Attitudes, and Conflict Simulation (LIACS), was developed and tested. Results showed that two personality factors; Social Dominance Orientation and the extent of the circle of moral regard were correlated to increased positivity of groups' political actions. And despite there being no significant differences in intergroup bias and attitudes using the measures selected, the use of principled leadership rhetoric did significantly increase positivity in communication between groups in a conflict scenario, as well as decrease potential conflict escalation through the reduction of hostile actions.

Conversation

There was a conversation the other day that I thought was important to preserve. Here it is, for all you breathless followers of this electronic version of my random mind:

1: I feel inadequate

2: how are you inadequate now?

1: a - I'm ugly.

b - I work in vain.

2: a - your opinion of how you look doesn't matter, and the people who matter like how you look.
b - we're students, we haven't done work yet so how can you label it as vain already.

1: I just feel like I'm going nowhere. I've worked hard all my life and it's for nothing. the world is going to shit.

2: First off, why is it necessary to feel like you are going somewhere? there's nowhere more worthwhile than nowhere.
Second, you've worked hard because working hard is part of who you are, I hope, and not because you aim to achieve something.
And finally, the world is going to shit and there's nothing anyone can do about it. law of entropy: its gonna happen sooner or later.

1: I've been bleeding into entropy forever. Can't I just disappear already?

2: why? is there any more meaning or peace in chaos and nothingness? or is it cowardice that turns you away from that which tries you?

1: That's the thing: I never turn away. I bombard into it. That's suicidal and I don't like it.

2: Don't do it then. Live in apathy and fear.

1: No. Apathy is against my nature.

2: Live in pleasure and the present then, for there is nothing inherently better about the alternative.