Sociology Courses | March 20, 2006

[drgrissom.livejournal.com]

Soc. of Violence: 2nd Period

Grissom hands out a pop quiz to his students.

After a few minutes, they'll get to the part where it is revealed to have no real answers, and is actually an exercise to prove a point.

"What's the solution to this problem? Is it a computerized database? A more powerful federal law enforcement system to oversee state and town officials? A new method of classifying and reporting the data?"

---

Soc. of the Paranormal: 6th Period

After the class has taken a seat, Grissom begins a lecture on Satanism, being careful to point out that most Satanists do not in fact worship a deity called Satan, nor do they follow a principle of evil according to their definition.



1. Satan represents indulgence instead of abstinence.
2. Satan represents vital existence instead of spiritual pipe dreams.
3. Satan represents undefiled wisdom instead of hypocritical self-deceit.
4. Satan represents kindness to those who deserve it instead of love wasted on ingrates.
5. Satan represents vengeance instead of turning the other cheek.
6. Satan represents responsibility to the responsible instead of concern for psychic vampires.
7. Satan represents man as just another animal, sometimes better, more often worse than those that walk on all-fours, who, because of his “divine spiritual and intellectual development,” has become the most vicious animal of all.
8. Satan represents all of the so-called sins, as they all lead to physical, mental, or emotional gratification.
9. Satan has been the best friend the Church has ever had, as he has kept it in business all these years.

1. Do not give opinions or advice unless you are asked.
2. Do not tell your troubles to others unless you are sure they want to hear them.
3. When in another’s lair, show him respect or else do not go there.
4. If a guest in your lair annoys you, treat him cruelly and without mercy.
5. Do not make sexual advances unless you are given the mating signal.
6. Do not take that which does not belong to you unless it is a burden to the other person and he cries out to be relieved.
7. Acknowledge the power of magic if you have employed it successfully to obtain your desires. If you deny the power of magic after having called upon it with success, you will lose all you have obtained.
8. Do not complain about anything to which you need not subject yourself.
9. Do not harm little children.
10. Do not kill non-human animals unless you are attacked or for your food.
11. When walking in open territory, bother no one. If someone bothers you, ask him to stop. If he does not stop, destroy him.



"We've certainly touched on the role of evil sexy demons in class as a part of paranormal activity, so that you should be working on your own definition at this point, and these ideas stand directly opposed to some of the other philosophies we've taken a look at in the past few months.

So... reactions?"

HOMEWORK FOR BOTH CLASSES: The Body Farm field trip is Wednesday. You are invited, although attendance is not mandatory for Sociology students. The rules will be explained to you the day of, wear comfortable, old clothes and sturdy shoes.

[OOC: Link NWS if your boss is going to be displeased with your casual reading on Satanism at your desk during lunch. Spoilsport.]

Comments

Violence : 3/20

[drgrissom.livejournal.com]

Welcome

Re: Violence : 3/20

[sensethevisions]

Phoebe signs in and works on her quiz

Re: Violence : 3/20

[pure-blooddraco.livejournal.com]

Draco signs in and works on his quiz.

Re: Violence : 3/20

[absolutesnark]

Piper signs in and takes the quiz. She frowns when she gets to the part about why there are no real answers.

Re: Violence : 3/20

[marsheadtilt.livejournal.com]

Veronica signs in.

She's surprised when she gets to the part about the lack of answers.

"There definitely needs to be some central repository for this information," she says. "Police departments would be more likely to be able to prevent things like this from happening if they had some of these stats."

Re: Violence : 3/20

[demonbelthazor]

Bel signs in and takes the quiz. "There is a definite need for a centralized database for this stuff," he said. "You just gotta make sure people use it so that it actually means something."

Re: Violence : 3/20

[peter--parker.livejournal.com]

Peter signed in and took his quiz while twidlling four thumbs. You know what they say about idle hands after all, and Peter had plenty of them. He wondered if he could become triple right handed and get through tests faster, and then he got to the second page. No chance to try now.

"Some sort of centralized - probably computer - system would work, possibly run through an existing federal agency like the FBI. That would keep things from getting too bloated while avoiding the problem of having to create a brand new agency, too."

Re: Violence : 3/20

[can_be_more]

"What do the numbers actually matter?" Aeryn asks. "Shouldn't the fact that there is no definitive answer to those questions be enough of a sign that there's a problem? The numbers will only fluctuate anyway with social trends."

Re: Violence : 3/20

[krycek-rat.livejournal.com]

Krycek signed in, then looked over the test, shaking his head slightly. "There's no way to know every crime that happens - there's so much that goes unreported that the statistics are already skewed and would continue to be so."

Paranormal: 3/20

[drgrissom.livejournal.com]

Welcome

Re: Paranormal: 3/20

[the4thsister.livejournal.com]

Paige signs in and looks genuinely interested in the lecture, Satanism actually sounds pretty intelligent and reasonable.

Re: Paranormal: 3/20

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

Walter signs in an listens to the lecture with interest. This is Satanism? It sounded more like logical ruthlessness in most cases.

Maybe he'd spent too long with a vampire?

Re: Paranormal: 3/20

[courier-gavin.livejournal.com]

Jake signs in and doodles as he listens to the lecture.

Re: Paranormal: 3/20

[imac-kenzie.livejournal.com]

Mac signs in.

She seems a little creeped by the subject to start with, but the lecture brings her round to the idea a little. "It doesn't seem quite as crazy as I'd have imagined before, I'll give it that. There are definitely several things on those lists that I wouldn't want to follow though."

Re: Paranormal: 3/20

[chasingangela]

Angela signed in. She was skeptical at first, but some of the Satanic principles made some sense to her. And she was relieved to find out they don't actually sacrifice animals or small children.

Re: Paranormal: 3/20

[lovelylana.livejournal.com]

Lana signs in and listens to the lecture, although the whole concept still creeps her out.

Re: Paranormal: 3/20

[absolutesnark]

Piper signs in. She's somewhat creeped out until some of it begins to make sense to her.

Re: Paranormal: 3/20

[oatmanspatient.livejournal.com]

Marty signs in carrying a flutter pony in one arm and a couple of model rockets in the other.

He places both underneath his desk during the lecture.

Unfortunately those are old chemical model rocket engines which don't react well with the fluffy exterior and interior of a My Little Pink Pony Princess Plushie.

So in the middle of class the Pony literally takes flight, lodges in the ceiling and explodes sending Pony fluff everywhere.

Oops.

Re: Paranormal: 3/20

[demonbelthazor]

Bel signs in.

"Some of those rules apply to the Underworld, but not all of them, and that's the closest thing to Satanism I've seen," he said.

Re: Paranormal: 3/20

[aroseintime.livejournal.com]

Rose signs in and listens to the lecture on Satanism.

Re: Paranormal: 3/20

[sensethevisions]

Phoebe signs in and takes notyes... and has a look of confusion on her face the entire time.

Re: Paranormal: 3/20

[fates_jaye]

Jaye is so telling her parents about Satanism the next time she talks to them.

Re: Paranormal: 3/20

[dorky-broots.livejournal.com]

Broots signs in and takes note.

You didn't see anything.

Re: Paranormal: 3/20

[psi16.livejournal.com]

Lyta signs in and, as she sits listening to the lecture, can't help but draw a parallel between satanism -- as Dr. Grissom explains it -- and what she knows about hedonism. Maybe a bit of utilitarianism as well? She frowns. She really should have paid more attention to her Political Philosophies class the first time around.

After Class: 3/20

[drgrissom.livejournal.com]

Grissom's flipping through some recent copies of Car and Driver and Consumer Reports.

Re: After Class: 3/20

[sensethevisions]

Phoebe has her presentation for last week's class done.