Chapter 3 Discussion Questions

1. Bernie Goetz is man who resided in New York City. It started off as an ordinary day as he entered the the station. He sat by a group of African American youths who were said to be "rowdy" and "horsing around" according to other passengers on the train. The boys struck up a conversation with Goetz and shorty after one of the boys gestured to his pocket as if stating he had a gun. Then the boy told Goetz to give him five dollars. In turn Goetz pulled out the gun and shot at each of the four boys. One youth, Darrell Cabey, who had already been shot once by Goetz, layed there yelling so Goetz shot him again, this time paralyzing him. It is horrifying to even think that people view Goetz as a hero. He had a gun, for which a reason has not been given, with him. Why did he need it? I believe that if Goetz truly believed that the boys would try to hurt him, then he should have never took a seat so close to them. He put himself in a dangerous position, no one else. The only reason that people view Goetz as some type of hero is because the four boys each ended up have a record for various crimes. However, to shoot them is not bringing justice. What he did was a selfish, ignorant, and completely immoral. In the chapter, Gladwell discusses the fact that Goetz's father was a harsh man who often targeted his anger at Goetz. On page 149, Gladwell states a quoted from Lillian Rubin, Goetz's biographer, " Goetz's bullets were aimed at targets that existed as much in his past as in the present". So even though Goetz seemed like an ordinary man the other people on the train made a human error that day. Gladwell states on page 160, human beings make the mistake of overestimating the importance of fundamental character traits and underestimate the importance of the situation and the context". So in my eyes Goetz is a murderer he entered the train that day knowing he was going to put himself in a position that would cause something bad to happen.


5. In my personal opinion, I am not sure whether or not changing the conditions in a prison will lead to better inmate behavior. People always say that you can help a person get better, but you can never truly change who they are and who they have always been. Changing conditions in prisons may lead to better attitudes, however the prisoners are in prison for a reason and whatever the reason is, it is bad. The prisoners are already flawed in some way. They commited a crime that was obviously bad enough to land themselved a jail cell. I think a lot of research would have to be done to truly see what exact conditions would be changed. In Zimbardo's research good people with no criminal record changed dramtically. However, the people that are in prison have a criminal record and have commited crimes that affect the human population. That needs to be taken into account.