The other day we had a group exercise in my career development class. The exercise was this: It was the nuclear apocalypse, and we had a fallout shelter. Besides our group, we had to pick 6 out of 10 people to allow to stay in our shelter for 6 months, the rest had to die. The teacher organized our groups based on our major, so the Game Art students got grouped with me (there were only 3 other ones), the rest of the class was pretty much fashion, fashion marketing, and interior design (read airheads with rich parents (actually some interior design students are cool)). Here's the list of people and the information:
1. Bookkeeper; 31 years old
2. His wife; six months pregnant
3. Black militant; 2nd year college student
4. Famous historian-author; 42 years old
5. Hollywood star, young, bright
6. Former prostitute; "retired" for 4 years
7. Rabbi; 44 years old
8. Olympic athlete; all sports
9. Architect; homosexual
10. Police Officer with gun (they cannot be separated)
Now, the point of this exercise was to simulate how employers form biases on titles and hire on very limited information. All the other groups made morally sound decisions that, in my opinion, were dumb, like, saving the pregnant lady, and killing the cop because he had a weapon. We had to select a group member to go up and explain our group's decisions, and my explaination went a little like this:
"First off, we killed the pregnant lady, because a baby would just be another person, and a crying baby in a cramped fallout shelter with no diapers? No. So obviously we had to also kill the bookkeeper, because all he'd do is bitch about how we killed his wife and unborn kid. Next, we killed the Rabbi, because I'm pretty sure our food supply isn't kosher. Also, we killed the prostitute, because I'm sure there's a reason she's retired.
We didn't kill the athlete because.. well, anyone that competes in ALL of the Olympic sports is a god damn legend! We kept the Architect, because he's probably gonna build pillow forts or something, and that'll keep us entertained. We kept the police officer, because his gun is apparently infused into his hand, so it's pretty obvious that he's Robocop, and if we said no to Robocop, that wouldn't have panned out well for us. Everyone else, eh, they got lucky."
All I'm saying is, I'm not killing Robocop.
Comments (28)
Are you kidding? You are exactly the psycho I want in charge during impending doom. But I probably wouldn't make the cut. I can't build pillow forts.
I'm with @impossibleangles - though, I'm not sure what good an English lit major would do, except I know how to fire the gun that would be attached to my hand.
but what if robocop goes mad with power and tries to dominate everyone? Oh well, you could always make any trouble makers a part of the food supply.
I always hated those exercises.
Who the hell gets rid of protection in favor of a useless chick and her damn baby? What's gonna happen when the raiders come through, huh? HUH?!
@another_rebel_without_a_cause - That's a no brainer really. The only reason to keep 1 and 2 would be to 'repopulate the world'. But by the time the nuclear apocalypse comes we'll be able to clones humans rather easily, so there'd be no point.
The funny thing is, the fact that they even set this up the way they did, reflects the possibility of their own prejudice.
I enjoyed your choices. (hated shit like this in school though)
Awesome. =)
I would have kept the prostitute. Who knows? She might have come out of retirement. Besides, do you really want a pansy Hollywood star running around annoying you by constantly wondering where his agent and press secretary are.
fairly kindly reasoned actually. it is soo much fun to see a dangerous thread of addition honesty. but oh boo no pictures were provided which is about the ultimate form of conceit.
"I'm sure there's a reason she's retired." -- Very valid, Rob. Indeed.
Hehehe I'm glad to see you here again.
msn：martinodigesu@hotmail.com
You know you're on Xanga when your post receives a completely off-topic religious comment. ^^^^
hahaha i love these exercises. We did one in my sociology class last year and then again in my global ethics class this year. There was a full out fight and yelling.
@ModernBunny - Obviously he doesn't know me very well.
Did you also simulate eating the dead fetus?
That was awesome. Would I be that cool if I was in game arts?
lol awesome.
@wherethefishlives - Later, when the teacher was explaining the point, she said "Notice how you only knew the age three of the people." Apparently it was inappropriate of me to say, "Well, we DID know that the prostitute was AT LEAST 4 years old." I'm not wrong, am I?
You win for majoring in game arts and for making the same decisions I would.
Pillow forts and Robocop?
Can we please start the nuclear apocalypse now?
Why did you kill off all the chicks?
your reasoning was awesome!
@TheTheologiansCafe - How do you know all the others are men? Clearly you hate women.