The Power of Context Discussion Questions

1. Bernie Goetz was a man who boarded the subway in 1984 in Manhattan. When four black youths approached him and asked him for money, he shot them. He claims that one's smile set him off. Some people see Goetz as a hero because the four black men he shot turned out to have criminal records. Others see him as a cold-blooded murderer. I see him as a cold-blooded murderer too. The men were not threatening his life, so he cannot validly claim he shot them in self-defense. In addition, it is not his job to rid the streets of criminals--that's what police officers do. If he were bothered by young men pestering him for money, he should have reported it to someone who could legally do something about it instead of shooting them. He's clearly not right in the head.

2. Contrary to what Malcolm Gladwell says, I believe that people with tangled psychological pathology are more sensitive to their environments than those who are completely sane. He pretty much suggests that people don't have control of themselves in certain situations--he says that environment determines how people behave. He writes, "The Power of Context says that the showdown on the subway between Bernie Goetz and those four youths had very little to do, in the end, with the tangled psychological pathology of Goetz, and very little as well to do with the background and poverty of the four youths who accosted him, and everything to do with the message sent by the graffiti on the walls and the disorder at the turnstiles" (150-151). Shooting four people on the subway is very serious. Maybe people who normally wouldn't break the law jump the turnstiles because everyone else is doing it. That is pretty minor and the environment--the environment in which everyone else is committing some minor crime in the shady subway--probably does effect how people behave to some extent. I am a little skeptical when Gladwell says that Goetz's disturbed pathology has very little to do with the fact that he shot four people on the subway. I think he would have shot those four men had they all been in Burger King, because I think Goetz's mere craziness caused him to shoot those people in cold blood. People do get shot in fast food restaurants and convenience stores. There are people who shoot other people in cold blood who aren't in a shady environment at the time, so I wonder how Gladwell would justify that. I consider myself completely sane and I wouldn't even consider applying for a gun permit. But if for some reason I did have a permit to carry a gun, I wouldn't shoot four people with it if they asked me for money on the grungy subway, because I believe I am sane enough to control myself and prevent myself from doing that. I believe this is true of most people, and that only crazy people would shoot someone in cold blood no matter the situation they are in when it happens. I believe that positive environments are more likely to affect behavior than negative environments because most people want to be happy and good rather than criminal, and they can control themselves in negative situations unlike some people with pathological disorders.