maskormenace

Hullo, everyone. It's Kitty. I've not been around for a little while, but - I'm back now. In Heropa. And, erm - just for anyone who cares - both Mandrake and Bartimaeus have gone home. So I'm the only one left from my world now.

[ Her expression following that announcement is a mixture of disgust (because that sounded dreary and pathetic, didn't it) and sadness. Then, with a little shake of her head (you can practically hear her telling herself to stiffen her upper lip) she continues on: ]

Right. So - all right. I recently made a rumblr - that's an account on the website rumblr-dot-com - and I've actually managed to get quite a few followers. It turns out people are completely mad for having imPorts friended on social media. Anyway, it's actually really great - there are lots of really worthy causes out there, and when I pick them up they get spread around pretty nicely. It keeps this celebrity thing from being overbearingly stupid. I generally ask my followers to bring causes to my attention. This week I'm trying to help raise funds for maintaining latrines in areas where people practice open defecation. A lack of proper sanitation is linked incredibly closely to higher rates of infant mortality and shorter lifespans, but a billion people in the world live without access to it. And it doesn't take all that much money to make a change. So I'm trying to raise funds for that this week. Next week, we're going to be taking a look at raising money to help with mass deworming.

My rumblr is called 'therealkittyjones,' if anyone wants to follow me.

I'm also looking for people to help out with some fundraising for these causes. I've been in touch with a radio station, and I'm thinking we ought to do a celebrity version of two truths and a lie - in honor of all that rubbish at the last swear-in, you know. What happens is you come onto the program and you give me two true statements and one lie. Listeners go online and they wager five dollars on which one's the lie. If they get it right, they get an autographed picture of you, and if they get it wrong then their money just goes to charity. You'll also put up some of your own money, and if I manage to guess on-air which one's the lie you have to donate too. I've gotten asks for some of the imPorts in particular - [ She leans forward and clicks to another window on her communicator, her eyes moving as she reads. ] So, Superman, Mr Stark, Mr Hundred, Mr Wayne, Mr Gamagori, Mr Taylor, Mr Xanatos, Mr Callaghan, consider yourselves called out - you know, reading off all those men, I just realized how sexist my followers are, eurgh. There are a few women on this list too, but not nearly enough. Olivier, Sabriel, Power Girl...Actually, you know, pretty much everybody's interesting to the locals. I think all of you are on here, the list is like five pages long. We've just got far too many men here, haven't we?

[ And she sits back, her eyes focusing as she comes back to the window of her webcam. ]

Anyway, it'll only take about an hour of your time, and it's for a good cause. A series of good causes. Plus you'll get to talk about yourself, and I've never met anyone who wasn't at least a little bit obsessed with themselves. So...let me know if you're interested and I'll set up all the details.

Right. Anyway, thanks for listening.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Same reason that parents both punish and reward children, right? It's a method of behavior control.

It can be. And I say there are also internal factors - our own fears. We humans are a superstitious and cowardly species. Those of us who believe, who have faith, comfort ourselves with beliefs of eternal salvation. No fear. No pain. No suffering. But they must assuage their underlying guilt with nightmares of eternal punishment in a lake of fire. Almost each religion has a unique, fantastical realm of punishment. Yet the psychology of each can be described in the exact same way.

Even those who don't believe in a supreme deity fear death. Does it still impress you that such behaviour control is only imposed externally?

I wouldn't say it impresses me, exactly.

[A pause. He juggles each definition of the word impress and decides that Kitty just couldn't keep up. Such a disappointment.]

... I speak of impression in relation to your notion of behavior being controlled by external forces; our parents; our teachers; our peers. It doesn't impress me that such a definition escaped your notice. I'm certain I'm wrong, there.

[Backhanded compliments, aww yeah.]

[ That draws a frown out of her. ]

Well, I do speak a different sort of English than you do, don't I.

[ And that English is: London, undereducated. And Kitty doesn't enjoy being reminded of that fact, because it makes her angry at The System and at The Wealthy. Hence the frown. ]

Anyway. All of that comes from what people are taught, I'd say. Guilt and fear come from behavior enforcement from when we're kids.

[Crane keeps silent.

Kitty, please. He grew up in Georgia. The education system there is as much a joke now as it was then, he believes. And he isn't going to enlighten her to the fact he taught himself to speak like this to erase his past - and because it's a better way of fitting in. Though on rare occasions he'd caught his accent slipping.]

I suppose you would believe that. Are you familiar with the Little Albert experiment?

[ yeah well at least you have beyond a middle school education, CRANE ]

No. I'm not.

[Hey, complain at at Bruce Wayne. Send those strange fans, even. He needs a show.]

Well. In the 1920s, a man called John B. Watson reasoned the reactions of children to loud noises were prompted by fear. He proposed this audible fear was innate; the result of an unconditioned response. His experiment conditioned phobias into a child called "Albert", when he was nine-months old, and proved that the introduction of a conditioned stimulus resulted in a conditioned response. Albert was little over a year when the experiment was concluded. Watson's initial introduction of a loud sound had resulted in fear, and not another emotion - fear had been an unconditioned response.

[Guess who loves fear!]

[ Kitty frowns, a little puzzled. ]

Well - I mean, yeah. Obviously there's going to be fear of loud noises - things that seem like real threats. Instinct plays a role.

[He tilts his head, slowly, and stares curiously.]

Of course it does. Instinct is a marvellous thing. It cannot be changed and it teaches us that we are not as brave as we think we are. Regardless, I wish your endeavour the best, Miss Jones.

[ She's slightly taken aback by that, but after she blinks, she says - ]

Erm - Yeah. Thanks. I hope it goes well, too.

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