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The NYC Subway: How Society's Spirit was Broken
In this revealing discussion, the hosts delve into two alarming incidents highlighting societal decay and complacency. They contrast the case of Daniel Penny, who faced severe consequences for attempting to restrain a dangerous person on a New York subway, with a recent horrific event where bystanders filmed a woman being set on fire instead of helping her. The dialogue explores themes of learned helplessness, failing societal norms, and the wider implications of these events. With both reference to urban culture and poignant psychological studies, this episode provides a critical analysis of current moral and structural failings within society.
Malcolm Collins: [00:00:00] Hello, Simone. I am excited to be here with you today. Today. We are going to be contrasting two recent events, which I think do a good job of illustrating the degradation of our society and where we are at as a society right now. Specifically, the instance of Daniel Penny, when he attempted to restrain somebody he saw as a danger on a subway train, ended up accidentally killing them, and then had his life at risk as a result of this, but was recently freed, thankfully.
And then the other instance in which a person lit a woman on fire on a train, multiple people took video of this.
Simone Collins: Video?
Malcolm Collins: Wait,
Simone Collins: people recorded this happening?
Malcolm Collins: Yeah, they just extinguished her. Women's burning to death, stopped, didn't try to save her, flipped out their phones. A police officer, a police officer walked by, did nothing.
No one is facing any consequences for this.
Speaker: And how do you find [00:01:00] with respect to the charge of criminal indifference?
Speaker 2: We find the defendants Guilty. Order! Order
Speaker: Your callous indifference and utter disregard for everything that is good and decent has rocked the very foundation upon which our society is built.
Malcolm Collins: So this
Simone Collins: isn't just that they didn't apprehend the The immolator. They also didn't stop the immolation. What on
Malcolm Collins: earth? You, you, in our society right now, if you interfere, if you try to help, if you try to do anything you will be punished for
Simone Collins: it.
Malcolm Collins: It's what is being taught to people.
That is what it, in the, in the center of urban monoculture that is Manhattan. That is what the urban monoculture says. Don't try.
You compared it to the marshmallow study and a lot of people like that comparison. I'll compare it [00:02:00] to learned helplessness
Simone Collins: Okay, right.
Malcolm Collins: So for people who aren't familiar with learned helplessness, there was this experiment the psychological experiment done was mice and rats where if you Put a mouse or rat in like a bowl of let's say water You Right.
And there's nothing in there. And, and they, they learn that they're not going to find any sort of an edge to this bowl of water. Right. And then you put another set of them in a bowl of water that has like a little platform underneath it and part of it. So eventually they can find something to stand on to save themselves.
Simone Collins: Yeah.
Malcolm Collins: The ones that were in the water that didn't have this platform, They'll give up really quickly when you put them in water and just drown.
Simone Collins: Whereas
Malcolm Collins: the ones with the platform will keep trying for a very long period of time. And this is learned helplessness.
Simone Collins: So they'll like jump from
Published on 11 months, 2 weeks ago