σ
The deviation IQ scoring system, which takes 100 as an average score, is based on extensive testing of people of different ages in many parts of the United States and on the statistical computation of mean scores for each age group. In computing these average scores, psychologists use a statistic called the standard deviation, generally denoted σ, to signal the extent to which no average scores deviate from the norm. As a result, an individual's score may be at the mean, or it may be one or more standard deviations above or below the mean.
I am fascinated by the people I've been meeting in my city. Mostly downtown, in the city center. People spawned by a society of poverty, ignorance and neglect. Delinquents, many of them, born out of a chronic, unending sickness that pervades cities.
Psychology books would describe some of them as "...socially maladjusted, having character disorders or sociopathic behavior; destructive, immature, impulsive, manipulative - with a disregard for the needs and feelings of others. A deficit of conscience and judgment; inability to feel guilt and shame."
A product of their society.
In addition to the delinquents there are the addicts, the lonely elderly, the autistic savants, the single moms, the homeless. Many, also, a product of their environment or the company they keep.
A society is a grouping of individuals characterized by patterns of relationships between these individuals that may have distinctive culture and institutions, or, more broadly, an economic, social and industrial infrastructure in which a varied multitude of people or peoples are a part.
The word society may also refer to an organized voluntary association of people for religious, benevolent, cultural, scientific, political, patriotic, or other purpose.
As I meet these people on a daily basis I ask myself a simple question: Is it my responsibility to change society?
Even I know that I can't change society. But I could create a new one! An "association" that would enable them to find freedom from the destructive patterns that have made them what they are. An "organized" society that could provide resources and support, teaching them the basics of life. After all, these people need society, and a better one than they are currently a "segment" of.
Can you imagine what that would look like?!
The castoffs of society will be laughing and dancing in God,
the down-and-outs shouting praise to The Holy of Israel.
For there'll be no more gangs on the street.
Cynical scoffers will be an extinct species.
Those who never missed a chance to hurt or demean
will never be heard of again:
Gone the people who corrupted the courts,
gone the people who cheated the poor,
gone the people who victimized the innocent.
[ Isaiah 29:17-21 | The Message ]
Creating a society like that will take time, but I think it is possible.
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on Monday, July 07, 2008 at 10:33 PM.
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3:03 PMI'm in for that!
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