Quote:

---

In the mid-1770s a peculiar clothing fashion swept across Europe. For no immediately apparent reason, young men started dressing in yellow trousers, blue jackets and open-necked shirts. This mildly eccentric fashion spread from region to region in a manner strangely similar to the epidemics that were continuing to plague the Old Continent. It turned out that these 18th century fashion victims all had one thing in common; they had all been exposed to first novel of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther. Goethe's novel recounted the desperate plight of Werther, a young man hopelessly in love with a happily married woman called Charlotte. In this intense and romantic tale, Goethe describes Werther's rather peculiar penchant for wearing a colourful mélange of blue jackets, yellow trousers and open-necked shirts.

Shortly after being published in 1774, Goethe's novel was banned in several areas across Europe. This was not because certain authorities held it responsible for the spread of a fashion of rather doubtful taste, but because there were signs that the book was also the vector for an altogether more serious contagion. The tale recounted how Werther's clumsy, but painfully sincere, attempts at winning Charlotte's heart ultimately failed. Destroyed by rejection, Werther saw no way out of his desperate plight other than suicide, and using a pistol, he dramatically put an end to his sorrows.

For a memeticist, the social consequences of the publication of Werther's tragic story are entirely predictable: Not only was Werther's dress code the object of imitation but so was his somewhat extreme code of behaviour. Anxious authorities around Europe received reports of increasing numbers of young men imitating Werther's desperate act. Goethe himself became convinced that his tale was responsible for a continental wave of suicides.

"My...friends thought that they must transform poetry into reality, imitate a novel like this in real life and, in any case, shoot themselves; and what occurred at first among a few took place later among the general public..." (Goethe quoted in Phillips 1974:340)

In an attempt to prevent the suicides from reaching epidemic proportions, a number of authorities banned The Sorrows of Young Werther in the hope that the imitative behaviour would cease.

Two hundred years later, in 1974, the sociologist David Phillips coined the term "the Werther effect" to describe imitative suicidal behaviour transmitted via the mass media. Phillips devised an empirical research programme to establish whether media reporting of suicide stories really did affect suicide rates. In over a decade of research, Phillips produced important evidence that supported the hypothesis that behavioural patterns in society can in fact operate as contagions. Methodologically speaking, Phillips' research was interesting because it described one possible solution to the general problem of operationalising the memetic paradigm which, to date, has been dominated by anecdotal evidence.

---

Quote:

---

It sounds like you have it all figured out. Don't let me get your feathers ruffled. Apparently you now know why those toh'ers are complete jerks to me. Fine. Good for you. I'm glad you got that figured out.

---

Quote:

---

All this nonsense about me not listening to your post because I din't respond to a large majority of what you said. I didn't because I agreed with it.

---

Quote:

---

But hey, apparently I missed the part about how you take an active role in your kid's lives. My point was to combat a socially inept common occurrence where parents think that they can rule their kid's lives by being too involved. That's my disagreement. It's not missing your point. What it is, is a contradiction to your agressive hands-on approach to dictating all of their actions.

---

Quote:

---

And another thing, don't bother throwing that sympathy story about the kid's parents being drug addicts.....because you're talking to one of those kids right now. Funny how life works eh? You make it sound like those kids deserve some kind of special treatment for having grown up in that environment.

---

Quote:

---

It's great that you want to play hero for them, you want some kind of an award or something? There are other people who make the sacrifices just like you do. If you check the suicide thread you'll notice PrivateHudson is just as much a hero as you are but you don't see him ranting about it looking for approval. He simply did what he had to do because it needed to be done and he was in a position to do something about it, no bragging, searching for sympathy votes, ranting, etc. To me that's the right way to go about it. I think you have the wrong attitude.

---

Quote:

---

I think it's great that you took those kids in and changed their lives for the better. Now is you opportunity to make a lasting impression. One that will leave them to look favorably upon furthering their education. the first part of their lives is tough enough, as I'm sure you know. College is the continuing result of a good upbringing. Because if you screw it up by sticking your nose in their private space then they'll reject it outright.

---

Quote:

---

Um, if bashing a child's head in for not getting good grades in school is an incorrect signal in your country then I wouldn't want to visit.

---

Quote:

---

Telling me that I don't know her kids seems to ignore that my entire response was based on what she wrote. I don't know those children but I do know that punishment for an unsatisfactory report card is not the way to go about education and, furthermore, learning how to become a better person.

---

Quote:

---

I have three kids. There are many things I don't let them watch on t.v. and many more things I don't let them watch when I play my computer games. Some of the material, I simply don't want them exposed to yet. My oldest is five years old. No doubt, there will come a time when they may be interested in viewing some harsh programs or games. I'm not going to restrict them from the material. I'm going to try and approach them with logic. I'll tell them my own opinion and how I think those sorts of things can influence a person's emotions. I must always remember that I must be willing to listen to their own opinions. Talking about it all is the best way to go about it, I think, whereas placing demands and restrictions might lead to a catastrophic all out rebellion. Independence of the child must be respected. They have private space just as we adults do. You can't simply force your way into a person's life, no matter how much you love them.

---

Quote:

---

She just didn't quite get it so her test scores were lower. I would also like to note that she was told ahead of time what the consequence would be. When we got the first quarters mid-term grade and there were several "Does not complete work" comments on there I explained to her that poor grades due to not completing school work would result in her being pulled from sports (which is what we started with).

---

Roses Are RedAnd So Am I