I remember in the CSCW class that I took last term, the instructor talked about how people become increasingly narrow-minded and unwilling to understand other’s opinion because of information overload (so people just choose what they want to hear). I generally agree with his premise that irrational thoughts are what prevails nowadays. People are so quick to make generalizations (incorrect ones too, I might add), it’s not funny anymore.
Let’s take the teacher’s strike for example. Whilst they do is illegal (at least from what I heard anyway) and it creates a lot of inconvenience for parents (note to parents, teachers are for educating your children, not babysitting them), to blame it on the unions (well, I don’t like paying the union fee out of my TA salary too) or democracy in general is just absurd. I’m betting those who spend their days cursing at the union do not know why they existed in the first place. Unions are formed during the Industrial Revolution because the factory owners are taking advantage of the workers, making them work 20 hours a day in harzardous conditions (well, this sort of thing happen nowadays too, but some people just shrug and says “there’s no other way.” I guess they really think there’s no other way until they themselves are put into such situation). See? Things happen for a reason. People can say the unions has gone too far nowadays, but portray them as all-evil just does nothing to solve the problem.
The present unions are too powerful,so we don’t need them or else our economy will suffer. Employes in Canada also have too much power. Even without unions, they are protected by the Canada Labour Code.
hihi.. it’s Jane.. Are you publishing a book?
Re (Ed): I know, I just hate it when people get extreme…
Re (Jane): Hi Jane! Yeah, my new novel is out now (at least in the bookstores in Taiwan) 😀
People make generalizations and unwilling to listen to others because they think that they know something about the subject that they are seeing. This is generally true for most things, like politics, that we see, but there is a difference between knowing something and being an expert in it. However, even experts have different views, so there is really no true answer to anything for that matter. People can only observe patterns, and they can comment about the patterns. That is all that they can do, but there is a probability to everything, so what someone said might be right or wrong. Experts are more right than others in their particular subject based on established theories. With the teacher strike example, I can say that the teachers are teaching their students not to follow the law of the society. Law is supposed to be the backbone of society. If people just say they dont follow it just because they dont like it, then this society would become anarchy(Note: anarchy is defined as everyone “taking care” of themselves essentially by wikipedia). This is where the problem is. Its not about unions, but the formation of soceity in general. Prehaps that is why many well-known ‘criminals’ are driving mercedes while the average person suffer minimum wage in this country.