Uses of GP
While it is ironic that Edward (I can't do a mention function on LiveJournal so I don't know how he will read this but I trust he will) calls me a bitch in his latest blog post because he spent his entire post bitching, but I guess I would agree with most of what he says about the council elections.
Mercer spent an hour during GP today telling us about how elections and the candidates are warped, often succumbing to promoting themselves through pathos and ethos due to effects of the media. I became acutely aware that this was very much applicable to the Council Elections that focused on if you knew the candidates and how much bribes you were receiving for a particular group. I find it weird that this is one of the only student elections when your student representatives do not propose anything constructive or make promises within their campaigns and instead attempt to bribe the population with food and as the school officially calls it "gimmicks", leaving the serious business of questions and debates an hour before the actual voting procedure. While it is accepted that this is a popularity contest and the Asian equivalent of a "Queen Bee" popularity contest, I find it unacceptable that people or rather, most disgustingly, the school sees a need to "ensure" that the candidates are representative.
One might actually wonder - what policies will these candidates propose and how will they have an impact on my life? But I guess the electorate themselves are just too caught up with the freebies and the entertainment value involved in every council campaign video. This is something I can see myself asking during Q&A though public opinion of an otherwise nice person would probably head South. The general fear of being labelled "buzz kill" ironically kills anything serious. While I do acknowledge that the only people I am voting for are my friends, the only reason why I am doing so is because there aren't better candidates, or all candidates (due to the lack of proposal) are perceived to be equal, so other illogical factors come into play, I don't think this is constructive to those who may actually want to put that 10 votes into good use. 10 votes are a lot of votes and I think that even after using up all my votes on my friends, I would have votes left over to vote the people who give the most constructive comments in. I guess it's up to us to demand for it then.
Another thing that I can afford to agree with Edward on is his critique of anti-intellectualism within the Humanities Program. While I really disliked his post and the way it was written (how it is counterproductive and all), I felt that my initial judgement that it was "full of crap" is unwarranted and untrue. Having actually spent time within the Humanities Program, the culture within my batch can be said to be largely accurate, where people within my batch (as with everyone around school etc.) frowns upon intellectual discourse and discussion, favoring to study for the next Econs test or GP test instead. While I will not delve into the repercussions, I feel that we are losing something that we all hypocritically construed (at some point) to be the reason why we wanted a place in this program - the joy to learn. I guess Edgar reminded me of this today in my conversations with him, which are often accurate and poignant when they aren't about pretty girls. I guess I can't say that I'm not a culprit contributing to part of this culture but I dare say that if you want to have a discussion with me, I am more than willing, I just find it disappointing that people generally frown on discussion because they don't want to appear intellectual. I kind of miss the discussions that I would hold with people, regardless of how pointless it might be.
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Competition. I really don't want to talk about this because it might run contrary to my previous point on people becoming intellectual. I think being intellectual =/= mugging and people should recognize this. I guess it stems from one's motivation and intentions. I find it irksome however, and I really need to point this out, just how big one can assume one's knowledge penis to be. As much as it is the "manly" thing to do in such a competitive environment, I think people should just shove it up their arseholes if they are proven to be wrong and just shut up when they are and not preach to us as if we are 3 year olds. (Case in point - someone attempting to explain a "bloated budget" and the difference between a budget deficit and a balanced budget) I find such behavior irksome because while it is great to discuss such things, the assumption that we don't know anything is a dangerous one to take - persuade and win the argument versus disgust and win the argument are 2 very different things - I hope people understand that it isn't just about winning arguments but for people to actually believe in what you say.
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i'm just sitting around thinking about life.
Mercer spent an hour during GP today telling us about how elections and the candidates are warped, often succumbing to promoting themselves through pathos and ethos due to effects of the media. I became acutely aware that this was very much applicable to the Council Elections that focused on if you knew the candidates and how much bribes you were receiving for a particular group. I find it weird that this is one of the only student elections when your student representatives do not propose anything constructive or make promises within their campaigns and instead attempt to bribe the population with food and as the school officially calls it "gimmicks", leaving the serious business of questions and debates an hour before the actual voting procedure. While it is accepted that this is a popularity contest and the Asian equivalent of a "Queen Bee" popularity contest, I find it unacceptable that people or rather, most disgustingly, the school sees a need to "ensure" that the candidates are representative.
One might actually wonder - what policies will these candidates propose and how will they have an impact on my life? But I guess the electorate themselves are just too caught up with the freebies and the entertainment value involved in every council campaign video. This is something I can see myself asking during Q&A though public opinion of an otherwise nice person would probably head South. The general fear of being labelled "buzz kill" ironically kills anything serious. While I do acknowledge that the only people I am voting for are my friends, the only reason why I am doing so is because there aren't better candidates, or all candidates (due to the lack of proposal) are perceived to be equal, so other illogical factors come into play, I don't think this is constructive to those who may actually want to put that 10 votes into good use. 10 votes are a lot of votes and I think that even after using up all my votes on my friends, I would have votes left over to vote the people who give the most constructive comments in. I guess it's up to us to demand for it then.
Another thing that I can afford to agree with Edward on is his critique of anti-intellectualism within the Humanities Program. While I really disliked his post and the way it was written (how it is counterproductive and all), I felt that my initial judgement that it was "full of crap" is unwarranted and untrue. Having actually spent time within the Humanities Program, the culture within my batch can be said to be largely accurate, where people within my batch (as with everyone around school etc.) frowns upon intellectual discourse and discussion, favoring to study for the next Econs test or GP test instead. While I will not delve into the repercussions, I feel that we are losing something that we all hypocritically construed (at some point) to be the reason why we wanted a place in this program - the joy to learn. I guess Edgar reminded me of this today in my conversations with him, which are often accurate and poignant when they aren't about pretty girls. I guess I can't say that I'm not a culprit contributing to part of this culture but I dare say that if you want to have a discussion with me, I am more than willing, I just find it disappointing that people generally frown on discussion because they don't want to appear intellectual. I kind of miss the discussions that I would hold with people, regardless of how pointless it might be.
--
Competition. I really don't want to talk about this because it might run contrary to my previous point on people becoming intellectual. I think being intellectual =/= mugging and people should recognize this. I guess it stems from one's motivation and intentions. I find it irksome however, and I really need to point this out, just how big one can assume one's knowledge penis to be. As much as it is the "manly" thing to do in such a competitive environment, I think people should just shove it up their arseholes if they are proven to be wrong and just shut up when they are and not preach to us as if we are 3 year olds. (Case in point - someone attempting to explain a "bloated budget" and the difference between a budget deficit and a balanced budget) I find such behavior irksome because while it is great to discuss such things, the assumption that we don't know anything is a dangerous one to take - persuade and win the argument versus disgust and win the argument are 2 very different things - I hope people understand that it isn't just about winning arguments but for people to actually believe in what you say.
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i'm just sitting around thinking about life.