Shortcuts

My father gave me a simple yet valuable advice today: Don't ever take shortcuts.

It is especially important for a person like me who emphasises efficiency (minimum effort and time, producing maximum results) greatly, sometimes even over emphasising it and compromising on other things. Having priorities is not an excuse for being indifferent.

Problem

While practicing source based questions during lecture, we were given a picture and asked to identify a problem about globalisation from the picture. There was no obvious problem in the picture but the teacher ended up forcing an answer.

Here, I realised something that disturbed me greatly. We have to answer directly to the question, which means whether the picture shows a problem or not does not matter. We have to create a problem ourselves. Creating something out of nothing, a famous war strategy quoted by my friend. That something can be useful. It can also be like creating noise to disturb peace: useless, even harmful. Spotting problems is one thing (though they are prone to be labelled trouble makers), creating problems is another. Questions can manipulate us to think and respond in a certain way; does that happen in real life?

(Note: I’m not blaming the teacher. She is probably teaching us to be exam smart with the best of intentions.)

Speaking of problems, there is a real one right now that might affect us directly. “Only two doors away”, as my (other) teacher mentioned in class today, there is a coup in Thailand. Military rule is scary. Democracy and freedom of rights we often take for granted.

I realised too how presence of authority is more important than holding the authority. An authoritative figure is a symbol, remove the presence of which, there is no meaning, no power. Like how a policeman without his uniform and gun (his symbols of authority) is only a civilian. With Thaksin away, authority within is at its lowest.