Thursday, March 16, 2006

Ch-ch-ch-changes

This happens often to a person like me who has a fetish for being concise: I was not clear, to many people.
When I wrote the thing at the top of this page ("If I can never change my mind, I will become more and more wrong as the world changes."), many people misunderstood me. The primary one was saying words to the effect of: "but what if you're right, and the world is wrong."
The thing is, I am not talking about other people's opinions changing, I am talking about the world changing.
If you can't learn and change your mind, and you grew up in a time when everything produced in Japan was cheap crap, you won't understand a world where Japan produces first class products.
If you can't learn and change your mind, and grew up in Malaysia, you think you're a hero if you kill a tiger. These days you're a villain killing an endangered species.
Etc.

2 comments:

Zeppellina said...

Very true, Eolake, it`s the ability to change and adapt which is so important.
When a person`s mindset is locked, there is a danger that it can just become dogma or prejudice, with no room for diplomacy, negotiation or an alternative view of life and the world.
The ability to try to understand opposing viewpoints, and what has led to their development, even if you don`t personally agree with them, is so very crucial.
In the world, change is inevitable, it goes on all of the time, and we have to understand it and move with it, whether that means accepting the change, or instigating a new change.
But even in saying that, there are times when I feel really happy with changes, and there are times when I deeply resent them!
Ah, what`s a girl to do?!

Anonymous said...

Ya, its so true in Malaysia! When its going to change! Malaysia is like this thanks to those useless Malays.