starstruck

Saturday, July 15, 2006

haha, hooray to Juve. Serie B is such a cool place to be.

today i thought of why we are not a gracious society. it is not that we don't have enough money to eat, it is not that we are too busy, it is not that we sit with our feet up and speak a less sophisticated form of English. it is also not because we don't say thank you when others open doors for us. in fact, i've seen a lot of us do. i think instead it is because we are too caught up being suspicious of each other. we think if we go into a lift with a skinny man we will be victims of Crime Watch Re-enactment. we think JC kids look down on poly kids, and those who work in offices look down on those who clean the toilets. we think every man who comes to our hawker centre tables holding an I Am Deaf, Please Buy A Soft Toy placard is faking it. we think the indian aunty outside cine is bluffing us because her story has changed over the past 6 years and she is still there selling tissue.
i do.
yes, there are bad people. yes, there are cheats. yes, there are people who will take advantage of us. but so what if we are made to look like fools? i'm not saying we should encourage dishonest behaviour, or support cheatmoneyrings. and i don't deny that there is danger in being too trusting. but sometimes it doesn't hurt us to be less suspicious of our neighbour. because not every person who underpays their bus fares intends to cheat SBS. not every old man who smiles at you is a lecher. not every kid who walks out of a store with a book without paying (like i did when i was 5) is a thief.
being overly suspicious means that old ladies go to jail for "harbouring illegal immigrants". it means that someone may go hungry tonight because not enough people believed that he was really disabled. it means that our society does not help its own, and does not take the trouble to sympathize, or be human, for a while.

there are of course people who are bad. and that makes this a dilemma to which i have no answer.

posted by gruff at 9:24 PM

--------------------------------------------------------------------------