A Timely Introduction to Problem Sensitivity (Part 2)

▼Arguing With Uninformed People▼

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Arguing With Uninformed People

DON'T DO IT. ADOPT PROBLEM SENSITIVITY.

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We learned in Part 1 that Problem Sensitivity is the “ability to sense if something is wrong or if something is likely to go wrong. Law enforcement and correctional officers rely on this skill when patrolling neighborhoods or interacting with individuals. This skill involves the ability to sense that a situation is going to deteriorate or worsen, to recognize the symptoms of a physical problem requiring first aid, or to sense that an individual has a problem even if he or she insists that everything is all right”. And once you understand what that means in practice, you avoid crazy. Online or offline.

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People feel very strongly about topics they're better off leaving alone because they're not well-educated. And by well-educated, I mean the choice to break free both of laziness and self-confessed commitment to underachievement as well as the indoctrination of society, guise and pretenses of “culture” and all the negative effects of arrogance, which stifle authentic education, leaves a nation underdeveloped and unsophisticated, and organizations irrelevant due to their inability to think and move forward. But how do you tell an uneducated person they're ignorant? You don't. You avoid them.

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Education, I've always added, is what you do after realizing you may have been miseducated, big time.

While throwing the terms like he/she is “well-educated” around makes many feel good about themselves, they lend credence over and over again through their actions, to “insecurity loves company”. Online and offline. Which is why we also learned: “If you see crazy coming, cross the street!”

You may or may not look Japanese. Like the BBC journalist whose Canon camera was targeted and smashed during one of those protests. But at the time of writing, random drivers of Japanese vehicles in China have been forcibly removed from their vehicles and their cars destroyed. There're also BBC reports of Panasonic and Canon factory attacks and subsequent (indefinite) closures as well as Japanese auto dealerships like Toyota being vandalized in parts of China, and/or damaged. Both cars of mine back in America were Nissans. Need I say more?

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All that, is what crazy looks like. And it makes no difference whether you call it mob rule or democracy. Or even, legitimate anger. The question is whatever the context, can you depend on law enforcement or a quick-thinking security guard to protect you should you find yourself under attack? Whether you're at Jusco (which I previously didn't know is Japanese), or Walmart. Click on image below (and others) for details.

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Good associative skills, recently discussed for the second time under 'two-dimensional thinking', will tell you that what begins as Anti-Japanese protests an easily turn Anti-American, hence this blog and U.S. government warning. This is Shenzhen, where I already felt strong tension on the bus I was traveling yesterday.

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In the current climate, can you imagine yourself wearing a “I ♥ Japan” T-Shirt that your Chinese girlfriend who frequents Japan for business, gave you?

This blog was written on my ultra cool and highly reliable poor man's Sony VAIO which happens to have both an Apple sticker and U.S. Army 'Army of One' sticker on the back.

How do you think I'd fair if protesters marching past a Starbucks or park saw me? After all, I'm the same guy whose ¥50 Siemens phone was snatched and violently thrown at the ground several years ago outside Shenzhen University's old library. How safe should certain foreigners be feeling right about now?

The assailant was a mentally deranged Chinese English speaker who approached me just after I took a call claiming he was the “manager of the library”, which is why I didn't quite foresee his attack coming. He kept interrogating me asking for my ID, name, etc. although a normal person would have realized I was on a call and it was therefore impolite to interrupt. And yet it all happened so quickly before I could say “excuse me, someone's bothering me” to the person on the line, my phone was partly disintegrated, battery, glass and all, on the floor. Useless afterwards. Students defaulting to voyeurism instead of problem solving, looked on as the crowd grew until 4 security guards and a police later forcibly removed the man from the campus. I remember him repeatedly asking: “You're American, right?”

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Speaking on BBC Newsday just a yesterday (Monday September 17, 2012), author of The Satanic Verses, Salman Rushdie recalled how several journalists looking to interview him following the September 11 terror attacks all said just about the same thing: we now understand what happened to you. And chuckling, he added, “Really? That's what it took?”. They needed a context to get it, he went on. To finally understand why he was forced into hiding for years after that book was published and a fatwa calling for his death was issued.

Look around you. What do you see?

People mimicking the opinions of others (sometimes more cunning or more stupid than they are), online and offline, and calling them their own.

Right?

Well guess what, there's actual research affirming that observation. Google it. But remember: The ultimate capital and currency that only truly well-educated people carry, cannot be bought with money, influence or power. I've never learned anything useful from a dogmatic or nationalistic person. But I meet them everyday.

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