You are being manipulated

One of the realities of life is that we see what we want to see. Events by themselves have no meaning. It is our perception of the event and the intent that we attribute to the parties involved that give it meaning. Let me illustrate this with an example.

If your spouse decides to surprise you with flowers one afternoon, the act of bringing you flowers has no meaning. You add intent and give meaning to it depending on the state of your relationship. If your relationship is good, you will see it as an act of love. If your relationship is poor, you will see it as your spouse having done something wrong and is trying to apologize for something.

This same thing applies to how you perceive the G. If you have an intrinsic distrust of the G, then anything that the G does, even if its intentions are good, you will see the wrong in it. The sad part is that activists know this, and you are being manipulated by them.

I recently came across an article about local activist Jolovan Wham deliberately breaking the law forcing the police to take action against him. The collusion diagram below shows the vicious cycle that Jolovan has triggered by his actions and how he is manipulating you to hate the G. Ironically, Jolovan’s very actions are creating the “authoritarian state” that he is fighting against.

The only way to break this cycle is for you (and the G) to suspend judgment. If we all pause to understand the rationale and logic for each other’s actions, I believe that we will start to see that the other party is not as “evil” as we see them to be. If we can start doing this, we can stop the hate, find the common ground, and build a better Singapore.