The 3rd Perspective

Now picture this situation , imagine there's two people. One of them is someone who is willing to sacrifice everything for the sake of an event , in the name of responsibility and passion , staying up late till unearthly hours almost every night , covered with blood , sweat and tears. The other one, is someone who is rejecting any involvement with the event mentioned afore, because his top priority is that of studies and academic excellence and to him , getting involved in any activity/ event will serve him no purpose, in fact, it may even deteriorates his academic performances and wastes his time.

Question : Who is right or wrong ?

****
That is exactly the situation that is happening in my residential college now. You see , to the uninitiated , in my residential college/ hostel , there's this tradition that all of us , 1st year undergraduates must work together and be united. In order to accomplish that , there are tons of activities or events that relies solely on us, the 1st years only to organize and complete it.One such activity , a rather big-scale one is our very own Malam Kebudayaan Cina ( MKC ) . In this event , there will be alot of performances such as Chinese Diabolo (车龄) , 24 seasons drum(24 ),drama , Chinese Talk ( Xiang Shen ) , Chinese Orchestra () which aims to promote our chinese culture and of course, subsequently uniting us 1st years also.Supposedly the ideal condition is that , through the hard work and difficulty in organizing this big event , it is in their ( senior's) fervent hope that we , the 1st years will be willing to sacrifice their time and energy, and worked together in perfect harmony to accomplish this enormous task , and in the end, emerged from this storm together, hands with hands by our side.

Unfortunately , as with most big events , humans are creature of habits and personality. We are not robots or machines who just worked according to the default given instructions.When we are dealing with humans , it's like working with a machine with infinite variables. It is almost impossible to predict or anticipate what will happen as every human is unique and different in their own ways. Humans, in general, I believe can be divided into 3 categories when it comes to this case.

1) People who just stand there and watch you do all the works , preferring to shun responsibility and works ,unless it truly benefits them in one way or another.

2) People who won't hesitate to sacrifice themselves , waste their time and energy once they have been assigned the specific tasks and responsibility.

3) People who will commit and help more than the 1st type, but not as much as the 2nd type .

Let's break this down a bit shall we? The 1st type of people are usually labelled selfish , evil , cowards,irresponsible or assigned other negative connotations. The 2nd type are the people who are selfless people, the ones who places others' priority ahead of their own. They are the responsible and trustworthy ones , usually basking in the glory of positive labels.

But hey.. stop and think for awhile. Isn't that just one side of the story ? True, you can think of this way and in the olden days , definitely most , if not all people think like that . However, as the world grows larger and more connected each days , and the society evolving into more complicated type , human perception changes too... What was once perceived as negative and evil are now acceptable , or rather more tolerated , whereas positive values are slowly losing its value .

Let's have a take on the other side . If we were to look of it through another lens, the 1st type of people may be labelled as sensible, pragmatic, or even realistic. Realistically , what are the benefits of sacrificing yourself if you gain nothing in return ? And besides , is it even worth the sacrifice? Referring to the situation at the beginning of the post . Would you sacrifice your academic performance which may , in worst case scenario , requires you to repeat the entire semester or even dropped out from university in return of completing an event which you will get nothing in return . ( No fame , no fortune , nothing.. people won't even recognize you after the event . You will just be forgotten , memories of your hard works and commitment fading away with time ). Going back to the 2nd type of people. True, in one hand people praise you for selflessness , but in other hand , that act of yours is not selfless , it's foolish and not pragmatic , insane even. And what's more , in today's biased society , not only your hard works and relentless perseverance and commitment might not earn your recognition , it may even bring disasters and harm. With just some twist of words , other people may claim your works , and you may be left with nothing but blames or claim that you did nothing. Worth it ?Afterall , people tends to remember only the bad news while the good news are forgotten easily.The arguments above might be an exaggeration , but nevertheless ,they are still valid arguments.

As you can see, I have laid out the general arguments for both sides. So, where does this leave us? And what conclusion can be drawn form the above manifestation ? If you noticed , I have yet to mention the 3rd type. Yes, the hint is right there. The 3rd type, the neutral ones . These are type of people who thinks of the 3rd perspective . Now, what is the the 3rd perspective really ? If you have read Stephen R. Covey's book entitled " The 3rd Alternative", you are most likely to have some rough idea of how it works. Typically , most people tends to have only two perspectives that is your perspective and mine. In other words , it is either you are right or I am right , either you're on my side since you are thinking with the same mindset as mine, or you're my enemy, on the opposite side since your thinking differs from mine.

The 3rd perspective is to take a neutral stance , to place yourself in both side's shoes and think about both the sides , without disregarding any of them as right or wrong. Truth to be told, right or wrong , evil or good , these values are very subjective , and are perceived differently by every people.

But we , human are creatures of habit, emotions and feelings. We are emotionally-inclined creatures , with our hearts being sensitive and susceptible to various vulnerable feelings. Regardless of how we tried to contain our emotions and feelings , in the end , we still cannot deny that we are mere humans and being fragile ,vulnerable humans we are , our judgements and perceptions are easily influenced by these emotions. When emotions come to play , rational and logical thinking became impaired , and we are unable to judge accurately and justice or fairness may be compromised. But then again , what is justice anyway ? What is true or fake ? Right or wrong ? Again , up to people's perception ;).

Referring to the earlier question posted at the beginning of this post , what do you think may be the answer? I believe, in a nutshell, there is never right or wrong . It is best to just adopt a neutral stance instead of outright defending your views first . Place yourself in the other people's shoe. Try to think from the other perspective , however conflicting it is with your own views. If everybody can just think this way, then perhaps the world will be much better place. ;)

* End Note : this way of thinking is quite similar to the spirit of ubuntu which promotes the thinking that a human cannot survive without another , dictating that the community is placed above the needs of the individual . Do check the link out for more information ;D *