davified:

Questioning Assumptions

Today, on a relatively uncrowded train on the Circle Line taking me to meet my folks, an old man standing in the cabin approached two passengers sitting next to each other (a man and a woman, unrelated). He mumbled something that was quite hard to make out. When I looked up from my book (Predictably Irrational, insane), it seemed they had assumed it was some crazy old man who was just mumbling to himself.

The man sitting down (generously) outsourced his helpfulness to me by signalling to me that this guy needs help. So I got up and I asked him where he was going, to which he replied what sounded to me like a mumbled “bo mm shi ta”.

I didn’t quite understand so I asked him again where he was headed. He said Choa Chu Kang, and then again “bo mm shi ta”. Once more, I did not understand, and I asked again. Then I suddenly saw the link, he had to go to “Buona Vista” to change to the Green Line to get to Choa Chu Kang. So I simply told him that he was going the wrong way, and he had to get on the train on the opposite side.

What’s the moral of the story?

I believe that two people sitting down didn’t help because of the assumptions they made of the man and the situation. He must be an old man that’s out of his wonkers; maybe he’s senile and idling on trains is his pastime.

Suppose the old man had been a Japanese tourist with a camera and a backpack saying “bo mm shi ta”. They might have assumed, this man is a lost tourist, and I should probably help him get to wherever he needs to go. I will also be patient given that his english, understandably as a tourist Japanese, must be horrid.

Thus, the assumptions we make about people affects our opinions of them, and our actions (worse still, our inaction). Shift our assumptions, as I just hypothetically did, and we get a vastly different outcome. We can help a lost man, or we can assume our way into peaceful apathy.

We can assume that that person in front of you is somehow a fierce competitor that’s ready to fight you for that standing space on the bus, for academics, or for that parking lot, or we can assume that everyone we meet in this society is all in the business of taking on life’s challenges together. We can assume that that person is a self-interested faceless working class, or we can assume that that person has a story to tell, and a baggage packed with life’s ups and downs. We can.

Why do we rush to make assumptions about people anyway? Another post for another day.

Stuff worth thinking about