Thursday, April 9, 2009
Introduction
Imagine the feeling of running across your school at 4am in the morning with your friends, celebrating the victory of your hostel in inter-school competitions. The feeling of the dew-rich morning breeze that brushes against your body as you gracefully waltz around. Such a joy, is it not? Okay, now imagine doing the above mentioned act, in your birthday suit. And oh yeah, also imagine getting kicked out of that very hostel that you were streaking for. Not the fairest of thing, right? Well, that's exactly what happened to nine NUS students who streaked across their campus and got their "deserved punishment" according to the conservative folks.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Commentary(Streaking)
The news of nine male NUS students streaking in their university compounds at 4am in the morning has been quite a sensational topic of debate and discussion over the past few weeks for both concerned and unconcerned parties across the island. Talks about streaking and those dared to break the taboo in this highly conservative society was all over the newspaper forum pages for days and debates and discussions were all over the net from the online forum 'Stomp' to personal blogs and educational blogs such as this blog of mine. Streaking is defined as the non-sexual act of running in public in partial or full nudity, and is something common that has been taking place around the world in less conservative countries which view freedom of expression as the basic human right. University students streaking around town has been some thing so common that it is even dubbed as a form of tradition. Well, like I mentioned, that's for the less old-fashioned places which value the fundamental human right of freedom of expression.
Being someone who values freedom more than gold, I believe that even though these acts of streaking cannot be completely justified as something that should be done, it is still something that is acceptable, provided that the streakers are just youths who do them out of sheer youthful exuberance and for the sake of fun and adventure. Thus, the streaking by the NUS students should have been forgiven.
In my opinion, the question of whether streaking is acceptable or not has a lot to do with the social principles and norms of the era, aka ethics. Taking a look at the case of the nine NUS students who were expelled from their residence halls brings back to my mind about a point I made the previous post which was supposed to be an attempt at a simple argument kinda thing. I know I didn't quite succeed. Anyway, if students were to be allowed to have a say in making of some rules on streaking, these nine fun-loving and adventurous guys who were just trying to make their college experience a memorable one might not have been punished in such an unreasonable way by the conservative people with their imperfect, dusty, cobwebby rules and morals of what should be and what should not be that they came up by themselves for themselves. But wait, let's not go too much into there. I would not want to be breaking the rules, morals and whatever-s on blogging, that is if anyone ever hates freedom of speech that much to come up with some. Okay, okay, I'm digressing I know.
So, to get on with it, some individuals justify that streaking should not be allowed and streakers should be severely punished because the act of streaking goes against the law. Oh, and laws of cos are based on the concrete and entirely non-subjective moral standards of the infallible law-makers. Streaking goes against the law as it is a form of undesired sexual exposure. The nine students who were sexually inspired and motivated by the victory of their hall, therefore ought to be punished. Young children who happened to be awake and walking around in the university compounds at 4 o'clock in the morning might also have been exposed to the traumatizing, grotesque, life-threatening and terrifying sight of, er, the male human anatomy. All these justifies for the lenient, insignificant punishment of these criminal students having nowhere to stay. I do not know which parts of the above mentioned statements sound wrong anymore cos I'm so sleepy. If you see any, please do leave me a comment on it. Okay, you know I'm being sarcastic. The fact that's being tried to be pointed out here (,but most probably failed,) by me is that although what they did was probably wrong, these students did not really cause anything much of a damage except to the unwilling onlookers who, er, looked and felt offended because they looked. So I feel that such a harsh punishment is not justifiable. Therefore, they should be forgiven.
Being someone who values freedom more than gold, I believe that even though these acts of streaking cannot be completely justified as something that should be done, it is still something that is acceptable, provided that the streakers are just youths who do them out of sheer youthful exuberance and for the sake of fun and adventure. Thus, the streaking by the NUS students should have been forgiven.
In my opinion, the question of whether streaking is acceptable or not has a lot to do with the social principles and norms of the era, aka ethics. Taking a look at the case of the nine NUS students who were expelled from their residence halls brings back to my mind about a point I made the previous post which was supposed to be an attempt at a simple argument kinda thing. I know I didn't quite succeed. Anyway, if students were to be allowed to have a say in making of some rules on streaking, these nine fun-loving and adventurous guys who were just trying to make their college experience a memorable one might not have been punished in such an unreasonable way by the conservative people with their imperfect, dusty, cobwebby rules and morals of what should be and what should not be that they came up by themselves for themselves. But wait, let's not go too much into there. I would not want to be breaking the rules, morals and whatever-s on blogging, that is if anyone ever hates freedom of speech that much to come up with some. Okay, okay, I'm digressing I know.
So, to get on with it, some individuals justify that streaking should not be allowed and streakers should be severely punished because the act of streaking goes against the law. Oh, and laws of cos are based on the concrete and entirely non-subjective moral standards of the infallible law-makers. Streaking goes against the law as it is a form of undesired sexual exposure. The nine students who were sexually inspired and motivated by the victory of their hall, therefore ought to be punished. Young children who happened to be awake and walking around in the university compounds at 4 o'clock in the morning might also have been exposed to the traumatizing, grotesque, life-threatening and terrifying sight of, er, the male human anatomy. All these justifies for the lenient, insignificant punishment of these criminal students having nowhere to stay. I do not know which parts of the above mentioned statements sound wrong anymore cos I'm so sleepy. If you see any, please do leave me a comment on it. Okay, you know I'm being sarcastic. The fact that's being tried to be pointed out here (,but most probably failed,) by me is that although what they did was probably wrong, these students did not really cause anything much of a damage except to the unwilling onlookers who, er, looked and felt offended because they looked. So I feel that such a harsh punishment is not justifiable. Therefore, they should be forgiven.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Simple Argument...??
In my opinion, students should be allowed to make their own rules. With all the talk about the youth discovering their own talents, passions and whatever, it is ironic that all the rules are still made by the adults. Trying to pour every single unique student into the same mold that is commonly perceived as the one that will bring out perfection is a good try but it does not always work as that "perfect" mold will always be restricting some genuinely special individual with hidden potentials from being turned into a one-of-a-kind masterpiece. And having everyone made from the same rotting mold will also be kind of boring and dreary. Imagine there never was a rule-breaking student in the history of the world. I would rather count sheep for the entirety of my life than live in that kind of world. Well I do agree that we students can get away from breaking most rules in school but the consequences of going against some rules made by the all-knowing adults that are supposedly for our own good often end up destroying some of the students' futures. It's not going to be a very good one since I'm so tired and sleepy, but I'll try to give an example. When a student breaks the rules and cheats, let's say in a major exam, why is it that it is put into his records and that stain will stay in his records for the rest of his life like the curry stain that I got on my once pure and white pants today because of some blind a****** that bumped into me for no reason? And that damn thing may haunt him for the rest of his life when he tries to get himself employed and etc. Okay, I knew the example was going to be crappy.
Of course I am not trying to foolishly say that all the rules should be made by students cos that would be the same as hitting that big, red, round self-destruct button for the future of the human society. However, some rules for students should be made by the students themselves. I am very sure anyone will agree that when they were young there used to be some rules made by the "wiser" grown-ups that he or she really did not appreciate. But as everyone grows up, they start to find that these rules by the grown-ups are good and should remain implemented, and that's because well, now they are the grown-ups.
Even though the existing rules generally can be said as good judging by the standards of this era in human progress, most rules are never perfect and can always be improved. And when trying to make these imperfect rules once created by the "wise" adults into better ones, why not just try to give the youth a chance? Even animals know what is dangerous for them. We may lack that all important thing called experience but we can think for ourselves, I think..
Thus, I say that rules are not meant to be broken but they are meant to be improved upon and we students, as creatures capable of independent thought, should have a say in it.
So let's all scrap school! =D
Ooops, I just contradicted this whole argument with the previous sentence =X
Of course I am not trying to foolishly say that all the rules should be made by students cos that would be the same as hitting that big, red, round self-destruct button for the future of the human society. However, some rules for students should be made by the students themselves. I am very sure anyone will agree that when they were young there used to be some rules made by the "wiser" grown-ups that he or she really did not appreciate. But as everyone grows up, they start to find that these rules by the grown-ups are good and should remain implemented, and that's because well, now they are the grown-ups.
Even though the existing rules generally can be said as good judging by the standards of this era in human progress, most rules are never perfect and can always be improved. And when trying to make these imperfect rules once created by the "wise" adults into better ones, why not just try to give the youth a chance? Even animals know what is dangerous for them. We may lack that all important thing called experience but we can think for ourselves, I think..
Thus, I say that rules are not meant to be broken but they are meant to be improved upon and we students, as creatures capable of independent thought, should have a say in it.
So let's all scrap school! =D
Ooops, I just contradicted this whole argument with the previous sentence =X
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
