What's the point?
If public opinion is alright set, then what can one man day?
The voters paradox is a simple conundrum, why do people vote, knowing full well their one vote would not matter in the greater scheme of things?
Why do people spend the money, time and effort to turn up and vote, knowing an extra vote in this on particular ballot box, in this one voting station will have absolutely no bearing on who becomes the next Prime Minister?
Worse still why do people turn up at voting stations, to purposely and intentionally cast spoilt ballots... don't these people have better things to do with their time?
What happens when people gather together, we get CROWDS.
Predicting what an individual might do (who one person might vote for) is a messy business, but in all honesty we all feel we can predict who will become the next Prime Minister.
Why? Why do we feel we can predict crowds rather than individuals, because crowds all follow simple laws of group dymanics. A single person can at any moment choose to act a certain way, but a crowd has social 'norms' a crowd has 'accepted behavior' and people within a crowd tend to follow social norms. It's very rarely we get a divergent view within a crowd, if anything a crowd would get more radical as time goes by.
So what's so dangerous. Well on top of the growing scientific data that crowds tend to adopt much more radical opinions than each individuals would have expressed alone (Le Bon 1895), there is also some other dangerous things about crowds. Namely bystander effect and some sort of anonymity disclosure.
People feel they can act violently in a crowd, because crowds grant them a certain amount of anonymity.
Why am I telling you this.
Well, when you have an entire Pro-ISA rally (known for it's radical views) and an Anti-ISA rally meeting at a specific location in KL, then I don't like what's possible.
Two crowds, two differing opinions....one location. What the hell do you expect to happen? That the crowds meet, exchange business cards and go home?
Why isn't anybody doing anything.
On top of the racist nature of the pro-ISA camp (please name me one non-Malay organization that is part of this), it's radical pro-UMNO stance is not going to help. If UMNO Youth can act like a bunch of animals in Parliment, what makes us think these guys can be controlled?
Really, am I the only one sensing danger here. I'm not predicting a May13, but realistically is anybody expecting 'nothing' to happen? Especially when the only reason the pro-ISA crowd is planning it's rally is because the Anti-ISA crowd is holding a rally?
Isn't that some sort of intimidation? What does a Silat association have to do with anything about the ISA?
Do you honestly mean to tell me, all the members of this particular Silat Group got together and found out they were Pro-ISA?
If the Government can tell the Catholic Church to stay out of Politics, then what is it doing about Silat groups?
The bottom line though, and you should remember this:
2 crowds, 2 differing opinions.......1 location.
That being said...I'm still going cause this is where I stand, where do you?
That's my 2 cents, don't spend it all in one place.
Email this article to someone
0 comments: