"Life finds its way"

I don’t normally identify myself as a communist hater. In fact, I’m fascinated by the original idea of communism put forth by Karl Marx and the egalitarian society as depicted in The Republic by Plato, both of who described a utopia where good people can live happily ever after, ignoring all the innate personality flaws that are bound to exist in the human race. But then, casting a glance at the existing communist regimes will never fail to provoke anger and disappointment as it has become an excuse for totalitarianism and dictatorship.

I’ve been hinging the hope of breaking the political status quo in Orwellian regimes like China on Web 2.0 which facilitates internet activism and demonstrates the power of lay bloggers, citizen journalists, amateur photographers and twitters during Saffron Revolution in Burma in 2007. In the past, all the authoritarian regimes need to do to control information flow and perpetuate their propaganda was to control mass media outlets – easy. However, the proliferation of the Internet has cracked open a window through which the world can peek into the once mysterious communist countries and at the same time allowed insiders to tell their stories from a citizen’s perspective. It makes hiding the truth and suppressing political opposition or religious freedom much harder for the authoritarian governments.

While the Burmese military junta did disable all international mobile phone connections and black out Internet access to curb the information flow during the Saffron Revolution (though there’re people who could find ways to circumvent these restrictions), a total information blockade does not sound like an easy option for a rising superpower like China which growing economy is partly fuelled by ever-advancing communication technologies.

Further to Google’s previous bow to China’s Internet surveillance and the launch of Golden Shield Project, China has stepped up its effort to control the information that can be accessed online by requiring an Internet filtering software to be installed in every computer sold in the country. Although the government justified the policy by claiming that it comes as a result of demands from parents and experts to filter the violence and pornography, call me a conspiracist, that software filters more than that (a newspaper report says it blocks Garfield the Cat - surely he must be a very violent cat considering the way he bullies Odie). How can you trust a government who doesn’t ban public smoking or underage drinking or KFC fried chicken which put our next generation’s physical health in jeopardy but filters violence and pornography online because it affects their psychological well-being?

But then, like gLite programme which allows users to access websites blocked by the Burmese junta, life will find a way in China. It always does.

The Two Things Game

Some time ago I read an article from a blog that I visit regularly about the two things you need to know about everything. The idea goes that there’re only two things you need to know about everything; the rest is just elaboration. I’m pretty impressed by the examples given on that blog and, as I’ve been pretty slow in updating, I borrowed that idea and developed my short list of the two things about psychology:

Psychology:
1. Nature predisposes an array of potentials.
2. Nurture either maximizes or trivializes them.

Cognitive therapy:
1. Perception is more important than reality.
2. There is no such thing as reality.

Psychoanalysis:
1. All human are sexual beings.
2. Nah, you don’t know that because it’s all in your unconscious.

Behavioural therapy:
1. Reinforce the positive behaviours.
2. Ignore the negative ones.

Evolutionary psychology:
1. What didn’t kill our ancestors makes us stronger.
2. Nature always trims the weakest link.

Being a counsellor:
1. Ask questions.
2. Listen and nod. Repeat #1.

Systematic desensitization:
1. Relax. Take it easy.
2. Take a small step forward every time.

Gender role stereotype:
1. Men are hunters.
2. Women are gatherers.

Being an educational psychologist in Hong Kong:
1. Give a diagnosis.
2. Make a referral.

Qualitative research:
1. Break the target behaviours into observable, measurable units.
2. No SPSS involved.

Quantitative research:
1. Does something happen by chance?
2. Or does it happen by choice (i.e. attributable to a specific factor)?

No, don’t take these seriously :) As the original writer points out,
1. People love to play the Two Things but they rarely agree about what the Two Things are.
2. That goes double for anyone who works with computers.