This author is currently on hiatus for the ignoble cause of mugging. The public is advised to remain calm, as this routine protocol has been shown to have no effect on one's violent tendencies in 96% of cases.
| Thursday, April 19, 2007 |
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Would you sacrifice yourself for the wishes of the people around you? I mulled over the thought today upon receiving our marks for the maths retest. Why an overall retest? cos the class did quite badly for the original test - the class MSG was above 3, which means most got around B4 (24/40). The idea of a retest arose due to the fact that we were also given such a retest in term 1 for history - though that situation was much more dire, considering less than half the class passed and everyone did badly, so there was no opposition at all towards being given a second chance then. Now you would probably be thinking: Why the hell would those getting A1s want to scrap their marks and take the paper again? Cos we're greedy bastards who will settle for nothing less than 40/40? No way, dude. There being only 5 A1s in the class, who wouldn't already be satisfied by scoring among the top in class? It's cos of the fact that Mr. Lee gave us an ultimatum: either the entire class agreed to a retest, in which everyone's original results would be replaced, else if just one person opposed the decision, we would not be given this "second chance". And eventually, reluctantly or not, all of us consented. And our fate was sealed. Such is the influence of herd mentality. Any of us, including me, could have simply stood up and refused a retest. But would you do so at the expense of your class? Would you want, for the sake of your own results, leave others in the lurch? Are friends or personal achievements more important? By choosing the latter, you run the risk of being labelled a "selfish mugger" who doesn't give a damn about "the welfare of the class" and thus doomed to be a social outcast - though one might say that the issue would have faded into the recesses of our minds by the time the next test came along. By choosing the former, you run the risk of scoring even lower, especially in my case since ive got little to gain (i was already happy with my results) but everything to lose. And it's not as if you get any recognition or benefits out of giving up your achievements, cos that's what you're expected to do for the class; for the sake of your classmates. Much less would you be hailed as the saviour of the class, if anyone would even be grateful in the first place. However, if you did not conform, expect a lot of abuse to be hurled your way. The lesser of two evils. For the voice of the majority leads the way. I made the second choice. 7:22 PM) ♫ l|[ zx ]|l♪---: and in case you've forgotten what that term means, here's zx's elaboration: "(7:23 PM) ♫ l|[ zx ]|l♪---: making a decision by judging the majority of ppl is happy but at the same time sacrificing some of the minority or upset morality" I've had a history of scoring either very well or relatively poorly in past maths papers, thanks to careless mistakes. In the end, the results turned against me. It was a 50-50 chance which i got lucky on for the first time round. But perhaps i was too overconfident - naive, even - in thinking that it would turn in my favour again. When Mr. Lee handed out the scripts today again, the option was presented once again. Should anyone protest, everyone's scores would be reverted to the original. But I chose to stay silent. So did the few others who performed worse than expected. Perhaps I am again, too hopeful that the second test this term would pull my grades up to my expectations, if there would be even one in the first place, considering that we're altready lagging in terms of syllabus coverage. Not that im blaming this on anyone. Call me a narrow minded mugger to which grades are everything, or whatever you want. But please, at least let me know that it was the right choice, especially after all this shit's that been happening recently. |
'Twas teh winnar at 8:14 pm.
