Lawyer looks down on commuters and calls them 'peasants'
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STOMPer Andrew came across a facebook posting in which a man, who is said to be a lawyer, called MRT commuters 'peasantry'.
A peasant is defined as a member of a class of low social status, or informally as an uncouth or uncultured person.
Said Andrew:
"I was looking at my facebook yesterday then came accross a post.
"Never mind that COE prices are so expensive now, the person still has the cheek to make such an insensitive comment saying that people who take the MRT are commoners and peasants.
"Who does he think he is?
"According to my friend, his facebook says that he works in the law society. "This is quite bad because those people like him have got the education but look down on us.
"Is this the way society should behave that the educated people look down on the poor?
"Hope it can be posted to raise the issue of elitism." -
He/ she would then have to face like 75% of the people...
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I already accept the fact that I am among the peasants who take buses, and trains, so I am fine with such comments, I dunno about the rest of you though.
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give peasants some power, many will become hao lian too. human nature.
aiya, one comment from a lawyer also don't represent the whole elite society. I see doctor also some beri hao lian, some very nice. depend on luck la.
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Originally posted by ditzy:
I already accept the fact that I am among the peasants who take buses, and trains, so I am fine with such comments, I dunno about the rest of you though.
i also sama sama. i describe my as commoner. commoner nothing wrong what. just the truth
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Can sue this lawyer???????
To many, lawyers are crooks. hahahahahahahahah!
Is this one no exception? -
peasants can unite and beat them up
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Peasant, commoner, masses so what. Call us that, don't call us that, we will still be that.
Its the peasant that is elevated to the elite. Bring down te elite, other peasants will rise to become the elite.
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He must be living in feudal ages.
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historically, the rise of communism was attributed to arrogant bourgeoises...
COMMUTERS OF THE WORLD, UNITE!
LOL
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I don't think there is peasant class in Singapore, most are petite bourgeoisie dominated by small elite class.
Directive On The Question Of Class Distinction
It is necessary to determine class status.
Although bad people are in the minority, they nevertheless occupy some of the crucial departments and are in authority. . . There should be distinction between one’s class component and one’s own performance, primarily the latter. To draw class lines is to ferret out the bad elements.
It also important to distinguish between class background and one’s own performance, with emphasis on the latter. The exclusive component theory is incorrect. The question is whether you take the stand of your original class or take a changed class stand, that is, taking the side of workers and poor and lower-middle peasants. Moreover, you are not supposed to engage in sectarianism, but must unite with the majority, even including some of the landlords and rich peasants, as well as their children. There are some counter revolutionaries and saboteurs who should be transformed, and if they wish to transform, we should have them, one and all. But if we consider only the background, then even Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin would be unacceptable. For instance, Marx studied idealism first and Materialism later before he developed Marxism. Both Hegel and Fueurbach were his mentors in the field of philosophy.
In undertaking class determination in factories, our purpose is mainly to find out those Kuomintang secretaries, generals, reactionary officers, escaped landlords, and landlords, rich peasants, counter-revolutionaries and bad elements. As in Pai-Yin Factory, it was to check the bad people, not every body, and not the technical staff who came from exploitative classes. Some of them used to serve the exploitative class. If their present performances are good, we should trust them, and even though it is not too good, they must be transformed. Some of them have come from exploitative classes, and so we must see how their performance is.
In order to produce socialist theory, it behoves intellectuals to study the existing phenomena of class struggle, to enhance the results of their study theoretically, and to proselytize them, thus changing the working class from a diffused into an organized class, and from a self-developing in to a self-conscious class. The workers, because they have to work and earn their living everyday under exploitation and oppression, cannot produce Marxism by themselves. Marx was not a worker himself, but he could perceive the trend of development, and after studying analytically, succeeded in changing bourgeois philosophy into proletarian philosophy, and bourgeois political economy into proletarian political economy, thereby educating the workers. In point of fact, it is impossible for a worker to read so many books or to read such bulky volumes, though the advanced ones could perhaps read more. The phenomenon of class struggle has existed for millenniums and even the bourgeoisie conceded that there was class struggle. It was only Marx and Engels who made it into a theory and systemized it. We must knock down the bourgeoisie. Socialism has succeeded capitalism. I myself also learned from the landlord class by studying Confucius’s book for six years and by attending bourgeois schools for seven years, spending 13 years altogether. I was then only 20-odd years of age, and was basically ignorant about Marx. It was only after the October revolution that I heard of Marx and read his books.
http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-works/volume-8/mswv8_58.htm
This distinction of at least two geographic areas in each civilization is of major importance. The process of expansion, which begins in the core area, also begins to slow up in the core at a time when the peripheral area is still expanding. In consequence, by the latter part of the Age of Expansion, the peripheral areas of a civilization tend to become wealthier and more powerful than the core area.
Another way of saying this is that the core passes from the Age of Expansion to the Age of Conflict before the periphery does. Eventually, in most civilizations the rate of expansion begins to decline everywhere.
It is this decline in the rate of expansion of a civilization which marks its passage from the Age of Expansion to the Age of Conflict.
This latter is the most complex, most interesting, and most critical of all the periods of the life cycle of a civilization. It is marked by four chief characteristics: (a) it is a period of declining rate of expansion; (b) it is a period of growing tensions and class conflicts; (c) it is a period of increasingly frequent and increasingly violent imperialist wars; and (d) it is a period of growing irrationality, pessimism, superstitions, and otherworldliness.
All these phenomena appear in the core area of a civilization before they appear in more peripheral portions of the society.
The decreasing rate of expansion of the Age of Conflict gives rise to the other characteristics of the age, in part at least. After the long years of the Age of Expansion, people's minds and their social organizations are adjusted to expansion, and it is a very difficult thing to readjust these to a decreasing rate of expansion.
Social classes and political units within the civilization try to compensate for the slowing of expansion through normal growth by the use of violence against other social classes or against other political units. From this come class struggles and imperialist wars. The outcomes of these struggles within the civilization are not of vital significance for the future of the civilization itself. What would be of such significance would be the reorganization of the structure of the civilization so that the process of normal growth would be resumed. Because such a reorganization requires the removal of the causes of the civilization's decline, the triumph of one social class over another or of one political unit over another, within the civilization, will not usually have any major influence on the causes of the decline, and will not (except by accident) result in such a reorganization of structure as will give rise to a new period of expansion.
Indeed, the class struggles and imperialist wars of the Age of Conflict will probably serve to increase the speed of the civilization's decline because they dissipate capital and divert wealth and energies from productive to nonproductive activities...
http://real-world-news.org/bk-quigley/01.html#1
It is a basic rule of social processes that instruments tend to become institutionalized and that institutionalization leads to decreased effectiveness in achieving macro-goals.
When this occurs, not only are macro-goals underachieved, but a dichotomy of interests (and potential conflict) emerges between the desires of the society for the fulfillment of macro-goals and the desires of the organization and its parts to fulfill their macro-goals.
This phenomenon can be observed in any society in all its activities, from churches where religion is replaced by clericalism, through schools where the struggle for credits, curriculum, and examinations become obstacles to real education, to the military aspect where weapons, inter-service animosities, SOP, and thirst for promotions become threats to defense and even to national security.
This process of the institutionalization of organizations is the chief cause of the decreasing rate of expansion and of class and group conflicts as Stage III of any civilization passes into Stage IV.
Somewhat more remotely it is also the chief cause in the onset of imperialist wars.
This third characteristic of an Age of General Crisis is but one example, though a major one, of the general tendency of this Stage to seek to increase its rate of expansion by the use of force and of political action, as this rate ceases to be maintained at an adequate level by organizational processes based on accepted structural patterns...
A fine example of this whole process can be seen in the history of the defeated powers of WWII.
Before the war, Germany, Japan, and Italy refused to consider any significant reforms of their political, financial, and economic organizations, insisting that higher standards of living for their citizens could be obtained only by increased resources, even if those could be obtained only by force from their neighbors.
The efforts of these fascist states to obtain more resources by force led to World War II. As a result of the defeat of these aggressors in 1945, all three countries suffered a sharp reduction in resources: land, population (counter-balanced, to some extent, by repatriation of nationals), of monetary resources (such as foreign exchange balances), and raw materials.
Yet in all three cases, as a result of the actions of the United States, the fascist organizational structure which had made the war was replaced by a different and more effective organizational structure, in economics, in government, and in finance.
In each of the three countries, this new organization, after 1952, achieved a spectacular increase in standards of living and did so on a smaller resource base than had existed in 1938.
As a result of the defeat, which was essentially a defeat of the fascist organization itself, a new O with a reduced R achieved an output of G which astonished the world and which gave the inhabitants of all three countries a higher standard of living than they had ever had in history. In all three the rate of expansion is now slowing down, as the post-1950 O becomes institutionalized...
http://www.carrollquigley.net/Lectures/General_Crises_in_Civilizations.htm
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inthe internet, not one knows you are a dog.
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Lawyer looks down on commuters and calls them 'peasants'
Many people from PAP also like to insult Singaporeans. I think this is an unhealthy phenomena. It will lead to increased class tensions and conflicts.
I suggest get rid of PAP.
What would be of such significance would be the reorganization of the structure of the civilization so that the process of normal growth would be resumed.
People of the world, be courageous, dare to fight, defy difficulties and advance wave upon wave.
Then the whole world will belong to the people.
Monsters of all kinds shall be destroyed.
http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-works/volume-9/mswv9_30.htm
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There are plenty of such people around....no big deal really. Funny thing is some people think they are rich but how rich? Is $1m rich? If not, then $10m? So it's all subjective.
Some people drive mercedes, stay in a small landed property and think they are rich. So? Just sit back and watch the entertainment.
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Most of us are mere peasants.
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Everywhere also got arrogant ppl. I go geylang always see lots of ah beng behaving like they own the world.
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If you notice what he writes, he may not be such a bad guy after all.
"I feel my own angst riding with common people.
But I suppose it is good to get the feel from the ground every now, and then to connect with the peasantry"
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Facebook user apologises for calling MRT commuters “peasants”
The man who drew flak for calling MRT users “common people” on his Facebook page has apologised for his “thoughtless remark”.
In an interview with Yahoo! Singapore, Nicholas-Seth Leong, 30, expressed his regret over the incident, which sparked a public outry amid growing concerns of elitist behaviour in Singapore.
“I would like to apologise to everyone for the comment made and any offense it may have caused,” said Leong, who declined to reveal his occupation.
“It was a private comment made in reference to an inside joke among friends. We, like many people, occasionally make jokes caricaturing politics and politicians,” he added and stressed that “no insult was ever intended”.
In his Facebook status update posted last Thursday, Leong had talked about his experience of connecting with “the peasantry”, after he had taken the train earlier that day.
“I had a meeting this morning out of office. My boss told me we’d take the train down,” he wrote. “I told him it’s the second time I’m taking MRT this year, it’s my first time in Clarke Quay MRT, it’ll be my first time to Dhoby Ghaut MRT in 2 years, and whenever I take the MRT, my friends cheer and say they’ll need to buy the lottery.”
Leong continued in a comment on his own status, “I feel my own angst riding with common people. But I suppose it’s good to get the feel from the ground every now and then to connect with the peasantry."
His comments quickly drew a flurry of reaction online.
Among the many offended by Leong’s “elitism” was Yahoo! reader Andrew Tay, a sales manager who takes public transport on a daily basis.
Tay said, “What makes (Leong’s post) so bad is that this is probably the worst time in Singapore history to make such an offensive comment, not only because of the sky-rocketing COE prices but also because of the recent spate of breakdowns, which fuels resentment when the public-transport system is already strained.”
The 32-year-old added it would be “best if he (Leong) could come out and make a public apology”.
When contacted, one of Leong’s former colleagues, who declined to be named, revealed that Leong often appeared “amicable and friendly on the surface, but had a rather low sense of self-awareness in that he would try to appear and behave the richest and most successful amongst his peers”.
“This has sometimes caused strong but subtle sense of resentment between him and those who were around him,” he continued, before adding that he “wasn't at all surprised” to see Leong’s post.
According to this ex-co worker, Leong drives an old Honda Civic and lives in a HDB flat.
Earlier media reports that referred to Leong’s Linkedin account said that he graduated from Temasek Polytechnic and is currently working as a “Customer Service Professional” at The Law Society of Singapore.
The account and his Facebook page have since been deleted.
While Leong declined to provide more details, he told Yahoo! Singapore that he understood why people were offended by his “misconstrued” comment.
“I do regret that thoughtless remark, and I realise that one should not even joke about such things as it is insensitive, and it is so easy for it to be taken out of context and misunderstood,” he said. -
stand in the middle of the road - tell the commuters they are peasants. no guts - that's why in internet write keyboard hero only. no guts to apologize in person - easy internet keyboard hero apologize only.
no work to do in company? hold meeting. don;t know? ask people how to do - don;t tok like you know a lot, shame to admit you also don;t know. conduct what fuck lesson? so can pick on people' smistake? old man what ediucational level you are?
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Wah lau eh....only customer service professional in law society and wanna call people peasants ah.
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im a peasant
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They think they so ATAS ah? Class of their own? High society! Pui!!!!!
I'll spit on his/her face with my thickest greenest phlegm! Khaaa Pui!!!!
SOAB/ DOAB= son or daughter of a B#%£H!
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Originally posted by Rock^Star:
Wah lau eh....only customer service professional in law society and wanna call people peasants ah.
Whats the big deal?
Even forumers here call Singaporeans peasants.
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haiz he is not even a lawyer... drives an old civic and stay in a hdb(may even belong to his parents). think he study too much till go bonkers... im not even impressed or find him "Upper Class"
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aiyah its like that one lah. come on manager in front of everyone insult you don;t know what is you are doing when the question he ask i also don;t undertsand what he wants - so that people next door listen think he is right. come one no guts to send me away straight issit? if he really can send everyone away lah? he also also cannot manage. now have to hire someone alreayd. really i don;t like going to bata factory lah - they work although cheap but is cannot make it1