Me

During lecture last week, we were taught "Self" and immediately, I thought of myself as a typical mother who worries endless about her child, a working adult endless hoping for a raise in paycheck to increase the living standard of my family and also a still a child in my family.

In total, I am basically term as a " collectivism", a typical Asian. I don't empathise on myself, I see myself with all my links, as a group. I don't think of me as me as in individual, which perphas is the cultural up-bringing which has influenced my thoughts and feelings that it is not right to bring myself to direct attention but to bring my surroundings to attention. Unlike our Western counterparts who can think of themselves as themself, I can't, most of us can't. We were taught to be selfless, to put others before self and so we pull closer ties with our surroundings.
We feel safer in a group, therefore when we do something, or say something, its always " They all also do that" , " We thought", and not " I am the one one" . Besides doing things in a group, we also feel things as a group. Which can be of disadvantage, expecially when it comes to political issues. We go with the flow, we dare not oppose as we do not want to be an individualist. Even if we do oppose, its because we can find someone who shares the ideal and therefore boost the confidence in opposing. As the opposing group increases its members, the confidence level increases.

We also have this schema that if there is only an individual who goes against the flow, this person is a weirdo, may have nothing to do and is a troublemaker. Look at the education society, if there's a student who deliberately keeps sideburns and this Elvis Presley's combed hair, most of his peers would think that he is a weirdo and his teachers may judge him as a troublemaker or an " Ah Beng". And this poor student may get picked on by his disciplinary master/mistress.

But schema can always come in handy, for example, when someone throws a ball at you, you can always form the shape in your mind and try to catch it. And would also know how it looks like and the texture so that you won't catch the wrong thing!