I walked past her room. His towel, her clothes tossed across her bed. I turned to peer into his room, her body lotion, body spray, facial products spread across his dressing table. Their daily routines and chores are so intertwined together. Sometimes that’s what it is; sometimes that’s all it is. It holds two together. By choosing not to break this bond is at the same time the path of less resistance.
One month. It just surprises me that people subconsciously without wanting to can commit so much. And I begin to wonder have I ever committed a hundred percent to anyone?
In Foundations of International Business, we were asked to distinguish the difference between globalisation and internationalisation. After going through the text book, I found that globalisation is about diminishing national borders of economy while internationalisation maintains its national culture, economies, and politics, yet cooperates across these national borders.
In the past, it did not matter how much I cared or how much I let someone influence me, cooperation was the best I could do.
On the way home tonight from dinner with mum, she suggested that I go with a touring group to BieJing(北京) on my trip to China. I rebutted, she allowed herself to go on and on and on. Eventually, I held my tongue, almost felt like I was being mature. Perhaps, for me it was the path of less resistance and avoidance in the long run. It is like when they try to twist your arm back into its place, they give you something to bite on as you tightly shut your eyes. It is as if by doing that you are able to compress the tensions inside of you enough to snap out of the situation. I shut my mouth. Because we can’t ‘mutualise’ in the way some firms can globalise, we can only ‘interpersonalise’.
Even with friends, there are times when we connect so well that I repeat the jokes in my head after they are gone and laugh by myself. Nevertheless, somewhere along the path I’d still feel obligations to be nice, to be polite, to sympathise, to let them know that I am there, so they feel how I would like to feel. On one hand, we are all just fooling ourselves with this nonsense role play. On another hand, imagine how cold the world will be if we stopped this act, and only said “thank you” or apologised when we really meant it.
I don’t know if it is just me, or is it really none of us can ‘mutualise’.
4 comments:
this topic is mind boggling.
To mutualise and interpersonalise.. between people, isn't as clear cut as to globalise or internationalise the countries of the world.
Lets define.. the process of mutualising two people.. what does it take or what needs to be in sync in order for mutualisation to occur?
From your examples, I gathered: sharing objects in each others 'territory', doing things together on a daily basis, committing 100% (no less), having the same ideas, values and opinions and thinking about the other person after they've gone.
It seems like when two people really want to be the other person, and have 'mutually' sacrificed a lot of themselves in order to do so. (Is this even possible?)
Interpersonalising.. on the other hand seems like mutualising, but only when its convenient. When differences or problems arise, they're avoided, acknowledged but not resolved, in the interest of maintaining individuality and harmony, simultaneously.
So i think, what we do, when we relate to others, is not mutualising, or interpersonalising, but somewhere in between.. probably depending on the mood, the weather..
first of all, the words 'mutualise' and 'interpersonalise' are given their meanings in the text as oppose to their lexicon meanings. globalise and internationalise are used as analogies to help shape their definitions.
so here are the menaing again: -
mutualise: the diminishing of barriers; seeing the other person as a part of yourself. so no need to ever worry about offending them or putting up an act for them.
interpersonalise: interpersonal skill; integration with another while the barriers are recognised.
they both are abstract concepts. you may find hints of them or refer to them in the real world, even though they do not exist in it.
now that they are defined. the question the entry asks is: do you think human beings can mutualise?
you said, depending on the mood. i guess the is a yes, am i correct? you believe it is possible and have mutualised in the past?
It is possible to mutualise and interpersonalise.
Both can be done through classical conditioning and operant conditioning.
We learn from people over the time how we should react (under different variables) and over the time, we're conditioned to deal with people in a way so we feel comfortable.
We can mutualise, we're built to mutualise to build a colony together. we can't mutualise with everyone, but we can always then interpersoanlise.
(To me, 'mutualisation' sounds like it's all naturally done, while 'interpersonalisation' sounds proactive)
so mutualise and intersonalised can both operate on different levels in the society.
clear and well stated Nurikko. i'm glad mutualisation comes so naturally for you.
Post a Comment