Tuesday, January 18, 2011

A broad mind - look for what is right

In the musical "Fiddler on the Roof" two Jews in a village were arguing over a matter and they approached the rabbi to solve the dispute.

The rabbi heard the first Jew and said, "you are right". He then heard the second Jew and said, "you are right". A third Jew, who was observing the event asked the rabbi, "How was it possible for the first Jew to be right and the second Jew to be also right?". The rabbi replied to the third Jew, "you are also right".

The rabbi looked for what is right and not what is wrong. This is called "a positive mindset". Many Singaporeans are not aware that of this approach and only know how to look for "what is wrong".

Tan Kin Lian
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4 comments:

courage said...

While this mindset is useful to overcome minor disagreements or issues, it has a dangerous flaw. It cultivate a mindset that disregard important value or principle that guide our life. There are always things that is right or wrong. For eg, murder is wrong. Molesting or raping is wrong. Trafficing drug is wrong. One cannot accepts a reason that the trafficer's reason and proclaim he is "right" that if he do not do it his family would stave to dead.

January 18, 2011 1:29 PM
yujuan said...

We remember a property developer in Batam who firmly believe very positively that Batam would take over Singapore to be the trans-shipping port centre very soon. That was in the 1990s, and he still sticks to his view.
Too positive a mindset could lead to self-deceit, there is always two faces to a coin, both positive and negative, it would affect the outcome of an investment decision.

January 18, 2011 2:09 PM
Tan Kin Lian said...

We do not have to be as optimistic as the Batam developer. Too many people focus on what could go wrong, so was have what is known as the "kiasi mentality".

January 18, 2011 2:54 PM
Vincent Sear said...

This is a typical routine case of argument over opinions, when all sides want the imagined satisfaction and sense of superiority to be right.

The Rabbi's decision is the classic let's agree on what we agree on and agree to disgaree on what we disagree on.

Of course, in cases where the scriptures or statutes are clear as to who's wrong or right, this can't be applied.

January 18, 2011 10:00 PM

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