When I spoke in Singapore last week, a member of my audience asked an interesting question: In Singapore, the younger, more highly educated workers are pushing out the more experienced, older workers, who do not have the same levels of education.
I was told afterwards by my clients that they thought this man wanted me to say that "the work culture in Singapore is 'bad' or 'wrong'". That is something I would never do. My view is that no foreigner has the right to denigrate the culture of a country being visited, particularly if that foreigner is a business person visiting the new country for work.
Later, I kept thinking about the situation. What occurred to me is that no one, not even an experienced worker, has the privilege of riding on their laurels. We must all keep up. That means reading to stay abreast of the latest developments in your field, as well as talking with people so that you know what's happening in the industry.
In other words, stop growing and you're stagnating. Stagnate and you're actually moving backwards, because the world and most people in it are moving forward at an ever-increasing rate.
Looking Forward. . .
Joyce Gioia-Herman
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Comments (1)
Hello Joyce,
Interesting comment.
But I disagree with you.
Ageism is rife in the western world. It has nothing to do with 'keeping up' or competence. It is a consequence of a world-wide predominance of 'youth culture'.
And why is youth culture so predominant ?
Its because young people are 'cute', easily influenced and cheap.
They are also brand loyal consumers. Further, the deliberate dumbing down of western educational standards, designed to capture votes in the 'democracies' has left young people with no critical faculties. They are being conned into thinking they are brighter than they actually are.
And who is the big winner from this strategy? It's big business and the media and the celeb culture. Individuals may also think they benefit and to some extent they do.
I also diagree with your assertion that people are moving 'forward'. In some senses they are actually moving backwards. The advent of creationism in the USA, for example, and the rise of fundamentalism in religion of all shades is more like the middle ages than the future. Also, as I have said, education standards are not as high as they were 40 years ago.
Social 'Modernity' is not always good. The Soviets had 'modernity' and so did the Nazis. Both were a disaster.
The real question is this;-
"What is the set of references in which all this debate takes place?'
I would take the 'logical positivist' position free of metaphysics and based on the tradition of western rationality established by the Greeks.
But the main references now in the global discourse on these and other issues is either religiosity, or commercialism/consumerism which is all about money. That in itself is an interesting dichotomy.
The real question for the future is this :- what are the consequences of these phenomena?
I'd like to write further about what I think will happen but that will be for another time.
Best wishes
John
Posted by john slater on October 24, 2007 11:15 PM