Comparing

The recent spate of incidents have left a bad taste in everyone's mouth; well its partyl my fault, or should it be wholly? Well, just accept it and move on; more important things await.

Even conversations and virtual chats seem to carry over the after effects; stale air and silences getting in... time to inject some new air...

Today's ramblings is on comparison. I believe (i''m not dead sure, but I'm quite certain) that no one can get away with saying that s/he's completely impartial. Not that its not good to compare, in fact its pretty fine to do a side by side analysis now and then, to keep in check of oneself as well as others. Fine with me.

What is crucial in comparison thus, lies in the context in which the comparison is made. Sometimes, comparisons are made without the consideration of the environments now and then, and the people now and then. Is it ulitmately fair to base judgements when the basis of comparison is different? Ok, fair enuff to say that if everything remains the same, then wat for we compare? Well, I guess most of the factors shld remain the same when we do comparisons; if not, where is the basis? wAlso when do we make comparisons? when things get bad? Often, it does boil down to something that went very wrong. Guess its one thing to investigate thoroughly what went wrong, and another to compare it to some time ago when nothing went wrong, cos nothing probably was done some time ago in the first place! (ahha, its not a statement made in self defence; its just to name some made-up example...) Thirdly, to denouce one's support becos of one's preceived drop in standards during the process of comparison just isnt so right, at least I think so. I dunno, but barring any extreme circumstances, I havent personally heard of anyone denouncing their alma mater (sch or band) even if there is a perceived drop in standard. In my honest opinion, BP-formerly-BT did extremely well to prepare for 2004; true, they were outperformed, they couldnt make it 4 in a row, but it was already not bad; faced with so many problems, I guess it was quite fantastic that they even made it to KAllang last April. Point is, its hard to make a diachronic comparison; a synchronous one would probably much easier, but often, its hard to have a situation where we can do a synchronous study. Case: Old English (EL in the 1000s to 1300s) looked so difficult and hard to comprehend as compared to present day EL; however, back then Old EL would make complete sense to ppl living back then, and they would think we are aliens if we try to speak present day EL; its probably more relevant to do comparisons of present day varieties of EL and their extent of variation.

Not that its not benefitial to do diachronic comparisons. Diachronic comparisons do benefit, they tell us the extent of change and evolution. They tell us what may be going right for the period of time studied. However, notions of right or wrong, correct or incorrect, are quite value-laden and subjective; it may not be fair to evaluate these notions by doing diachronic comparisons...

Ok enuff le....

Signing off........ The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
Martin Luther King Jr. (1928-1968), from Strength to Love, 1963..............
RC