BLOG 2

   The author revealed that in academic workforce, some people being rude, aggressive or even hostile to others can sometimes get further in academia. By acting like jerks or assholes, the author assumed that they think they have something to gain. 

   This phenomena is no strange to me, actually the idea roots in most Chinese peoples’ minds that being aggressive and hostile can help them gain something. On the contrary, being nice could probably cause their own loss. For example, often times, in China, it is hard to get a complaint solved if you are being nice to the employee in customer service. They will put off your problems, or tell you they can not handle this and ask you to go somewhere else to look for solutions. Being nice means your situation is not that urgent and since you have a nice personality, you definitely would not mind being treated a little neglectfully. Therefore, things start to get worse. When people realize that being nice could not gain the thing they want, they change to act as jerks or assholes. Unexpectedly, they are treated differently, and their problems get solved quickly. It is said that customer services try to avoid trouble as much as possible, when they face aggressive and hostile customers, they know immediately it would cause them trouble if they treat these kind of customers rudely, therefore they would be nice and efficient in handling the complaints. Funny thing is, now in China, even though you are not a jerk in reality, when comes to make a complaint, you would choose to act like a jerk to gain the thing you want. I can’t stop but wondering what impact does this phenomenon have on our younger generation. 

   Will they think that being jerks or assholes is the right thing to do and being nice is useless? Will they learn and apply this to other areas and thus enlarge the vicious cycle? Will there be more arrogant and less nice peoples? Maybe it is not only about making academia a kinder place, but making the world a kinder world.