Nothing surprises me anymore?

A common expression amongst people as they age is "nothing surprises me anymore". This is  usually from people who have seen a lot, feel jaded or unruffled.

However I feel quite the reversed. Increasingly I find things happening around us rather puzzling and unimaginable. Some of them are as follow:

1) The gangnam style video that has gone viral

2) Property prices rocketing out of comprehension

3) University undergraduates posing erotic sex video on the web

4) Flooding in New York

5) Republicans underestimating the changing demographics of the Hispanic vote in the presidential election


The gangnam video was viewed 680 million times on youtube. Yes it is funny and amusing but surely not earth shaking. Perhaps it is fueled by curiosity exponentially. It is amazing what seizes people's fascination nowadays. Apparently the humour and surprise element coupled with the unique dance movements in the video mesmerizes lots of people.Then you have the infamous NUS law scholar who wondered whose sensitivity he should be protecting and why was there a need to apologize for posing pornographic videos of him and his girlfriend's sex life on the web. It seems people have an insatiable thirst for new things and the more out of the ordinary anything is the more excitement it creates. It is as if people have to break out of boredom to survive. Therein lies the irony. The intention is to draw attention by delivering a surprise but any shocked response arising may be labelled as old fashion and outdated. Try sharing with the youngsters your disbelief that certain things  are happening and they will say you are out of touch and uninformed.

Yet uninformed is exactly the real reason behind other surprises that we encounter. Every one talks about how the property prices have rocketed beyond comprehension. Yet if one has been observant, focused and inquisitive one can see it coming, at least in Singapore with the accelerating increase in population. If we have cared enough to find out or note the annual population growth and the GDP growth over the last few years or bothered to be inquisitive or think deeper where the excess liquidity floating around will settle and wondered about the prolonged low interest rate environment, we should have seen it coming. Of course there are people who jumped in with what they called gut feel but most likely are people who have taken note of all such factors subconsciously. The fact is we have to reckon that in many so called surprise happenings it is ourselves who have not been alert ie. OUT OF TOUCH in the true sense.

Having said that there are many aspects/events in today's world which are hard to predict or which have turned out unexpectedly. These include subtle social changes that creep onto societies stealthily like a fog. I was amazed to learn that the youths in Japan are known to be complacent,apathetic and unmotivated. Unlike previous generations whose quest was to learn from the west the new generation appears unengaged and inward looking. Apparently the enrollment of Japanese students in top  US universities have been falling. The young people watched and decided not to follow the footsteps of their parents who sacrifice quality lifestyle for the lifetime dream job. Meanwhile the government grappled with setting some directions or aspiration to  tackle the prevailing aimlessness. The social aspect of things is especially difficult to envisage because it involves human psychology and behaviour. Like the effect that industrialization and modernization have on  climates, social changes can catch people and governments off guard, adding to the list of surprises we encounter. No wonder the Republicans lost the presidential election. They had failed to adapt to the changing demographics in the country;surprised whilst they watched the billions spent on campaigning went down the drain.