Most of us have heard of Pavlov’s famous experiment with dogs during mealtime. When Pavlov rang a bell every time he fed the dogs, the dogs because so used to the sound of the bell that they started salivating in response to the sound of the bell even though there wasn’t any food.
It’s psychological. That’s easy to understand. You condition a dog to associate food with the sound of a bell, the animal salivates in anticipation of food when you sound a bell. When someone reads watches someone eat his favourite food on TV, he salivates and orders food with his mobile app. It’s all psychological. When Cao Cao’s men were thirsty, he urged them to march on fabricated the story of a plum forest not too far ahead. Using this trick, he was able to buy time and psychologically quench his men’s thirst and boost their morale before they could find water.
Our leaders are a lot more honest. They immediately tell us that we are just getting psychological gratification. Josephine Teo talked about “psychological pay”. Those of us who have done volunteer work would know what that means. When we provide free services on our overseas missions, we are doing charity and our gratification comes from the improved well being and gratitude of people who can’t afford these services.
This gratification is lost when people who can afford to pay us take advantage of our diligence and generosity. It’s fair when everyone is working for psychological pay. It’s not fair when some some dogs get food when the hear the bell while other dogs don’t. Do we tell the dogs that didn’t get any food that they should measure the fullness of their stomachs with a different measuring tape? Try talking to a hungry dog about psychological fullness.
Humans may be smarter than dogs, but we also have a weakness. We can be psychologically manipulated in 100 more ways than dogs can.
Such tactics, of course, will not work on folks who are exceptionally smart. That’s why they go to elite schools and become ministers. The rest of us who are mediocre folks from lousy schools should be contented to feel immensely proud of the superiors whom we are enriching even while we have to scrimp and save to get by.
There is another way to satisfy the hungry dogs while still taking advantage of them. Feed the dogs more than their compatriots. Make them feel like they are privileged before they are sent organ harvesting. By the time the proud animals realise that the extra food is not free, it’s too late. When the latest page of CDC vouchers was announced, I could hear my stomach churn when our then PM Lee cheered “huat ah” with a smile. Any feelings of “huat” can only be psychological. Who was really cheering?
We’re not done with psychology yet. National Development Minister Desmond Lee flags “psychological factor” contributing to higher prices in HDB resale market. The statement drew a lot of flak, but to be fair, he’s not wrong. Some HDB flat buyers do get very excited and some property owners even rejoice when they see flat prices breaking records and spiraling out of control. Their feelings of “huat ah” are by no means psychological. They are laughing their way to the bank with passive income.
What about the rest of us? Sure, it’s only 2% who are raising their hands when the bid goes through the roof, but an eye-popping 539 million-dollar HDB resale flats were sold in the first seven months of 2024 compared with only 82 such deals in 2020. Psychological? Does this not look like a trend that is rapidly spreading throughout the retail market? The majority of true Singaporean buyers of resale flats are folks with modest means and they are not so reckless that they borrow to the hilt to buy a resale flat. Who are those spoiling the market? Telling us they are locals don’t mean a thing. Nowadays, we have many “locals” who look like these. Who said that swinging our doors wide open for billionaires is getting the economics right? What is psychological next? Our cost of living?
Having said all that, our government is not entirely to blame for this pathetic situation. A lot of it has to do with the “Singapore dream” that they have carefully and deliberately cultivated – in response to sentiments on the ground – over the years. Many (perhaps the majority) of Singaporeans see their HDB flats as a bao jiak investment. It’s deeply ingrained in our national DNA. People foolishly, selfishly and greedily want their HDB flats to escalate exponentially. They got what they’ve wished for. I’ve seen real estate folks posting on Facebook supporting unbridled immigration because our ancestors were from the same stock. Nope, they are not keen on discovering their roots. They just want the value of properties here to keep rising.
I strongly disagree with Mr Tan Kin Lian’s somewhat sinophilic views, but I applaud his courage to say something like this – which will cause him to lose a lot of support from the masses:
That’s not how one would go about winning support from the majority here, but even if we could go back in time, I would still support Mr Tan in the presidential elections. I’m destined to be happy in the minority.
I’m still finding my feet on YouTube and it seems that they are deliberately suppressing the visibility of what they consider “political” videos. This explains why some videos which I’ve put a lot of effort into producing are getting far fewer views than the less serious ones about Xiaxue and Wang Lei. Those who enjoy the videos on my channel can go through the low viewership videos and like and share them. Only then can YouTube give my videos the visibility their deserve. Thank you in advance. https://www.youtube.com/@RedDotRants