Geography of Thought

I always think that people's behavior is affected and determined by the social environment. In my opinion, some people misbehave, not because they are inherently bad people, but  because they are affected by the people or some other things and sometimes are forced to do something bad.

This thought of mine sometimes causes arguments between my friends and me. When I was an undergraduate, my friends and I established a student club at school. One of the club members was often late for meetings and activities, and because members were required to show up on time, my friends were proposing canceling the student's membership. My friends argued that that student came late because he personally did not want to obey the rules of our club, and no matter how many more chances were given, he would be late again. But I told them that maybe he had another class before our club's meetings, and so he could not come on time. I suggested that we should give the student one more chance. Because all my friends in the club disagreed with me, they voted to cancel the student's membership.

This experience teaches me that not everybody had the same idea as mine about people's behavior. I need to learn how to better interact with other people having different views in a similar situation.