@Dando008: glad to know that you’re the assertive type. Honestly, I find it reallyyy difficult to have courage when I’m all by myself, but all these years has taught me to become stronger and actually defend myself as well as others, if need be.

@dean: I do hope we’ll have that courage to stand up for people, it’s a noble deed that’s really fulfilling, especially if the person you defended appreciates what you did ;__; But of course we shouldn’t do it for the sake of that ego-boosting purpose hehe

Here’s to more courage!

And hopefully with this, we’ll be able to find ourselves, complete with a sense of purpose, and a set of principles which we abide in and fight for.

I hear fighting for the rights of others is a great way to start. I’ve got a bit of a yellow streak myself so the whole standing-up-to-someone is just as much a recurring issue on my side of the world. But when I do it for someone else, it surprises me how the courage suddenly balloons and fills me up — enough for me, the oppressed and then some.

Maybe when your justifying the goodness and wrongness of morally gray issues, it’s just easier when vis-a-vis someone else — moral standards seem so much more imposing when it’s about a third party you don’t really know that much about. In obaasan’s case: if it were me, I wouldn’t mind standing up; but if it were some else, I’d be yelling “Equal rights! Age deserves respect! In Soviet Russia…”

Anyways, rallying for the masses as Superman, Bonaparte or Mother Theresa have done, they might have been onto something all along.

I have to say that assertiveness plays a big role when going though this type of situation. As for me, I would be the type of guy who would defend the old lady. I would think that people on the bus would agree with me to just leave her be. It usually takes one person before everyone else would voice their opinions too, but I guess there are other times where you are by yourself and that could cause trouble. In that case…you just got to suck it up. Kure-nai is a great anime though!

When your job is to guard someone there are a lot of things you can’t do regardless of your desire to do them. I don’t know that I believe Shinkurou would have acted any differently if Murosaki was not present, but her being there definitely restrained his range of options.

I think witnessing these kind of scenes is life-changing, it’s one of those rare situations where you can show your principles and all that, not just be apathetic.

and for the PETB, I’m not even sure if mellow knows that our clan is being butchered by the likes of you!

@issa-sa: yeah, it’s a bit extreme, but the kind of situation that will really make you stop and think, and wonder what you will do if you were in the same situation.

and LOL @ rage you go girl! These kind of guys really need bitchslapping, but if I were in that situation, I still wonder if I would’ve confronted them or just grimace out of fear. But bah, I have to stop being a chicken!

@Nagato: well the embarrassment issue is something I pointed out when I mentioned how we put importance to our reputation when in comes to these things, which ultimately is still socially-driven, since we’re taking into consideration what others will think about us, and such.

And perhaps I wasn’t clear with the points I raised here, but I mentioned that there’s a lot of factors that affect our actions (and the lack thereof). Fears, yes, aside from being self-conscious, lacking self-confidence, etc.

Well, I think it’s less societal values and more personal desire. We desire not to make a commotion and bring embarrassment to ourselves. Nobody likes to feel embarrassed in front of a bunch of strangers.
I do what you did around that RLS (Srsly? Restless Leg Syndrome?) guy a lot, keep quiet and silently curse the person for not realizing that they’re being overly obnoxious. I usually think, “Honestly, how rude! How could they POSSIBLY not know what a nuisance they’re being?” But thinking about it after the fact, there are a plethora of reasons why that could be so.

Well, I got carried away. As I said, I don’t really feel it’s merely *just* societal values. It’s our own fears as well.

And you are not a coward! You may be a Moe Baa-chan Coward usagijen though
But I also felt that after watching this episode, the justice side of me wants to speak up more but I don’t know what I’d do if someone was getting hurt like that. I’d be too scared aka coward, but who knows, this episode may have changed my life 0_0

And how’s that PETB thing going on? Any members besides Mellow_bunny?