Recently, a video sparked heated discussions on the Internet. The video shows two young men sleeping in the lower berth of the train and closing the curtain, which an elderly woman displeased about, arguing that the lower berth is a public area and should not be obscured.
Subsequently, this incident sparked a heated discussion among netizens, once again pushing the old topic of respecting the old tradition and the protection of personal rights and interests to the forefront. There were some twists and turns.
At first, the elderly woman took this video, hoping that netizens would "judge".
Subsequently, the railway department responded, making it clear that as long as it does not affect other people, it is okay for passengers in the lower berth to pull the curtain. However, CCTV News has a different view.
It pointed out that if the upper berth passengers are old or have limited mobility and need to use the lower berth, young people should take the initiative to give up their seats, rather than blindly blocking the public. The incident sparked heated discussions online, with some questioning the reasonableness of CCTV's views and others pointing to the evolution of social mores.
Once upon a time, it was normal for unfamiliar bunk travelers to sit on the lower berth, but now people are becoming more aware of individual rights and privacy protection. On the face of it, this is indeed a cliché.
Since ancient times, the mainland has attached great importance to the tradition of respecting the elderly, especially in public places, and should take the initiative to give way to the elders.
However, this incident may be worth looking at from another angle. A netizen who has worked in the railway department for a long time once confided some pertinent opinions, although he was also bombarded by netizens at one time.
For a long time, there have been some obvious hardware shortcomings in mainland railway transportation, and the trains are too simple and dense, giving people a sense of depression like "walking animals". In addition to the crowded seats, even the restrooms are often hard to talk about. It can be said that comfort has been a long-term pain point in railway transportation in mainland China for a long time.
Not only that, but in terms of the rules and regulations of the train and the service concept of the crew, many aspects are still stuck in the decades ago. For example, some stereotypes are more like teaching people to "endure hardship" than to provide services.
Just like some of the phenomena we often see in other public places, behaviors such as "occupying seats", making loud noises, and spitting are also repeatedly prohibited on trains.
Some netizens complained that many elderly people have some bad habits, such as rubbing a ticket on the cheap upper and lower bunks, and then "playing scoundrels" when they get to the car and asking young people to change positions for themselves. This is clearly already an "excess" and "abuse".
There are even out-of-town tourists who sleep directly on young people's bunks, whether it is a habit or a kind of "natural" psychological trouble, we really have no way of knowing. But perhaps it is precisely because of these influences that some young people have gradually begun to develop a "disgust" towards the elderly.
But it may be more reasonable to take a more reasonable approach: we should respect all groups, including the elderly, and that a person's moral character and quality cannot be judged by biological age alone. On the contrary, all people should respect each other in a civilized and rational manner, and no one side should be superior to the other.
In this dispute, neither side has done a good enough job. Whether it is the casual exposure of older women to others, or the blind attention of young people to the needs of others, it reflects some shortcomings of human nature.
A better solution doesn't require much work. It all starts with upholding everyone's basic rights, and as long as we respect each other, there will not be too many disputes.