What do you think he meant by it?

from JoeUser Forums

I am a big fan of the movie Kung Fu Panda. I love watching it with my kids. My favorite character is Master Oogway the turtle. His pharses sound very enlighted and usually make sense to me. But there is one that I had a hard time trying to figure and now I believe I may understand the meaning but was wondering what you readers think he means by this. This is the scene of the movie:

Master Shifu - "Master, master. I have..., it's a... it's very bad news"

Master Oogway - "Ah Shifu. There is just news. There is no good or bad"

So what do you think Master Oogways means when he says that news is just news, that there is no good or bad news? One would beg to differ when one hears the news and one don't like it. That would seem like bad news to me. What do you think?

I will post what I think in the comment section.

1,482 views 3 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top

News is just news.  It is our own perspective, or those of the ones that informs of us of the news, that gives it a good or bad connotation.

For example, the statement "a gunman killed 13 people" is simply that, a statement.  It is our view of murder (murder is bad) that makes us believe that the news is "bad."

Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top

Words are simply symbols we have agreed upon to represent things.  As Silver and Jade Tears said, they, in themselves, are neutral.  We assign value to them depending upon our past experiences, frame of reference, value system, etc.  So, using her example, murder may be bad to me, but to a person who views life as nothing but dispair, it may be good. 

Of course there are certain 'trigger' words which are used to get a specific reaction.  They are more emotionally loaded than other words, but again, depending upon the listener, can be either positive or negative.  Example: mom, apple pie and the American flag...

As Lewis Carroll asid, when I use a word, it means exactly what I want it to mean.  You may have an entirely different picture in your head when you hear it.  And therein lies the whole fascination of interpersonal communications!

 

Ashes of the Singularity II
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top

Your good news is someone else's bad news, and vise versa.

I enjoy that movie too.