Saturday, September 1, 2012

What it actually means: Lack of respect at war memorial

Don't we even have the basic courtesy and common sense to behave better at the war memorial? I think what we are witnessing here were acts of ignorance. Why didn't we educate our kids? I think it is because being rooted in histories of uncertain economic value make us less plastic for the government to mold.

It is just pragmatically necessary and convenient that the Singapore identity mustn't be sharply defined or else it would be use against our leaders attempt to steer society and economy in pragmatic ways. Pragmatic means economic maximization.

Publicly the Singapore identity is a convenience of government leaders speech making. Just consider the recent NDR. Just try to tell the story of how the identity had evolved. It isn't possible today.

Business values are shallow. We are as shallow. Business used to be more holistic but now it is focused solely on $$$. Grades are the closest equivalent to $$$ in our schools. Even as we work at making education more holistic, quietly the overarching race for grades must have forced principals to lead schools to the KPIs then true holism.

Shallow in school, shallow after school. Lack of respect at war memorial is an early warning sign that our prosperity could be brief. It needn't be as long as we always and foremost think of what is helpful to the next generation; not just immediate $$$. If we do that you will find that you want to bring more kids into this world. It is an exciting and attractive future society. Cutting corners in maintaining our MRT system is leaving a lousy train service for the young coming after us. We do not want that sort of mindset to predominate here.

There are many other social indicators collaborating with this conclusion. In fact the Law Minister just offered one recently on his facebook page: eroding neighborliness. When everyone only live for the short term, nobody is patient or tolerant. A lot of give and take is demanded from each of us for a better tomorrow. It is so odd to watch people living, "I want it now" like there is no tomorrow and oblivious to the dissonance.

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