Fools do differ

Not quite sure what's with this overwhelming sense of melancholy bordering on the depressive. Might be collective in origin with no single source but nonetheless it's there.

I had the (mis)fortune of having brunch/open-dialogue session with Minister Vivian Balakrishnan. It was a really small group open forum, talk-back session - organised by National Youth Council as a follow up to last year's Prime Minister's dialogue with youths. I'm not sure why but I keep getting dragged into these things and I'm doubly unsure as to why I keep attending them ...

But the experience yesterday wasn't pleasant. While the general crowd was honest and frank about the problems this small and over-achieving nation faced, I had the uncanny sense that Vivian was clearly letting many things sweep by as 'earwind' (to crudely translate a chinese saying). It was his demeanour, body language, and eyes that told me he wanted pragmatic solutions to some of the problems such as the re-population problem.

So much talk ... yet so little outcome ... if any. But it was when I voiced my opinions that I realised, in retrospect, what was said was disfavourable, ethereal and perhaps unattainable. Perhaps I should not have even mentioned anything because Vivian clearly wasn't interested in what was said and had even included my comments by way of a closing to undermine what I had brought up ... nevermind ... don't really want to give details. Just felt foolish for even thinking that my views mattered. Feel foolish ... terribly foolish for having said what I did, for even believing he was open-minded enough to hear. Stupid ... But some of his comments made real sense: the pending 'extinction' of pedigree Singaporeans stems from a humanist issue. It isn't about the numbers, figures or superficial measures that could help resolve matters - the root infection is about humanity and human relationships. We no longer care about others enough to even re-populate ourselves. Beyond the economics of need, I am glad that he, as a representative of those which govern our lives, is aware that this problem has no real solution; the problem lies in the core of the person. This is the result of what we have chosen to build in our society - much like Forsters 'The Machine Stops' or Orwell's '1984'. We have chosen to neglect the human and the humane. We have created a society that is bred on material success and achievement that others no longer matter. And the time has come for the world we create to face its own demons - that which we have built now becomes our greatest enemy ... Shelley's 'Frankenstein' comes to mind?

And this was what I raised - we have become excesively pragmatic and overly self-centred, constantly running without rest nor pause for reflection. But what I said clearly fell on deaf ears because it was ethereal, philosophical and impractical. And I feel like a fool ... like all philosophers do.