Why the elites have to keep telling us without them; we will

CheckmateA1 SG

Why the elites have to keep telling us without them; we will all go hungry, so forget about 1st world rights!

Written by Darkness of the Brotherhood – Recently Ah pek Lee, spoke to some diplomats, academics and students at the S Rajaratnam Lecture. Here check this out: MM Lee Kuan Yew, as reported by Today

At first, the message forwarded seems innocuous enough –sensible even in its carriage of though as it goes on to highlight some well established motifs – we are after all a small country; and it pays for the small fries to get along with the big fishes; otherwise things just doesn’t come around and there is no tankhood – but where the message in my humble opinion degenerates into plain back slapping endorsement of the status quo ante is when lashings of, “we are so good in what we do; even the Chinese have seen the wisdom of learning from us” – “if good wins over evil; then we need to sacrifice our sense and sensibilities on the altar of necessity…please never forget that” – along with maybe “please stop deluding yourself, the good life doesn’t come for free; it comes with a price; and we would do well to dig into our pockets and pay the price” begins to filter through.

Am I imagining it? You know what I am going to give Ah Pek Lee the benefit of the doubt; I don’t doubt for one moment; I could have very well confected all these Da Vinci code connotations – so its best if you do me the courtesy of re-reading what he said and judge for yourself whether I am spot on or just making a mountain out of an imaginary mole hill.

Besides this essay this isn’t about what Ah Pek Lee said; rather why and how do elites go about the business of mythologizing their existence? – why for example do they keep telling us without them, we are all going to be toast? Why do they keep repeating the trite warning – if good is going to win over evil, then it always has to come at a heavy price – and no matter what the sacrifice it’s worth paying it – including perhaps having to set aside all our illusions that we could for moment even have real “rights.” Instead of the zoo keeping variety that’s currently on offer.

Now if you really want to know why elites say the things they regularly do – then you need to suspend disbelief long enough to consider how most of our perceptions in life may be shaped by myths rather than fact.

Don’t believe me? Then just take a look at how myth making is so often pursued unabashedly, even against the face of incontrovertible evidence – like how the MSM keeps trying to sell themselves as the next best thing since sliced bread as the one and only reliable purveyor of the truth. Never mind that our beloved rag languishes somewhere below the Timbuktu daily post – in the land of mirror mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all – self praise is always good to go 24/7.

But why is the cult of mirror mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all so corrosive? How does it scissor across the framework of our understanding? In what way does the myth making machine work against society? Some may chide me for being defeatist or even overtly critical; after all, lets say a kid with carrot fingers tells you his dream is to play Rachmaninoff to a packed audience in Carnegie hall – what would you say to him?

My answer is, I dunno – all I know it pays to be measured and this may mean sticking as assidiouosly to the truth as possible, even if it means snuffing out a few misplaced dreams - no one denies a bit of myth making can motivate and even edify - encouraging others to strive towards excellence. I know this only too well; it doesn’t always pay to be brutally honest, not if the truth disables and demoralizes – only my point is; if the myth making is taken too far, it can lead to complacency or worse still a false sense of confidence – that incidentally, is how the world tripped and promptly broke it’s neck in this recent global economic meltdown – now if you really want to understand the global financial crisis; believe me – you don’t even need to do know what are sub primes, derivatives, CDO’s and the rest of those gobble d guck like inverse repayment and equity based costing regressions.

Believe me, you could just as well throw all this out of the window and wipe the board clean and start with this ONE assumption – at the center of the anatomy of disaster that made possible failure on such a grand scale there had to be a Rolls Royce myth making machine (in some cases it may embody the persona of larger than life character like Bernie Madoff; or even take the form of a copper clad century old firm like Lehman Bros) – the whole idea of a super duper machine that can always be relied on to perpetuate the good life – and what was it?

It was the myth: house prices will always go up and up and up / and there is no end to good times – and for a very long time, that myth even turned out to be a self fulfilling prophecy as when so many people buy into the idea that makes up a myth; its even conceivable they may even have the power to inadvertently shape their destiny – but a failing common to every myth is it cannot be sustained in perpetuity; that’s to say at some point intervening events will cause it to become so unhinged from reality that the whole edifice has to just comes crashing down – you could even say, that’s the karma that afflicts all myths without exception – it matters little whether it’s the myth that once made possible the cult of the sword that Samurai once used to perpetuate their class politics by imposing a country band on gun powder – at some point, a boatful of brigands are going to show up bearing muskets and when that happens it’s just going to be a be a game leveler; or as the Ottomans say, “hark-met-ther,” when the armies of Sulaiman came across crossbow men for the first time only to turn back their siege machines – that in the nutshell is how the world suddenly found itself knee deep in shit – the myth gave way to reality.

That’s has to be a sobering thought; one that should prompt us all to ask whether it’s even wise for us to keep the myth making machine of mirror mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them – if we are really serious about the whole business of craving out competitive advantage after the dust has settled on the global economic carnage – its something to consider very seriously; when you consider the last time someone looked at a mirror – she ended up as an old witch peddling poison apples – like I said, it’s a fools game, that we can ill afford in such testing times.

Darkness 2009

The Brotherhood Press 2009

http://www.temasekreview.com/2009/04/12/why-the-elites-have-to-keep-telling-us-without-them-we-will-all-go-hungry-so-forget-about-1st-world-rights/

charlize SG

Life is surreal.

jojobeach SG

Typical of the mindsets of elites.

Me.. I get into this rut of self importance/pomposity ..occasionally.

My gardener is gonna starve if I stop employing him to take care of my busy garden.. i mean,, what will his kids do without the money I give them? His baby will hve no diapers and will eat his own poo from the floor... his wife will be forced to have sex with another man to support the family...

Me.. I just don't wanna trim the prickly rose bushes.. nor clean the backyard.. nor deal with the dead leaves....that's why I paid someone else to do it.

And what will my maid do without me ?.. If I fire her.. she'll have to work for another meanie family who will torture her.. and feed her scraps from the dinner table.. and good lord.. maybe force her to give oral sex to the male employer...

Me.. I just don't wanna wash the dirty dishes.. nor touch the laundry .. nor mop the floor... my nail polish will chip off... oh my..

I am the BEST employer they'll every get. So they better appreciate what I'm doing for them.

Come to think about it.. I think I need my employees more than they need me.

Without them.. my garden will look like a run away jungle.. I won't be able to show off my magnificent garden to my visitors and tout my property as being the most well kept in the neighbourhood.

Heck.. my home will be in a huge mess.. what will my visitor think of me !! And I won't be able to find my panties underneath that big pile of dirty laundry.. what will I wear ??!!

Shudder.. the horror.... the horror...

Hitman+ SG

if the elites are not happy..they can leave too!no one is forcing them...

BadzMaro SG

Masters need peasants. And the peasants, equally need the masters. LoL!

Hitman+ SG

badzmaro,

i beg to differ!.....peasants can go hunt pheasants, pluck out feathers by themselves and roast them over a fire!

masters on the other hand need peasants so that they can have part of that roasted pheasant and other things like sex,free labour and $$$$!

masters need pheasants ....while peasants need pheasants.as they are humans and are able people and can catch food using their hands.......no need for the other human unless one is in a vegetable state.

unlike a master and its pet scenario,its like a master that needs a cat and cat that needs master that in return gives it cat food.that is if the cat is a vegetable and dun know how to get its own food.

BadzMaro SG

lol!

Hitman+ SG

are sporeans regarded as domesticated pets instead of thinking learning humans???!!!!!

Hitman+ SG

are sporeans regarded as domesticated pets instead of thinking learning humans???!!!!!

RoyFang SG

are sporeans regarded as domesticated pets instead of thinking learning humans???!!!!!

They just recently realised that we are thinking learning humans....

angel7030 SG

Typical of the mindsets of elites.

Me.. I get into this rut of self importance/pomposity ..occasionally.

Me.. I just don't wanna trim the prickly rose bushes.. nor clean the backyard.. nor deal with the dead leaves....that's why I paid someone else to do it.

Me.. I just don't wanna wash the dirty dishes.. nor touch the laundry .. nor mop the floor... my nail polish will chip off... oh my..

I am the BEST employer they'll every get. So they better appreciate what I'm doing for them.

Come to think about it.. I think I need my employees more than they need me.

Without them.. my garden will look like a run away jungle.. I won't be able to show off my magnificent garden to my visitors and tout my property as being the most well kept in the neighbourhood.

Heck.. my home will be in a huge mess.. what will my visitor think of me !! And I won't be able to find my panties underneath that big pile of dirty laundry.. what will I wear ??!!

Shudder.. the horror.... the horror...

Well,

There will alway be a class differentiation among living creatures, and that include human, notice that nicer dogs are more well off then those poor starving street doggies, so in the context of humans, there is alway a class, the differences is humans look toward money to differentiate the class. If a maid can work for you, a gardener can work for you, you, be it elite or PM of the state, will also need to work for somebody, report to somebody, or hold responsibility for somebody or the masses.

The hierrachy of classes is alway there, and especially so in a capitalisted society as the world embraced. The comical part is that, tho the elites are employing gardeners,maids, cooks etc etc so as to create jobs, the lower peoples are also contributing to the elites progression, there should not be any remorseful feeling that the elites pay me and i am indebt to them, no, because you work for it, they pay for it, a fair deal. And further more, the elites become elited is all because of the lower peoples, without the lower peoples spending, working, contribution, where can there be elites?? On the other hand, a state can go on with all being lower peoples, but it cannot go on with all elites people only. Without the Poors, how can there be Richs? And it is alway the uprising of the poors that defeat the richs.

Coming back to Singapore, now you know why govt want to press you down with high taxes, high cost of living and goods expenditure. Because, they want you to be poor, so that you are hunger and beggin for work and food which play into a few elites plan.

Arapahoe SG

Because we are still borrowing the play book from our original founding State -----Sir S. Raffles.......

"Our object is not terriotry but trade,'.........a great commercial emporium, and fulcrum, whence we may extend our influence politically as circumstances may hereafter require.'

Our physche remain unchanged since the days of the colonies to continue to serve the overlord. Our foreign policies and national development remain truth to the above statement.

Overlord may change hand but the host remain.....There is only the Singapore Administrator all others are just traders and visitors. Overlord are the sphere of influence.....The Brit, The Japs, China, possibily India.....

I feel that Singapore represent more of a Trading District rather than a Statehood. With PAP as an "Administrator"

angel7030 SG

Poors of Singapore, unite!!

charlize SG

Poors of Singapore, unite!!

Ok.

jojobeach SG

Well,

You mean a symbiotic relationship ?

Well yah.. unfortunately in Singapore, it's becoming less of a mutualism relationship between the haves and the have nots.

Rather, the situation is progressing towards parasitism. The elites benefit, while the poors are harmed.

Time for change. Our society is regressing, thanks to our current leadership.

Arapahoe SG

yes it reminded me of a Worm that grew in the intestine and feed on your food as it grow big enough it comes up the other end.....

Hitman+ SG

hey that reminds me of stargate SG-1 tv series!!some goauld larvae in all the dudes and duddettes on the planet of chulak!!!the gouald larvae survives inside the human host and dumps the human host once it needs to blossom into another bigger butterfly alien killing the human host with it.in return ,the larvae in side human host will provide the human host with medisave account and mebbe some CPF account.and they will alsoi put u either in their military gouald army or in the mining factrories.

what a laugh.....all the horrors just for a paltry and insignificant amount of medisave and cpf $$$ that can only last 20 years max b4 u die of hunger or sickness.thats also a symbiotic relationship just like spore PAP and wat dey are doin.

Arapahoe SG

actually it reminded me of "Aliens" when you scream in space.....nobody hears.

angel7030 SG

You mean a symbiotic relationship ?

Well yah.. unfortunately in Singapore, it's becoming less of a mutualism relationship between the haves and the have nots.

Rather, the situation is progressing towards parasitism. The elites benefit, while the poors are harmed.

Time for change. Our society is regressing, thanks to our current leadership.

Symbiotic relationship is only a phrase mention by govt so as to add advantage to them in view of workers supporting them. But is there a true symbiotic relationship?? If so, housing would not be so expensive, cost of living for the workers would be much lowered or discounted and taxation of lower workers would be near zero sum. The true is we are saying and telling the govt, hey the price of houses which is need for a family is going up and up, and the govt is not listening and keep rising it further, is that what you call symbiotic relationship...my left foot, sista.

Everyone agreed that it is time to change, but you need a catalyst to make the change, so who is willing to hold the torch of change and lead us on,,.....certainly not a gal like me ya. That's why, i am still waiting for this Prince Charming with Golden armour charging and lead us on...but so far..no news

angel7030 SG

actually it reminded me of "Aliens" when you scream in space.....nobody hears.

i would rather said, it remind me of Scream part 2, when you scream, everyone heard it, but nobody bother to attend to it.