i'm annoyed with technology as i type out this post on my wireless keyboard. WHY? because we were all made to pay $30 for NJCKM [which the principal makes out to be like SOME WORK OF GENIUS] and the DAMN thing can't even upload my 2.5MB file properly. what did i pay for huh? no, more importantly, WHAT IS IT FOR? futile and useless and meaningless things they think will serve us.

yes, serve us i say! serve us! oh my eyes have been opened! had a wonderful lecture with champagne today on huxley's brave new world. champagne seems to have a horrible view of Singapore society and sometimes it really scares me to think that i'm really living in such a society [while most of us at first think it can't possibly be as bad as she says it is] - because i guess sometimes it is the outsiders looking that know more clearly what the reality is. i think we are an odd society. today she was talking about the NE values that have been inculcated in us since young - Serving the Nation, Serving the Economy [being economically useful by taking classes to keep yourself viable etc etc], Serving Society. it's all about serving things apparently bigger and above ourselves. human beings are just viewed as resources, as things the economy and society use for its own purpose. what do we always hear? Singapore's only resource is its people. and i never actually found anything wrong with that - none of us did, because scarily, we've been SO CONDITIONED by SS to think that's how it is ... but to someone like ms champagne [i think she's from north america], to use the word 'resource' to describe a human being is APPALLING. and now that she brings it to light, it really is! we may brush it off as no big deal, but huxley's novel clearly demonstrates the repercussions of such an ideal. we begin to place our lives into the hands of bureaucrats and scientists. and there you have societal ethics i suppose - for the greater good of others, but Huxley brings up something very important. Huxley believes [like George Herbert at some points] that MAN IS THE CENTRE OF THE UNIVERSE and that all other things exist because WE need them to. and to allow the economy and society and politics to guide our lives is just against all fundamentals of humanity because it should be the other way round - ECONOMY serves US, SOCIETY serves US, SCIENCE serves US. gosh I LIKE THIS!

so when you're feeling low, and pressured, and knocked into a corner by worldly systems - remember this - YOU ARE THE CENTRE OF THE UNIVERSE! WE ARE ALL THE CENTRES OF UNIVERSES! and while this may not be a practical thought to have when you're the only one going against the flow and it would be for your 'better good' if you just caved in and served like everyone else - PRACTICALITY IS NOT ALWAYS RIGHT! HUMANITY COMES FIRST! and i don't care but i believe in this with such a conviction it casts such a new light on so many things for me and i just LOVE literature because it really opens up the world. and with whitby on monday i joined yifang and van for consultation with him and we did an excerpt from one of WH Auden's plays and it was just wonderful! JUST WONDERFUL! i can't remember but i'll look at it again and maybe talk about it. everytime we look at brave new world, chapter 16 just keeps resounding because it seems to be the very crux of the novel, the very crux of life - huxley has such a beautiful mind.

+ posted by M @ 7:46 PM