From: Blanc <blancw@cnw.com>
Date: Mon, 27 Oct 1997 23:58:28 +0800
To: h.pillay@ieee.org
Subject: Re: Singaporean control freaks & CMR (Re: puff pieces vs tough
Message-ID: <3.0.32.19971027075645.006b2b1c@cnw.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



Harish Pillay wrote:

>So, now to come back to the first line.  Tell me how you can tolerate living 
>in wherever that it you live in?
.......................................................


Well, it's not so bad -  I live about 3 minutes drive from Microsoft, with
micro-millionaires all around.  I live across the street from Crossroads
Mall, which has practically everything I need, including free music/jazz
concerts on weekends, the weather is nice most of the time (I *like* rain),
and I'm not far away from the sea, the mountains, hiking, skiing, biking,
boating, snorkeling, whatever, and lots of other genteel entertainment of
all kinds.

Frankly, I can just barely tolerate it, and I've been contemplating what
life would be like in Anguilla.  :>)  No seriously, I'm referring to the
political climate in the U.S. in general (although The East Side, as this
side of Washington Lake is called, is considered too conservative by most
Seattlites and has a large Libertarian representation, probably because of
all those programmers at MS).   

But then, I'm a real purist and wish for extreme things, and like the
princess & the pea in the fairy tale, am highly sensitive to deviations
from perfection.  :O 

It's hard to tolerate being moved to act by people (whether in government
or otherwise, but of course mostly in political circles) who carelessly and
disrespectfully override my personal choices in order to make their social
dreams for everyone come true, using any resources they can "legitimize"
taking from myself or anyone to accomplish them; it's a pain to contemplate
their rationalizations.

I read/study in psychology & cognition, and the area of Thinking in
general, and it helps me to understand people like them, as well as to
maintain a rational, balanced state of mind when contemplating their
existence and considering ways to deal with it.

It takes a lot of creativity to see beyond collectivist/coercive methods
and carry on in spite of having to subserviently respond in "voluntary
complicity".   I've been mulling the whole situation over, and I think it's
a good idea to emulate Bill Gates.   "We're not taking over the whole
world", he protested in one interview.  "I mean, all we do is produce these
small boxes that you can buy and put it into your pc, what does that have
to do with taking over?" (hee-hee).

No, it's just dragging some people, kicking and screaming, to a new level
of technological opportunities.  I like that.  <g>  I think they all
deserve it.

Anyway, thanks for the reply.   I wouldn't argue against Singaporean
citizens who actually like their way of life.  I would only be concerned if
they couldn't go in the directions they prefer.   Micro-management is not
something I myself could laugh off, as my sense of humor isn't that good,
although my sense of the ridiculous is easily aroused. 






    ..
Blanc