Numb, Dumb and all Dung

“Those ignorant of ideas will be slaves to ideas.”

Looking at recent events in the past week, one can’t help but notice the numbness and dumbness of our politicians and certain groups of people in our society. Of the lot, the Best Actor and Actress Award goes to the politicians who made a big fuss over issues which amounted to nothing more important than would be ten cents to a small kid. Sometimes one can’t help but feel if these people are nothing but all dung. Next up are the Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actresses Award which goes to particular groups of people who supported these politicians and their ideas. Not only did they make a huge fuss, they acted as if the world was coming to an end. They would certainly also deserve the Best Supporters Award.

Road signs in multiple languages? Big deal. They’re just road signs anyway. And they’re also just languages anyway. So what if a road sign was in a particular language. Or if a road sign was shown in multiple languages. Using a few languages to depict something will not cause a particular language to wither away. At the same time tourists also do not come here just to see your road sign. Even if it’s in one language it will suffice.

The appointment of a non-bumiputra to lead a welfare agency? That certainly created a big fuss all over the Malacca Straits and the South China Sea. If the reaction by certain quarters to the appointment was a joke, the reasons stated by these people to justify they’re objection to the appointment was an even bigger joke. It would appear that they didn’t care whether the policies of the agency were implemented in an efficient or transparent manner. What was more important was that the agency must be led by a person from a particular race. It did not matter that under the tenure of such a person the state agency failed miserably.

And the best of all? The reaction by certain people to yoga. That really made my day. It was that day that I saw monkeys driving cars and crocodiles on motorbikes. It is mind boggling that the intellectual competence and maturity of our politicians and society and even academicians is at such a pathetic level. While here we talk about issues such as race and language and religion at such a pathetic and shallow level, others in other parts of the world are in intense philosophical and ideological discourse on how to better improve the lives of its citizens in all fields, be it in education, the economy or civil society.

Just today, for the first time, a Black American was elected as President of the United States of America. Wow. A black American. A person from a minority group as leader of the Republic. Now that is what I call ‘Ade gaya’. Not like the crap we face here everyday.

What a silly state of numb, dumb and all dung that we’re all in today.

13 thoughts on “Numb, Dumb and all Dung

  1. Lee Ken..

    Change, We Must Believe In 🙂
    As a young Malaysian from Malay ethnic, I’m proud to repeat part of Obama’s speech (though I might not agree with him in some issues):

    “Our pride is based on a very simple premise, summed up in a declaration made over two hundred years ago: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

  2. Saudara Ken yg budiman,

    YESSS!! Agree, hal2 papan tanda ni memang…. waduhhh, macam takde isu lain aa..

    tapi yg pasal lyoga tu, tell u what, i concern about that issue.. As a muslim i nak tau jugak all those ‘mantera’ yg digunakan dalam practice yoga tu apa maksudnya. tapi u memang tak payah amik tau pasal tu pun takpe.. hehe

    yang pasal papan tanda all those thing, bazir mase di parlimen aa, perut rakyat lapar weii, laparrr!! laparr!! waduhh..

  3. click my name, get u to the website, its a think tank im working w/.

    liberty not a natural right? maybe u didn’t quite get hayek’s contextual argument. Liberty is about the freedom to choose when there are no choice, there is no liberty. However that doesnt mean that choice should be provided at the expense of other people’s right to choose.

    Remember Professor Shad’s opinion that property rights means nothing if they can’t exact those rights? Now apply it to the other side of the argument, should we provide people with property simply because they want it? And at who’s expense? Someone’s gotta pay for it.

    IMHO, the fundamental right is the right to choose, all else have to be earned. In order to consume you must produce, you cant consume without producing or even consuming the product of others without compensation.

    Well, you can actually, its called theft….

  4. yea, go ahead…

    liberty = freedom to choose, true…but unlike john locke, who says that liberty is a natural right, hayek says that liberty is something which an individual must work for, and is not natural…so you have to work for your freedom to choose…

    thats my understanding anyway…how..

  5. well, IMHO the freedom to choose IS liberty. But to maintain liberty one must work for it. If you choose not to work, you cant feed urself, risking ur freedom to life. If you choose to be unilaterally dependent on others you’d lose ur freedom of self. If you choose not to speak you’d lose ur freedom of speech. If you choose not to think you’d lose ur freedom of thought.

    free choice is a part of liberty, it is now owed but earned.

  6. Ken, my boss says CPI has a policy of “real id” meaning, authors at CPI must use their real identity (name …etc) instead of a nom du guerre…and we need a one liner on who you are (like the ones in our posts at CPI)…if ur reluctant then its ok, if u can just email me at wanfadzrul-at-gmail-dot-com..

  7. what point are you making now in your life? Make a different in your life.Look at your world in many perspectives.Make a different in yourself,your family,your society and your country .

    banyak perubahan sudah berlaku di luaran kita, sudahkah anda bersedia untuk menghadapinya atau menghindarkan diri daripadanya.

    baik tak baik,betul atau silap bukan kita seorang yang boleh memberi kata penentuan.suara umum yang akan memberi kan halatujunya dalam masa yang singkat ini !

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