Having nothing to do during my super long chinese new year break, I went through some of the old reading material I had sitting on my shelf. I found two quotes that I felt tempted to place here.
"How much reverence can you have for a Supreme Being who finds it necessary to include such phenomena as phlegm and tooth decay in His divine system of Creation? What in the world was running through that warped, evil, scatalogical mind of His when He robbed old people of the power to control their bowel movements?"
Joseph Heller
"The Babel fish," said The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy quietly," is small, yellow and leech-like, and probably the oddest thing in the Universe. It feeds on brainwave energy recieved not from tis own carrier but from those around it. It absorbs all unconscious mental frequencies from this brainwave energy to nourish itself with. It then excretes into the mind of its carrier a telepathic matrix formed by combining the conscious thought frequencies with nerve signals picked up from the speech centres of the brain which has supplied them. The practical upshot of all this is that if you stick a Babel fish in your ear you can instantly understand anything said to you in any form of language. The speech pattern you actually hear decode the brainwave matrix which has been fed into your mind by your Babel fish."
"Now it is such a bizarrely improbable coincidence that anything so mindbogglingly useful could have evolved purely by chance that some thinkers have chosen to see it as a final and clinching proof of the non-existance of God."
"The argument goes something like this: 'I refuse to prove that I exist,' says God, 'for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing.' "
"'But,' says Man, 'the Babal fish is a dead giveaway isn't it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves You exist, and so therefore by Your own arguments, You don't. QED.'"
"'Oh dear,' says God 'I hadn't thought of that,' and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic."
Douglas Adams - Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
I think there is no need to elaborate on the quotes any further and it is safe to assume that the authors of these quotes are atheist. These quotes do make sense, they are logical and they both deny the existence of God. But with me trying to be a God beliving and a God fearing person the question is who screwed up? It is God or logic? I know what my answer is, how about you?
Thursday, January 26, 2006
Sunday, January 22, 2006
I hate shopping
I hate shopping. There is no mincing words about that, I hate shopping. But with the lunar new year coming I had to shop for some new clothes to wear for the occasion. That makes shopping a necessary evil. It is the most vile, macilious and deathly evil of necessities. If you think I am exaggerating or using any form of poetic license to express my hatred of shopping, you are wrong. I mean what I say. I hate shopping.
I decided to do my new year shopping today because since I am already out and about going to church I can do it after the church service is over instead of dragging my ass out of the house on a Monday morning to do something I hate to do.
I went to Tampines Mall with the utmost reluctance, walking around the clothes section of Isetan. I said to myself, "this is not so bad Eugene, least you are still alive." I stumbled upon a pair of black jeans that caught my eye. As I took it from the shelf to have a closer look, the salesperson came up to me and say,"excuse me sir, the jeans here are for women, the men's jeans are on that shelf."
Yes laugh all you want, but how am I to tell the difference between ladies jeans and man jeans, there wasn't even a banner or poster saying those jeans were for women. This is one of the many reasons why I hate shopping. It is an endless source of complete embarrassment, I might as well be making an utter fool of myself.
Finally, after deciding to buy two short sleeve shirts and queuing forever just to pay for them, I went back home a completely broken man. My mum saw the bag from the shopping centre and asked, "you went shopping? What did you buy?" "Some clothes for new year," I replied. She took the clothes from the bag looked at them and commented, "aiyo boy ah, why you like this kind of boring colours, try something new lah!"
Reason number two of why I hate shopping, critique of your acquired merchandise. After torturing and embarrassing myself, I have to put up with my mum commenting about my colour and fashion sense. I whined at her to keep her fashion comments to herself trying very hard not to break that commandment about honouring your parents but the fact remains. I hate shopping.
Ironically, the SAF commandos have a brilliant strategy for shopping haters like me. They had it all along but did not realise it. It is called a deep strike raid mission, commandos love to do that kind of mission, you can take it from me, I know. But instead of the target being an airfield or a MLRS launch site, it will be something you want to buy. Collect all the intel possible then go in. Strike hard and fast, buy what you want and get the hell out. Worked for me so far. But I still hate shopping.
One thing still bothers me though, most women love shopping and in the unlikely event I get a girlfriend she will most probably love shopping and would naturally want me to accompany her on her shopping trips. What would be my reply to that? How about this, "Dear I love you with all of my heart, but ahem... I hate shopping."
Wonder what would be her reaction.
I decided to do my new year shopping today because since I am already out and about going to church I can do it after the church service is over instead of dragging my ass out of the house on a Monday morning to do something I hate to do.
I went to Tampines Mall with the utmost reluctance, walking around the clothes section of Isetan. I said to myself, "this is not so bad Eugene, least you are still alive." I stumbled upon a pair of black jeans that caught my eye. As I took it from the shelf to have a closer look, the salesperson came up to me and say,"excuse me sir, the jeans here are for women, the men's jeans are on that shelf."
Yes laugh all you want, but how am I to tell the difference between ladies jeans and man jeans, there wasn't even a banner or poster saying those jeans were for women. This is one of the many reasons why I hate shopping. It is an endless source of complete embarrassment, I might as well be making an utter fool of myself.
Finally, after deciding to buy two short sleeve shirts and queuing forever just to pay for them, I went back home a completely broken man. My mum saw the bag from the shopping centre and asked, "you went shopping? What did you buy?" "Some clothes for new year," I replied. She took the clothes from the bag looked at them and commented, "aiyo boy ah, why you like this kind of boring colours, try something new lah!"
Reason number two of why I hate shopping, critique of your acquired merchandise. After torturing and embarrassing myself, I have to put up with my mum commenting about my colour and fashion sense. I whined at her to keep her fashion comments to herself trying very hard not to break that commandment about honouring your parents but the fact remains. I hate shopping.
Ironically, the SAF commandos have a brilliant strategy for shopping haters like me. They had it all along but did not realise it. It is called a deep strike raid mission, commandos love to do that kind of mission, you can take it from me, I know. But instead of the target being an airfield or a MLRS launch site, it will be something you want to buy. Collect all the intel possible then go in. Strike hard and fast, buy what you want and get the hell out. Worked for me so far. But I still hate shopping.
One thing still bothers me though, most women love shopping and in the unlikely event I get a girlfriend she will most probably love shopping and would naturally want me to accompany her on her shopping trips. What would be my reply to that? How about this, "Dear I love you with all of my heart, but ahem... I hate shopping."
Wonder what would be her reaction.
Thursday, January 19, 2006
Too Sexy
Today when we were lazing around in bunk, the radio played the song "I'm too Sexy". Stanley exclaimed all of a sudden, "wah, this song is retro man!" It is retro, it came out in 1993, but it is a huge paradigm shift for me when something that came out in the 90s can be considered retro. If that is the case, what would the 70s and 80s be regarded as? Classical?
I cringe with fear at the thought of a song by linkin park or eminem making it to the classic hits radio station Gold 90 FM in the near future. Oh my God, the world will end.
I cringe with fear at the thought of a song by linkin park or eminem making it to the classic hits radio station Gold 90 FM in the near future. Oh my God, the world will end.
Tuesday, January 17, 2006
ATEC
This week was my battalion's ATEC evaluation, in it my detachment was being evaluated for rappelling. I was being evaluated personally on a weapon called the AGL (Automatic Grenade Launcher) with my detachment mate Hon. Although this week was relatively simple, the weeks before was not good. I have stripped, assembled analyzed and memorized the IA drills of more weapons than I can count, and rappelled off the airborne tower more times than what normal people would consider sane. But rappelling is one thing, rappelling in full battle order with an almost 9kg MG (Machine Gun) is quite another.
In my fiddling around with the weapons and finding out how those weapons work, I am amazed at how good we got at building stuff that kills other people so well. Fighting wars has drove us to push the limits of design and technology, in fact many things we use in everyday life was first developed intended for military use.
And as for the weapons that kill people so well, they will continue to kill people well and the new ones that will be developed will continue to kill people more efficiently. If only we could find those design talents responsible for designing those weapons and ask them to make things that help people instead of kill them the world would be a better place. Naive? Of course! But a guy can dream can he?
In my fiddling around with the weapons and finding out how those weapons work, I am amazed at how good we got at building stuff that kills other people so well. Fighting wars has drove us to push the limits of design and technology, in fact many things we use in everyday life was first developed intended for military use.
And as for the weapons that kill people so well, they will continue to kill people well and the new ones that will be developed will continue to kill people more efficiently. If only we could find those design talents responsible for designing those weapons and ask them to make things that help people instead of kill them the world would be a better place. Naive? Of course! But a guy can dream can he?
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Hitler
I borrowed my copy of "Hitler: The Rise Of Evil" to Weida, one of my camp mates who was struck by a sudden curiosity in that time of history. After watching the show he told me that he was amazed at how talented a speaker Hitler was, how he was such a genius to be able to manipulate people to do his bidding, able to make people see his point of view as the correct one. Stanley, after watching "Downfall" told me he how people shooting themselves for their beloved "Fuhrer"during the closing days of World War 2 was quite disturbing.
There was a side story in the movie "Downfall" about two children (not older than 13 or 14 I think) manning a Flak 88 with which they managed to take down a few Russian tanks with. Hitler heard about them and decided to go out of the safety of his bunker to present them with iron crosses for their bravery. At the end of the movie, those two children decided to shoot themselves when their position was being overrunned. One of them pointed the pistol at the other and pulled the trigger before turning the gun on himself, both of them doing the Nazi salute as their last act before dying.
There is no question what Hitler did was evil beyond compare. Millions died in concentration camps and the gas chambers. But there is also no questioning the genius that is Hitler, he was able to take control of Austria and Czechoslovakia without firing a single shot. There is no question about the hold he had over the people of Germany at that time, every man, woman and child look to him as a hero, messiah, superstar, they only fall short of giving him God-like status. They were willing to die for him like the two children mentioned in the previous paragraph.
"Downfall" caught a lot of flak from people who think the show makes Hitler look too human, there are scenes in the show where he is kind, he jokes and shows affection. But I think that is the point the makers of the show (who are all German by the way) wanted to put across. HE IS HUMAN! Modern history has done much to make Hitler look like the very personification of evil, the devil incarnate. But you can be assured that he is as human as human can be.
The decisions that Hitler made (right or wrong) made him the person he was and affects the way we remember him today. But there is no denying the bottomline. He is like us, capable of extreme affection or extreme evil and if we are not careful, we might become like him or worse. The choice is yours.
There was a side story in the movie "Downfall" about two children (not older than 13 or 14 I think) manning a Flak 88 with which they managed to take down a few Russian tanks with. Hitler heard about them and decided to go out of the safety of his bunker to present them with iron crosses for their bravery. At the end of the movie, those two children decided to shoot themselves when their position was being overrunned. One of them pointed the pistol at the other and pulled the trigger before turning the gun on himself, both of them doing the Nazi salute as their last act before dying.
There is no question what Hitler did was evil beyond compare. Millions died in concentration camps and the gas chambers. But there is also no questioning the genius that is Hitler, he was able to take control of Austria and Czechoslovakia without firing a single shot. There is no question about the hold he had over the people of Germany at that time, every man, woman and child look to him as a hero, messiah, superstar, they only fall short of giving him God-like status. They were willing to die for him like the two children mentioned in the previous paragraph.
"Downfall" caught a lot of flak from people who think the show makes Hitler look too human, there are scenes in the show where he is kind, he jokes and shows affection. But I think that is the point the makers of the show (who are all German by the way) wanted to put across. HE IS HUMAN! Modern history has done much to make Hitler look like the very personification of evil, the devil incarnate. But you can be assured that he is as human as human can be.
The decisions that Hitler made (right or wrong) made him the person he was and affects the way we remember him today. But there is no denying the bottomline. He is like us, capable of extreme affection or extreme evil and if we are not careful, we might become like him or worse. The choice is yours.
Monday, January 02, 2006
Happy lonely new year!
There is always something anti-climatic about holidays, especially so for the year end christmas-new year period. You will start to get all excited before the holidays, where am I going, What will I do to enjoy myself? Lets go have some fun! But when the day itself actually comes, things turn out to be very different.
I went to a new year steamboat at Shaun's house. Frankly I was very reluctant to go because my back was aching and that put me in a foul mood, a bloody good way to start the year. Despite that I decided to go to the steamboat anyway, who knows I might enjoy the company. Well, I enjoyed the company, I enjoyed the food but the pain in my back really spoiled the whole evening for me.
I decided to leave early and try to sleep the pain off, so after saying my goodbyes I took a walk to the nearest MRT station and boarded the train. I took out my book and MP3 player trying to kill the time it took to go back home. On the train my attention was diverted to a couple seating opposite me looking so much in love. For all of you perverts out there, no they were not lip locking and doing that sort of thing, they were just seating beside each other talking, holding hand always wearing a smile.
Then on my MP3 player the lonely sounding solo saxaphone kick in, the sadest song known to man started playing...
Once I laughed when I heard you say
That I'd be playing solitaire
Uneasy in my easy chair
It never entered my mind
Once you told me I was mistaken
That I'd awaken with the sun
And order orange juice for one
It never entered my mind
You have what I lack myself
Now I even have to scratch my back myself
Once you warned me that if you scorned me
I'd say a lover's prayer again
And wish that you were there again
To get into my hair again
It never entered my mind
Hearing the song and seeing the happy couple made me feel miserable to be unattached. Don't get me wrong, I am very happy the way I am. But it made the whole day very anti-climatic, for the next few hours I was feeling miserable lamenting to myself how nice it would be to be able to share the holiday with someone special whosoever that someone might be. Something is wrong with this picture isn't it. I was suppose to enjoy the holiday not feel miserable.
So that was how I started my new year, in unnecessary misery, good thing the feeling started to wear off and disappear the next day as I woke up angry at myself for not controlling my emotions well enough. But ok enough rambling. Here's wishing all a blessed new year.
I went to a new year steamboat at Shaun's house. Frankly I was very reluctant to go because my back was aching and that put me in a foul mood, a bloody good way to start the year. Despite that I decided to go to the steamboat anyway, who knows I might enjoy the company. Well, I enjoyed the company, I enjoyed the food but the pain in my back really spoiled the whole evening for me.
I decided to leave early and try to sleep the pain off, so after saying my goodbyes I took a walk to the nearest MRT station and boarded the train. I took out my book and MP3 player trying to kill the time it took to go back home. On the train my attention was diverted to a couple seating opposite me looking so much in love. For all of you perverts out there, no they were not lip locking and doing that sort of thing, they were just seating beside each other talking, holding hand always wearing a smile.
Then on my MP3 player the lonely sounding solo saxaphone kick in, the sadest song known to man started playing...
Once I laughed when I heard you say
That I'd be playing solitaire
Uneasy in my easy chair
It never entered my mind
Once you told me I was mistaken
That I'd awaken with the sun
And order orange juice for one
It never entered my mind
You have what I lack myself
Now I even have to scratch my back myself
Once you warned me that if you scorned me
I'd say a lover's prayer again
And wish that you were there again
To get into my hair again
It never entered my mind
Hearing the song and seeing the happy couple made me feel miserable to be unattached. Don't get me wrong, I am very happy the way I am. But it made the whole day very anti-climatic, for the next few hours I was feeling miserable lamenting to myself how nice it would be to be able to share the holiday with someone special whosoever that someone might be. Something is wrong with this picture isn't it. I was suppose to enjoy the holiday not feel miserable.
So that was how I started my new year, in unnecessary misery, good thing the feeling started to wear off and disappear the next day as I woke up angry at myself for not controlling my emotions well enough. But ok enough rambling. Here's wishing all a blessed new year.
Saturday, December 17, 2005
God wills it!!! God wills it!!!
Not too long ago in my camp, I was in the bunk with my detactment bumming around. It was one of those rare days where there was nothing to do. My bunk mate came up to me looking innocent as a baby and asked me, "Eugene, what were the crusades?" Time stopped, I prayed for divine intervention hoping that the heavens will open and God himself would come down in all His blazing glory and answer that question with His unfailing and perfect wisdom. Of course that did not happen and I was left to my own devices, so I started, "ahem, well you see... well..."
Not a very good start. The crusades subject is not a matter I would take up with a Christian let alone a non-Christian, yet now I have to deal with this question asked by my bunk mate that is not yet a Christian. All I could do was smile and let out the involuntary and occasional "well...", "ahem...", "I think..." and the blabbering goes on.
"God wills it" was the rallying cry of the crusades, three little words that plunged mankind into one of its darkest periods in history all thanks to a Pope with nothing better to do. Pope Urban II was his name. But when I think of the crusades, I also can think of three little words, "what a mess." It is one thing to start a war to regain territory or to vanish an enemy, it is quite another to drag religion into it like what the crusaders did. I remember hearing someone commenting about the crusades like this, "never before in mankind's history did religion and dogma cause so much destruction as in the crusades." Well I say it was men who cause the destruction, religion and dogma was misused and was dragged along for the ride.
Not a very good start. The crusades subject is not a matter I would take up with a Christian let alone a non-Christian, yet now I have to deal with this question asked by my bunk mate that is not yet a Christian. All I could do was smile and let out the involuntary and occasional "well...", "ahem...", "I think..." and the blabbering goes on.
"God wills it" was the rallying cry of the crusades, three little words that plunged mankind into one of its darkest periods in history all thanks to a Pope with nothing better to do. Pope Urban II was his name. But when I think of the crusades, I also can think of three little words, "what a mess." It is one thing to start a war to regain territory or to vanish an enemy, it is quite another to drag religion into it like what the crusaders did. I remember hearing someone commenting about the crusades like this, "never before in mankind's history did religion and dogma cause so much destruction as in the crusades." Well I say it was men who cause the destruction, religion and dogma was misused and was dragged along for the ride.
So I managed to get myself together and answer my bunk mate the only way I know how, with honesty. I told him about it as it is, not white-washing the unspeakable things the Christians did at that time. After that he gave me that enlightened expression and the subject of the conversation changed. Some of you might think I dodged a bullet, others might think I shot myself in the foot handling things the way I did, I am a Christian, talking bad about Christian history is not a wise thing to do.
But here's the thing, everything with a history has a part of their history they are not so proud of. For Christianity it was the crusades among other things, for Germany there was the Holocaust, for Japan it was the rape of Nanjing, examples of this abound everywhere, there are even many things in my personal history I would rather die than disclose and I am sure you have skeletons in your closets as well. I think it is how you face it that counts, is there a right or wrong way to do it? I don't know but it reveals a huge part of who we are as people. What goes around comes around in the most lethal and sadistic way possible. Trust me, I know about that all too well and I am sure most of you do as well.
Things you did in the past and even things your forebearers did in their past will come back to haunt you just like the crazed crusading forebearers of my Christian history did to me. Your history, where you come from, what you believe, whether positive or negative is a part of who you are like it or not. How you handle it determines who you are and what you will become, so I urge all of you to handle it with the utmost care.
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Who is John Galt?
The ideal man, and no I am not talking about every girl's dream guy. I am talking about the philosophical ideal man. For Ayn Rand it was John Galt, for Nietzsche it was Zarathustra, for Aristotle... well this is what he had to say about it...
He does not expose himself needlessly to danger, since there are few things for which he cares sufficiently; but he is willing, in great crises to give even his life, knowing that under certain conditions it is not worth while to live. He is of a disposition to do men service, though he is ashamed to have a service done to him. To confer kindness is a mark of superiority; to receive is a mark of subordination...
Such is the ideal man of Aristotle's philosophy taken from his book call Ethics. It is only one small section of the entire whole. I never pretend to understand Aristotle's philosophy but I think a laymen can at least understand the quote written above.
"Who is John Galt?" was a rhetorical question asked by characters in the book called Atlas Shrugged written by Ayn Rand. It is a phrase normally said sarcastically in frustration or futility because the people in the book can't seem to do anything about a world that was crumbling all around them both economically and morally. The rhetorical question ended up having an answer that came in the form John Galt himself. The ideal man, the "messiah" who came to set things right, bring justice, right the wrongs etc...
Ayn Rand was the creator of a philosophical thinking called objectivism, her philosophy, "in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute." That was in her own words. In other words man should be a selfish being, living only to make himself comfortable and happy and he should care for on one else. That is the philosophy of Ayn Rand.
Nietzsche is the father of nihilism. Nihilism as a philosophical position is the view that the world, and especially human existence, is without meaning, purpose, comprehensible truth, or essential value. Life is meaningless, life is a fluke, God is dead. So where do we go from from a position like that? In his book "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" Nietzsche argues that since human existence is without meaning, humans must aspire to be more than human and make their own meaning in life. Thus in doing so, this group of humans will rule the earth and give it the reason to exist, they will also be superior than so called "normal" humans. He calls this group of humans "Supermen".
Now this is the scary part. Nietzsche greatly influenced a certain bloke named Adolph Hitler, Hitler decided that the "Supermen" in Nietzsche's book and his own Aryan race (If that was even his race, there are doubts about that as well) wasn't all that different. He decided to prove that by taking Germany to war and exterminating "lesser races", The Jews being the major victim here. And the list goes on, although I only covered three ideas there are many many more ideal men hanging around out there.
So after all of the babel, what is my point? Well you see, philosophy affects all of us whether we know it or like it or not. It affects the way we think, it defines our morals and ethics, it gives us something to aspire to, which is why philosophers create their ideal man and give them fancy names like Zarathustra. But these ideal men are just ideas, they are not real. People who tried to emulate them, did so with disastrous results, case in point, Hitler and personally I think if John Galt really did exist, he will be nothing more than a selfish bastard. All be it a very smart selfish bastard.
Also I am not trying to belittle people like Aristotle. Believe me, if anybody knows what makes an ideal man it is him. Considering his achievements, calling him a genius might be an understatement. But we have many practical examples of ideal men to follow, real people who despite their weaknesses and flaws turned out to be great people who made a positive influence to people and history. So next time you decide to emulate a philosophy's figment of imagination think again, it might not work as well as you think.
He does not expose himself needlessly to danger, since there are few things for which he cares sufficiently; but he is willing, in great crises to give even his life, knowing that under certain conditions it is not worth while to live. He is of a disposition to do men service, though he is ashamed to have a service done to him. To confer kindness is a mark of superiority; to receive is a mark of subordination...
Such is the ideal man of Aristotle's philosophy taken from his book call Ethics. It is only one small section of the entire whole. I never pretend to understand Aristotle's philosophy but I think a laymen can at least understand the quote written above.
"Who is John Galt?" was a rhetorical question asked by characters in the book called Atlas Shrugged written by Ayn Rand. It is a phrase normally said sarcastically in frustration or futility because the people in the book can't seem to do anything about a world that was crumbling all around them both economically and morally. The rhetorical question ended up having an answer that came in the form John Galt himself. The ideal man, the "messiah" who came to set things right, bring justice, right the wrongs etc...
Ayn Rand was the creator of a philosophical thinking called objectivism, her philosophy, "in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute." That was in her own words. In other words man should be a selfish being, living only to make himself comfortable and happy and he should care for on one else. That is the philosophy of Ayn Rand.
Nietzsche is the father of nihilism. Nihilism as a philosophical position is the view that the world, and especially human existence, is without meaning, purpose, comprehensible truth, or essential value. Life is meaningless, life is a fluke, God is dead. So where do we go from from a position like that? In his book "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" Nietzsche argues that since human existence is without meaning, humans must aspire to be more than human and make their own meaning in life. Thus in doing so, this group of humans will rule the earth and give it the reason to exist, they will also be superior than so called "normal" humans. He calls this group of humans "Supermen".
Now this is the scary part. Nietzsche greatly influenced a certain bloke named Adolph Hitler, Hitler decided that the "Supermen" in Nietzsche's book and his own Aryan race (If that was even his race, there are doubts about that as well) wasn't all that different. He decided to prove that by taking Germany to war and exterminating "lesser races", The Jews being the major victim here. And the list goes on, although I only covered three ideas there are many many more ideal men hanging around out there.
So after all of the babel, what is my point? Well you see, philosophy affects all of us whether we know it or like it or not. It affects the way we think, it defines our morals and ethics, it gives us something to aspire to, which is why philosophers create their ideal man and give them fancy names like Zarathustra. But these ideal men are just ideas, they are not real. People who tried to emulate them, did so with disastrous results, case in point, Hitler and personally I think if John Galt really did exist, he will be nothing more than a selfish bastard. All be it a very smart selfish bastard.
Also I am not trying to belittle people like Aristotle. Believe me, if anybody knows what makes an ideal man it is him. Considering his achievements, calling him a genius might be an understatement. But we have many practical examples of ideal men to follow, real people who despite their weaknesses and flaws turned out to be great people who made a positive influence to people and history. So next time you decide to emulate a philosophy's figment of imagination think again, it might not work as well as you think.
Sunday, December 11, 2005
For Honor And Glory? Think Again.
For Honor and Glory. The motto of the Singapore Armed Forces Commandos of which I am a part as I serve my national service. I am well into my national service with about 7 months left to go, looking forward to my ord date like any NSF soldier would. But as I take stock of my time spent in my unit, stuff I have done being a "commando", things I have learnt. I wonder how much of it I can take to the world outside of the army. How much of the things I have experienced in commandos apply to my further studies, future job, my Christian faith etc.? The answer to that question as far as I initially saw it was a big fat zero. There wasn't any unique experience that I had gone through in commandos that I would not get anywhere else. I came to conclude that my 2 years in the army would be a total and utter waste of time. It was meaningless.
But surely that was not the case, I was certain to bring home something from commandos that I would not get anywhere else. Was it pride? Was it honor? Was it the money? No, no and no. Man, this 2 years of my life is beginning to look like a monumental failure. What topped it all off was this, I did not chose this failure, I had not chosen to go to the commandos, they chose me. Things were not looking very bright from where I was standing.
The turning point came during these few months when I went with my company for LRRP training in Thailand and the recent exercise Falcon operations. Those were arguably the toughest training that my company has been through but I saw everyone in my company including me holding on continuing with the training and encouraging each other along the way. Therefore I came to wonder what on earth would drive us the way it did to complete the tasks of a meaningless activity. What was it that stopped us from giving up, packing up and calling it a day?
Anybody who watched the movie "Black Hawk Down" would remember a scene here the end of the movie where one soldier would tell the other soldier, "its not about being a hero, its about the man beside you." (I don't think that is the exact quote but it gets the point across) I know some people would think that that quote is very cliche, yes I think its cliche too but it is true. Studies were conducted by psychiatrist on people that have gone through stuff like the gulf war. In it they were asked a series of questions, one of which was what kept them going when things got really tough in the battlefield. Was it thinking about their loved ones? Was it the recognition and fame they were likely to recieve when this thing was over? Was it about being a hero? What was it? Most of them said that what kept them going was the person beside them fighting alongside them.
So perhaps that is my answer, the thing that was keeping me and my mates going when training got tough was the person beside them, the knowledge that there are others going through the exact same thing. That gives us the resolve to carry on as we draw strength from each other and encourage each other at the same time, not honor, not pride, not glory (frankly I think those things are bullshit). I know that it sounds ironic but it is true.
So what is the lesson learnt? Well the normal human reaction when facing tough circumstances is to clam up, do damage control, we develop the "how can we help others when we can't even help ourselves?" mentality. Maybe that is not the way it is suppose to be done, perhaps if we try to help and encourage others who are in the same circumstance as us, we just might be helping ourselves in the process. That I think was my unique experience in the SAF Commandos.
But surely that was not the case, I was certain to bring home something from commandos that I would not get anywhere else. Was it pride? Was it honor? Was it the money? No, no and no. Man, this 2 years of my life is beginning to look like a monumental failure. What topped it all off was this, I did not chose this failure, I had not chosen to go to the commandos, they chose me. Things were not looking very bright from where I was standing.
The turning point came during these few months when I went with my company for LRRP training in Thailand and the recent exercise Falcon operations. Those were arguably the toughest training that my company has been through but I saw everyone in my company including me holding on continuing with the training and encouraging each other along the way. Therefore I came to wonder what on earth would drive us the way it did to complete the tasks of a meaningless activity. What was it that stopped us from giving up, packing up and calling it a day?
Anybody who watched the movie "Black Hawk Down" would remember a scene here the end of the movie where one soldier would tell the other soldier, "its not about being a hero, its about the man beside you." (I don't think that is the exact quote but it gets the point across) I know some people would think that that quote is very cliche, yes I think its cliche too but it is true. Studies were conducted by psychiatrist on people that have gone through stuff like the gulf war. In it they were asked a series of questions, one of which was what kept them going when things got really tough in the battlefield. Was it thinking about their loved ones? Was it the recognition and fame they were likely to recieve when this thing was over? Was it about being a hero? What was it? Most of them said that what kept them going was the person beside them fighting alongside them.
So perhaps that is my answer, the thing that was keeping me and my mates going when training got tough was the person beside them, the knowledge that there are others going through the exact same thing. That gives us the resolve to carry on as we draw strength from each other and encourage each other at the same time, not honor, not pride, not glory (frankly I think those things are bullshit). I know that it sounds ironic but it is true.
So what is the lesson learnt? Well the normal human reaction when facing tough circumstances is to clam up, do damage control, we develop the "how can we help others when we can't even help ourselves?" mentality. Maybe that is not the way it is suppose to be done, perhaps if we try to help and encourage others who are in the same circumstance as us, we just might be helping ourselves in the process. That I think was my unique experience in the SAF Commandos.
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