Ignorance and Irrationality

I saw some comments online on a local newspaper's website regarding the Sticker Lady saga that I thought typified the attitude and thinking of younger Singapore, by which I mean those below 35.

The first comment was that prosecuting the alleged offender under existing vandalism law reminded the person of the Cultural Revolution in China. My view is that this person either is prone to hyperbole or is woefully ignorant of history, or perhaps both. I believe many Singaporeans don't appreciate the gravity and tragedy of that episode in modern Chinese history, and I feel that comparing this rather straightforward case of applying a lawful criminal provision to the Cultural Revolutuon is rather facetious. If we had an environment that were anywhere near that of the Cultural Revolutuon, I would have been able to report to the authorities about his comments and he would have been put away without charge.

The second comment was that he felt that the acts of the Sticker Lady were acts of creative expression and therefore cannot amount to vandalism. This is surely arrogant and irrational, since it ignored the reality that public property was damaged and that he was not in a position to pass legal judgment on the matter. Sadly,this attitude typifies that of many younger Singaporeans given the kind of subjectivist cultural pollution that we have allowed them to be exposed to.

Now what has this got to do with preparedness? Well, in times of crisis, the ability to get a grip on reality is the first step toward finding effective solutions. If we have people who cannot accept reality,and worse, feel that their limited education and experience entitles them to have a voice in all matters, we will be stuck and worse, design wrong solutions.

I believe we will eventually reap the consequences of blindly accepting postmodernist values. So this is just a small warning of what's coming up.