Chi Po and the Sorcerer
Chi Po lived in a province full of mountains, grass, weather, and people. It lay deep in China, far from the sea, a little south of where it might have been, and all in all a little west of where it was. Chi Po was eleven years old, and he went to school because there was no remedy for it. But the schoolmaster always kept a branch or a flower on his desk—plum blossoms in the winter, a peony in the spring, a lotus in the summer, and a chrysanthemum in the fall—and this consoled Chi Po for having to memorize the classics. He would stare and stare at the peony, and count its petals, and wonder about having such a fine glob of color right under the blackboard.
“Subjunctives, children, are the preserve of the aristocracy and villagers must not meddle with them,” said the teacher. He also told them that if anyone in the school could draw, or make, a cube, one side of which was wider and longer than the other five, that youngster was destined to become emperor, even if a girl. All the same, Chi Po kept staring at the flower until his eyes became round, and then he would start and ask himself: “Am I watching the peony, or is the peony watching me?”
The teacher noticed this, of course, and he sometimes thought that really he ought to take the flowers away, but he almost preferred his flowers to Chi Po, and besides, he had twenty-two other students who were gratifyingly spellbound by his discourses on geometry and The Book of Mutations. So the flowers remained on the desk, and the soul of Chi Po buzzed about them like an ignorant bumblebee.
From "Chi Po and the Sorcerer" by Oscar Mandel
Freedom 1
"The idea of absolute freedom is fiction. It's based on the idea of an independent self. But, in fact, there's no such thing. There's no self without other people. There's no self without sunlight and water, and bees to pollinate the food we eat... so the idea of behavingin a way that dosen't acknowledge those reciprocal relationships is not really freedom, it's indulgence." These words may offend those who believe the freedom of the self and may even be considered contradictary to the principles of modern society. Nevertheless they ring true. In todays increasingly open and pluralistic society, freedom is one of our most exalted virtues. But what does it mean really? Granted, society and its citizens should never be controlled, forced to be victims of a totalitarian state or repressive regime. We have a multitude of rights to protect ranging from the right to speak freely about whatever concerns us to the right to chose what brand of toilet paper to buy at the supermarket. However, as a wise man once said, with every freedom comes responsibility. With the freedom of speech comes the responsibility to speak in a responsible, polite and reasonable manner. With the freedom from governmental supervision comes the responsibility to take care of onself without relying on welfare. With the right to chose comes the responsibility to bear the full consequences of our choices. Does the law not exist to correct those who would abuse their freedoms in disregard of their responsibilities. Our freedoms exist only because it is understood that we will exercise them with prudence and responsibility. That, I believe, may not be absolute freedom in its purest and most idealistic sense, but it is far better than indulgence.
What about our status quo then? What manner of freedom do Singaporeans have? As our law and morality becomes increasingly westernized, what do our freedoms amount to? Abortion and divorce rates have soared while alcoholism and drunk driving are on the upward train. Crime among our nation's youth is steadily rising while our societal harmonies are tested continuously. Our country has begun letting in things that would have been undreamt of just 10 years ago. I don't mean to be a conservative "holier-than-thou" nay-sayer but facts are facts. Say what you will of impressive employment, GDP and economic growth, while our economy and infastructure shines and impresses,
it is no measure of our success as a society.
Let me do a case in point. Society has made abortion legal in the name of freedom. Nowadays, any teenager beyond the consenting age can go to any appropriate medical clinic and get an abortion, no questions asked. In private discussions, junior colleges and polytechnics compete for the dubious honour of 'institution with the highest rate of pregnancies and abortions'. In the name of freedom we have allowed foolhardy teenagers like myself to act in a reckless and irresponsible manner and get away with it without fear of consequence. Parental consent and guidance thrown out the window, just like that. In our eagerness to conform to western social values and ideals, we as a society have abandoned our own principles and have allowed such gross dismissals of responsibility to take place. That is not freedom, it is foolishness.
More on this another time, if you have any reasonable replies or (as is more likely) rude insults, feel free to leave them as comments or use the tagboard.
(The words used in the opening of this post were found on
www.coolquotescollection.com and were said by Peter Coyote)
J.T.Z
