The Light at the End

It’s gonna be a number of years before we see the light at the end of the tunnel, a few more for Luke.

What is education? Everyone has his/her own unique notions, preconceptions and biasness about this concept. But I don’t really give a shit what people think. In my opinion, education is the training, moulding and stocking-up of the human mind as well as heart to serve the individual in his life duties, responsibilities and continual integration and re-integration into social and familial life. In view of my sagacious and incontestable definition of education, is the education system doing me that favour? The answer is obvious and just to confirm it, it’s a no to a large extent.

In Singapore, we’re culturally and historically deficient. We’re consumed by authority, autocracy, subservience, extreme obeisance – in short, trammeled and fettered by the whole goddamned system. To make up for our deficiencies and elbow our way to global recognition, we have taken an unnatural and rapid path to success from the humble beginnings of a 3rd world British colony. The ramifications and by-products are obvious. We have developed a screwed-up culture of kiasuism, frenetic work paces, a rabid societal rat-race, and how would I dare leave out the general unfriendliness and lack of warmth in our citizens – with the extremely wise government having to resort to marketing Singapore with the 4 million smile which requires a whole separate entry for me to bitch about. Our general quality of life is lower than other developed nations, esp Europe. Choice is definitely something that is ridiculously lacking – just look at our political scene: we vote for the PAP not only because they’re good and serving us well, but really because our opposition is either under-powered, purely incompetent or downright retarded. Look at free speech. Look at our national service. Blah blah blah.

Hence this leads me to my point. We lack choices even in something we choose: our education. I lack a choice in what I want to study in the degree I’m pursuing. And of course, lacking a choice in what I’m studying just doesn’t make sense. Doing senseless subjects like Communications that doesn’t teach me what I don’t already know and having a lecturer whom I think I can replace, Leadership/Teambuilding which is a ludicrous waste of time and serving no purpose vis-à-vis its own name, and of course, Statistics B which is B because I happen to be stuck in a course that is not A which implies fraternizing with a class full of F maths freaks. All these shithole modules are not gonna make me a better person or enhance my education. Yet I’m somehow I’m wasting countless hours doing them, with an opportunity cost of doing a whole lot more useful things that could benefit my future and further my happiness.

I’m having trouble visualizing the light at the end of the tunnel. I would like to think that we have to constantly try to detect the very tiny and negligible shafts of light peering through the tunnel we’re sojourning through. But the thing is, I’m getting disillusioned by the bumps, darkness, stench and impediments dotting the tunnel. What does the light at the end look like? I thought I had an idea of it. But I feel like I’m losing my ability to envision it. I hope it comes back.

Justin