LOL!
Compared to this article: Cleanliness in Hawker Centres, my previous post Leaders and Followers has become a lot like softcore porn...
I poke with gloves on.
I mean sometimes when we criticize Mainland Chinese for spitting, littering, or even defecating on our streets, we may have to take a step back to see if its isn't a case of "50 steps laughing at 100 steps"...
Meow.
Smol,
ReplyDeleteHey that's an insult to dogs lol.
Anyway, half of my assets (if there's any left) or all of my assets (if spouse predecease me) will go to the dogs after I up lorry. Specifically SPCA. May amend Will or add in others along the way.
Humans have humans & govts as last resort to help. Not so with animals.
And speaking of using dead man's words, some other choice quotes:
On how to govern society
“I am often accused of interfering in the private lives of citizens. Yes, if I did not, had I not done that, we wouldn’t be here today. And I say without the slightest remorse, that we wouldn’t be here, we would not have made economic progress, if we had not intervened on very personal matters – who your neighbor is, how you live, the noise you make, how you spit, or what language you use. We decide what is right. Never mind what the people think.” — Speaking to Straits Times newspaper, 1987
“Because my posture, my response has been such that nobody doubts that if you take me on, I will put on knuckle-dusters and catch you in a cul-de-sac ... If you think you can hurt me more than I can hurt you, try. There is no other way you can govern a Chinese society.”
— Quoted in Lee Kuan Yew: The Man and His Ideas, 1998
On leadership
“I have never been over concerned or obsessed with opinion polls or popularity polls. I think a leader who is, is a weak leader. Between being loved and being feared, I have always believed Machiavelli was right. If nobody is afraid of me, I’m meaningless.”
— The Singapore Story: Memoirs of Lee Kuan Yew, 1997
Spur,
DeleteHey! You're a dog person! Cool!
Babes like guys who are into cats and dogs ;)
You wife is one cool gal too!
Most women would be upset if they knew you leaving 1/2 your assets to SPCA and not to her!!!
DINK?
You don't have the excuse to lie to yourself that your investment lemons are meant for your children... (HODL for one day we will breakeven!)
You don't want SPCA to sneer, "Idiot! Its all crappy dead stocks like SPH, Creative, and SingPost..."
LOL!
Lao Lee is definitely leader. Very exceptional.
I got to agree with Machiavelli too. Weak leaders want to be popular and be loved.
Although there's one thing I disagree strongly with Lao Lee...
My mother tongue is Teochew.
Stop forcing on me that Mandarin is my mother tongue!
Meow.
;)
This debate about educating and enforcing, remind me of the module in history of philosophy.
ReplyDelete儒家 believe u can teach people to "be"
法家 believe u need to reward and punish according to performance for people to "behave"
道家believe is none of my business.
Lol.
In a society, we need all of them at all times, I guess. LKY is a man of his time. And the most wise or endearing (my view only) is he know when to take a step back even at his peak of power.
We all know is seldom a good thing for overstayers
Sillyinvestor,
DeleteAh yes! There was a time when a hundred schools flourished!
You are right. We need all 3 of them.
To different groups or class of people in a society, we need different "tools" to appeal to them ;)
Most Chinese can recognise 儒 and 法 in our upbringing. That's part of our cultural DNA.
As for 道, its there in the background. Not obvious, but definitely present.
A close example would be laissez-faire Hong Kong before 1997 handover to China.
Yup. I super impressed when lao lee never interfered when his successors did a 180 on the don't speak dialects, speak Mandarin...
Especially when Lao Lee has pissed off a generation of Chinese who don't identify their mother tongue as Mandarin. (Ahem. Meow)
This 180 came about after the 60/40 swing. I think somebody panicked.
Its so cute to see Mediacorp TV where the actors speak their own dialects!
Reminds me of the Malaysian black/white TV I watched during primary school where Malay, Tamil, English, and Chinese dialects were all rojak together on the SAME show :)
That's so Singaporean and Malaysian!!!
Ah! Nostalgia days...
Hey! Like cycles in investing, dialects are back!