Against the Herd

From where I came from, we are being brainwashed at young age for 2 decades through "national education", to working as suppressed wage slaves for the rest of our lives competing with a never ending stream of "cheaper, better, faster" foreigners, to consuming products mindlessly to numb ourselves from stress due to over exposure to manipulative advertising from young. We were hard coded to obey rules and laws and believe in propaganda from the authority using state controlled media, to be passive and uncreative, suppressing ourselves in all aspects of our lives, throughout our lifespan yet too fearful to do anything to overcome it.


Most of us do not realise we live in a sick country. We feel proud to achieve a state of correct representation of what such a society expects of us. The successful Singaporean. The model citizen. However, to be well adapted in a convolutedly sick society is by no means a measure of health. Being caught in wheel of insanity, we are unaware how every revolution afflict us with a heavier dosage of sickness let alone realise we are actually part of it. If you think about it, the paper chase, the obsessive accumulation of 5Cs and the perpetual need to feel validated, to be looked up to and rewarded by society makes us the walking dead or puppets on strings. We are soulless from within, dying way before our official death dates. 


What do we really gain from the prosperity and progress of our nation? I've seen the earning power of my friends double and triple over the years but their wells of wealth are still as dry as a spinster. They are volunteering their best time away to get their children into good schools, effectively molding them into the upgraded version of themselves, the cogs of the machine. 


Only 1 out of 10 Singaporeans chose to leave Singapore. It is not easy doing so. Those who contemplate a different path of life are being ridiculed. They call us "Quitters" back there. We are being looked down upon, being labelled as those who "cannot make it." At best we are considered weird or crazy. We are none of the above. We are just the lucky ones who broke our mental barriers unconsciously fortified year after year from the day we are born. To break through, we need to be constantly calm so that the desire in our inner voice shines through. We have to maintain this state to give us the strength to confront herd mentality and overcome the hardships along the way.


Angie must resonate with the above at this stage now, when virtually everyone around her is asking her to reconsider moving overseas. When nobody is able to understand you, they naturally try to suppress you and help you fit back into the machine. The biggest challenge of migration is the psychological anguish one has to experience. Whether or not she makes it or not, is up to anyone's guess.


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