Dreams and Spurs
I realised only recently that fulfilling one’s dreams is a common theme in National Day songs. “Where my dreams wait for me.” Recently a senior statesman encouraged Singaporeans to pursue dreams beyond material goods.
On the other hand, we have other senior statesmen sticking spurs into the hides of Singaporeans and telling them to be cheaper, better and faster.
What accounts for this contradiction? A few hypotheses:
- They don’t realise it’s a contradiction.
- There is a genuine divergence among the attitudes of senior statesmen about whether to make Singapore society more tolerant of dreams or to stick the spurs in harder. Another recent inopportune outburst by LKY may support this hypothesis.
- They realise it’s a contradiction, but they are not genuinely interested in making Singapore more tolerant of dreamers. It’s merely feel-good rhetoric trotted out every National Day to make people feel less rejected.
