civilisationReview

I always get a bit worried whenever people start imposing restrictions on expression for fear that it might be ‘offensive’. For instance, Seelan Palay's post, ' Lee Kuan Yew's remarks deeply offensive to Malays ', or, Not My SDP's, ' John Tan's remarks deeply offensive to Muslims ', are cases in point. Let me put it this way. Familiarity tends to breed contempt of critique. In other words, my being familiar with a particular scheme of thought and thoughtlessness, and being taught to appreciate it as ‘culture’, and then being told that I ought to take ‘cultural pride’ in it, renders whatever paradigm from which I make limited sense of reality immune to critique lest it offends the familiarity-induced sensibilities of others like myself. This, i view as nothing short of cultural arrogance. Do people actually think that the culture we inherit, and which is borne of times we all agree were, in various respects, less than laudable, can actually be sacros...

Is Chinese Culture superior to Indian Culture? Well, according to Lee Senior, it is. And I have to agree to some extent. Yes. Chinese culture is superior. To some extent, or in some respects. It does seem superior, compared to Indian culture, when it comes to producing minds that aren’t well-adept in what i would term multi-angular thinking - looking at things from different angles. I suppose that is to be expected since Confucianism-cum-Legalism tends to emphasise tradition, conformity and subservience - which together i would term ‘kow-towism’. Whether one applies such a system within a nation or a single family, one cannot argue with the fact that a combination of the above cannot but produce relatively docile minds unless it is applied for the purpose of undoing itself. For instance, emphasising a tradition of independent inquiry; conformity to a popular spirit of continuous doubt and revision; and subservience to the notion that the precondition of humanity is infallibi...