Yes, We Still Need Modern(ist) Heroes (and Heroines)

MODERN HEROES AND HEROINES

NEED TO BE STUBBORN --

IF THEY WANT TO SUCCEED IN LIFE

There were few FAMOUS heroines in the world's long history. Philosphers, writers, poets, painters, architects, scientists, political leaders, industrialists, landowners, and a host of innumerable other professionals -- except probably the world's oldest (namely, prostitutes) -- were mostly men. Male heroes in the past could easily express themselves, with no social or political restrictions -- the strengths and uniqueness of their personalites and character, and the depth of their values, convictions and principles (including their loyalty to them) -- in significant and, on many occasions, influential works, efforts and endeavours. They had helped mankind to build -- and thus to travel along -- the necessary and vital roads to our common destination as human beings, living and working, as civilized men and women in more and more developed societies and polities: in other words, human progress and achievement.



In the 21st century, women have had come a long way indeed. There are now female intellectuals, politicians, engineers, technicians, scientists, managers, sports personalities, professors, academics, scholars, economists, computer analysts, computer programmers, investors, bankers, financiers, property agents, manufacturers, professional photographers, and many others who represent the undeniable progresses made by females in modern times -- through, especially, the availability 0f, and accessibility to, formal education in the schools, colleges, universities and other institutions of learning.



Such progresses in female accomplishments and efforts are achieved by those fortunate women in societies which believe in the freedom and in the rights of their citizens to pursue their education -- up to the highest possible level. So now, in addition to those occupations, fields of endeavour and professions which, traditionally, were already open to the presence and practice of (then still unemancipated) women in their ranks, back in the stupid old days -- yes, long before female emancipation and the women's liberation movement (and what has been called feminism), there are numerous examples of both women and men who are able to benefit from their many years of formal and institutional education and training -- with highly lucrative results and attractive material returns -- and also, yes, with the enviable experience of feeling a great or strong sense of personal achievement, advancement and immense satisfaction. Also, and perhaps most importantly, these women and men are able to feel proud about their contributions to the betterment of society -- and of the world, and of mankind at large.



These are our modern-day heroes and heroines -- and we need them, even in this era of postmodernism, globalization, biopolitics and the advent of modern electronic/electrical surveillance techniques, technologies and activities.



My Own Personal Misgivings, Doubts and Apprehensions --

Concerning The Path of Modern Societies and Governments:


Readers of my blog posts so far have already learnt how I view and regard such key and significant developments in human history. To put it simply, I view and regard them with repugnance and deep horror. I cannot reconcile the world I grew up in -- a world in which there were no deliberate attempts by important leaders of society and politics and industry to celebrate the so-called "virtues" of ambiguities, inconsistencies, illogicallities, ambivalences, contradictions, relativism and anti-idealism as the dominant "realities" of our modern time.



I have questioned and challenged their versions of what philosophers, throughout history, had always been in single-minded pursuit of -- namely, the TRUTH. And this is what is troubling and disturbing me: in each and every discipline that men (and now women) have been studying --be it philosphy, history, psychology, political philosophy (or political science, as it has come to be studied as nowadays), literature, the arts, public administration, sports and games, government, etc. -- there is a drastic transformation in the nature and methods in which such disciplines used to be associated and identified with. It has really turned my intellectual life -- and my world -- upside down (initially, for the majority of the past 36years , when I almost knew nothing in an effective and vital sense, and only recently, during the past few months, when I, finally and gradually, was allowed by the surveillance authorities to discover and to realise the enormity and magnitude of the not-quite-beneficial changes in my life -- as a man, human being, citizen and writer -- an unpleasant and totally unacceptable situation caused by my being unreluctantly and illegally "implanted" by the MINDEF authorities in SAFTI in the year 1972, more than 36 years ago).



What exactly are my grievances and so-called "complaints"? And what are my priorities now? It is very basic. To put it simply, I cannot remain fully and positively and fruitfully alive and still believe that my countless intellectual mentors from the West -- the great thinkers and writers who had produced innumerable timeless classics of so many diverse intellectual, moral and artistic persuasions and contents -- yes, I cannot simply and unquestioningly believe -- let alone accept -- that these great mentors of mine (my all-time HEROES and, yes, occasionally, HEROINES ) are now totally redundant, effete, irrelevant and hopelessly out-of-tune with, and out-of-place in, the so-called "realities" -- political, economic, social, cultural and scientific -- in these contemporary times, in a world that has vastly changed, almost beyond my recognition, from the world I grew up, back in the 1960s!



Unfortunately, I stand almost alone (and this long-held belief in my own isolation -- as practically demonstrated in my solitary life-style and "anti-social" behaviour during the past 36 years and more! -- as well as my publicly witnessed "weirdness" and "bizarreness" -- is itself an indication of the plight and predicament I was put in (and still am in now) -- as a result of having my intellectual faculties, especially, undermined and tampered with by the ubiquitous surveillance authorities in Singapore, since the year 1972!



So, I have to conclude (and this is my main concern now -- yes, my priority!): We still need heroes and heroines -- but they must include those men and women who, in this era of postmodernism, globalization, biopolitics and governmental mass surveillance, nevertheless still believe in the values, principles and insights provided by those heroic and unique authors in the Western intellectual and humanistic traditions.



Unless there are enough women and men who share and hold such traditional, timeless and classic modernist and even pre-modernist attitudes and ideas, there will be no place for oppositionists and individualists like me, not even to hide myself -- let alone earn a living as a professional writer! Yes, perhaps then, I should go up to the high mountains and live out the rest of my life as a recluse!

On Mass Surveillance In Singapore

On Why I Travel On

A "Normal" Route

To Counter

Governmental &

Corporate Snooping


Those of us who are harshly and reluctantly entrapped in the system of political control undertaken by our elected government -- through its employment of modern surveillance techniques and technologies --often try to escape from its ensnaring and suffocating restrictions by thinking in terms of fighting the authorities through legal means -- namely, by employing, certainly foolishly, the official services of our compromised and beholden Members of Parliament (elected lawmakers), and by making use of the professional services of our timid and equally compromised lawyers (trained specifically to understand the intricacies -- and also vulnerabilities -- of governmental actions responding to, and confronting the challenges and criticisms posed by opponents and critics of the government, with reference to universal principles of human rights and to international laws and regulations guiding precisely such governmental actions and behaviour).

Such official methods of legal recourse, admittedly, may prevent some of the worst excesses of a surveillance society, but such solutions also DO NOT WORK if THE POLITICAL WILL TO IMPLEMENT SUCH SOLUTIONS -- EFFECTIVELY AND NOT JUST COSMETICALLY -- IS NOT PRESENT.

Without detailed public knowledge of surveillance techniques and technologies, and of the EXTENT to which they are being deployed, the groundswell of public opinion necessary to drive a DEMAND for such solutions will remain lacking.

The main concern of dissident bloggers like me, who write outside of the intellectual and political (and "systematic") confines set by mainstream snoopers and manipulators of targetted victims in our surveillance society here, is to learn as much as we can about (and to reveal bravely and publicly about the results of such learning) the AMOUNT and EXTENT of data (not data collection itself) that are being collected by the authorities and their COLLATION within ever-more-massive databases!

Question: What are the safeguards (will they be observed and followed in the first place?), should our society ever demand them, to ensure privacy principles are respected and to allay other important privacy concerns? Thus, citizens who are dissident bloggers like me, have a real concern, and it is about widespread INSTITUTIONAL surveillance of individuals and/or groups in a society!

Such massive surveillance efforts by the government is the result of The Party's desire to collate and form national databases -- and this is extremely disturbing.

The system of "due process of law" is long embodied in the laws of the United Kingdom, the United States of America and Canada (and in the systems of jurisprudence derived from them). Such a system is relied upon by most citizen-victims of governmental surveillance to protest against such humiliating and oppressive forms of control over their lives -- including their moments of privacy.

That is the reason why non-mainstream bloggers and political critics resort to other (shall we say, un-systematic?) forms or methods of countering the restrictive or constraining influences from the ubiquitous surveillance officers who, normally, with an unknowing, unknowledgeable and unaware -- and hence supine and acquiescent -- citizenry at their feet, will exploit their advantages (in terms of logistics, finances, and knowledge and information -- based precisely on the formation of national databases, etc.) and also their awesome, comprehensive legal and juridical powers, to subjugate and suppress the controlled population (although they would never admit to doing so openly!).

Dissident bloggers like me have this part of a bigger picture of covert control over the population by stealthy and manipulative surveillance officers in mind when we blog or write about corporate or governmental snooping and manipulation (which are never discussed or covered here -- and also never denied either -- by journalists, editors and commentators in the obsequious local mass media).

As Mark Weiser, Chief Technologist at Xerox Palo Alto Research Centre (PARC), said (in 1991), on the danger of an ubiquitous technological environment:

"The most profound technologies are those that disappear. They weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it."

Fellow citizens and attentive readers, you have now been duly informed and fore-warned.

Please do take care!