Elitism

The past week in camp had been horrible again. I had so much anger, boredom, loneliness etc., all the negativity bottled inside of me for that few days but unsuprisingly they all disappeared the moment I signed the Book-in-Book-out book. Hahaha, savouring the long weekend and Man Utd's derby win earlier now before it's back to reality tomorrow night.

Finished my novel - "Then We Came To The End" last week, or was it 2 weeks ago. It's a really light-hearted-dark-humour type of book, but the sacarsm and irony really stings if you can get it. For those who can't, they'll probably think it's a darn darn boring/weird book. Anyway I came across this idea of elitism in the novel and I guess I can identify with this character called Joe Pope. His colleagues thinks he's an elitist, because he doesn't mix with their gossipy clique and perhaps also because he's truly capable, an almost overachiever type of person.

Well for his part, he doesn't think he's an elitist. His defence being that the definition of elitist is someone who believes that he belongs to a group of people that is superior to other individuals or groups. There's also a frequent desire to exclude and sieve out those who doesn't quite make the mark. Joe Pope doesn't feel that he belongs to any group, let alone wanting to make where he belongs to exclusive to others. He's not interested, and doesn't see the need, in belonging to a certain group of people who doesn't serve any useful purpose to him or his work. In a nutshell, he thinks that as an individual he's already above these groups and thus doesn't see the need to join them. The definition of elitist cannot really be applied to him and in a way it makes sense doesn't it.

A particular moving chapter right smack in the middle of the novel called "The Thing To Do And The Place To Be" also left an impression on me. It's about how the boss - Lynn Mason, coped with the fact that she was diagnosed with breast cancer and how she got ditched by her man. She had certain flaws, no more or less than anyone of us would have, but "it was the sum of her parts that, in the end, was not what he wanted." What else is there left to say huh?

After a long interlude of some 6 months, I've picked up Milton Friedman's "Free To Choose" again and decided to give it another shot. I practically gave up on the book at my first try because the economic theories, despite his very best to simplify for the layman as I am, simply blew me away. Perhaps I was too impatient then, but seeing how much time I have rotting in my store I have been able to comprehend better this time round. I'm more than halfway through it now, and it's really informative and in a different but better way, blew my mind away again. Capitalism, seen through Friedman's eyes and explained through his words, is really really l337 that's all I can say. Guess I'm quite an easy person to convince, or do you call that guilible? Hahaha.

On another note, sometimes I wonder if the ability to always stay rational and detach oneself from any situation to take an objective and logical view is a gift or a curse. More often than not it's both, but what exactly am I losing out on? Am I in for the long-haul or not? I'm a pretty mechanical person don't you agree, practical and not compassionate enough if you will. I'm sure my storemen will agree lol.

On yet another note, I'm getting poked again tomorrow! By Hui Xin's brother aka Handsome Eric. I decided afterall to leave my left shoulder and upperback for Joseph to finish since he started it, regardless of the fact that he's a little expensive. Besides I'm not exactly confident I can find someone else to add on to it without altering too much of his style. So it's gonna be chest tomorrow, with the latin phrase but not exactly that big that it splashes across the whole chest. I guess a picture will do the job infinitively better, so stay tuned for the photos tomorrow then.