Basket.

Money. Those intrinsically worthless pieces of paper and bits of metal that drives our lives, that we absolutely cannot do without, resent it as some of us do. What is more, this is Singapore, the place where the duty of every good citizen is to make as much of the stuff as possible. To be rich and successful and powerful and have the 5 Cs and be able to boast and flaunt and offer to pay for exorbitant meals at snotty Chinese restaurants.

It disgusts me.

I know that the people who tell me that that above should always be my aim, my goal in life do mean well. Sure, they want me to have a comfortable life of convenience, to never have to worry, to be just happy and secure and content and mentally stable. Yes, they mean very well indeed. The problem is, I don't see it that way, really. I think there is far, far more to life than making enormous piles of cash, or abrogating great swathes of power, or obtaining fistfuls of credit cards and multiple luxury cars and perhaps a few huge and luxurious properties to live in. Really, all this emphasis on money is the cause of our myriad societal ills. Children and their parents just don't appreciate what they have anymore. No one is satisfied anymore. No one sits back to count their blessings anymore. Everyone just looks to getting more and better, more and better, more and better. More and better marks, fatter paychecks, larger cars, larger houses, higher positions. This mentality just destroys so many, just burns out so many, just leave so many in ruins or in jail, all because they did not know how to sit back and consider how fortunate they already were. What a pity.

My old mother always said "Na ni you ren bu qiu shang jing, bu yao qiu jing bu, bu wang shang kan de?" (Loosely, "How can anyone not strive to be better, to improve, to look towards outdoing current results?") Obviously a rhetorical question, but I will answer it and say that I am one of these people. I mean, the way I see it, what is the point? In the end life is short, and you can't take your four As, your millions in cash and liquid assets, your luxury cars and your three-storey bungalow with you to your grave. Sure, you'll be superbly off materially, but is that all there is to existence? Items you consider of value just because everyone considers it of value? The supreme case study of herd instinct. I must be successful, because everyone is being successful and expecting me to be successful. I must get my 4 As and x S Paper distinctions because everyone else is getting it. I must strive for the 5 Cs because everyone else is striving for them. I must neglect all the simple pleasures of life and drive straight for transient success because everyone else is neglecting the simple pleasures of life and driving straight for transient success. Why?

Actually, I do know why. Sure it won't kill you. It will, however, result in your social death. Fuck up your results in this place, and respect for you falls just that notch, somewhere, among some group of people. Fuck up too bad, and if you are lucky, all people will ask is, "Why? How?". If you are not, they just write you off. This society is just that way, it is. We judge people no longer by their character and personality, but by their L1R5 and associated result slips. In India, there is the caste system; in Singapore, there is one far more insidious. People observe, people take note, and you don't even know about it much of the time.

Call me an idealist, but in the end I really do think the pursuit of all these material things is pointless. Why try to get so much money when what you really need to live a reasonably comfortable life is a tiny fraction of that amount? What are you going to do with the rest? You can't take it with you in the end. Why aim so hard and work yourself to the bone just for the Singapore Dream? Ok, well, I answered that question above. But if you ask me, people that judge others merely by such transient measurements should not be associated with much at all. They aren't likely to be those that are going to help you out when you most need it. They may even be glad to see you fall. Do you need people like that around you? Why do you crave the acceptance of such people?

Really, why work so hard just to be able to plonk a S$10,000 bill on the table after a ten-course dinner with many expensively-arcane varieties of wine and say confidently, "I'll handle the bill,"? Why go so far just to get all that wealth and power when in the end everyone, prince and pauper, ends life the same way? Sometimes, just be content with what you have, sit back and count your blessings, and don't always go looking for so-called "success". It does not pay to be materially rich but spiritually bankrupt.

Money can't buy everything, but it can buy a lot of things.

Yet it still can't buy what really matters.