Robots
Sometimes I can’t help but think: do we human actually rule the world? Nah, I think we are pretty much being controlled instead. We are bounded by rules and laws, affected by environment, influenced by things happening around us and etc. Even simple things like trend is actually controlling us, did you realise? When those khaki Ink bags sold in Bugis street are no longer trendy in school, we stopped using them and bought a new Crumpler or what instead.
Just like when perms took over rebonding, you’ll see more and more sorts of permed hairstyles on street. Not forgetting to mention the secondary school trend, which I guess most would’ve noticed. As the boys’ pants get longer when they promote to upper secondary (duh!), the girls’ skirts are constantly getting shorter.
(I’ve seen much shorter ones) From what I know from my experiences, it wasn’t because the girls were growing taller, but because they’ve folded or altered their skirts. Why? Because everyone around them are doing so, and the pressure to conform pushes them to do so.
“Your Mercedes wasn’t enough, you brats. Your golden necklaces weren’t enough, you snobs. Your trust funds wasn’t enough. Your vodka and cognac wasn’t enough. All your debaucheries weren’t enough. Those weren’t enough to fulfill your hedonistic needs. You had everything.” If you’ve been catching up on the news, you would probably recall that this was what the Virginia Tech gunman said in his video. Yes, materialism; one of the big factors that is turning us into robots. Because of materialism, people are tempted to steal. Because of materialism, some would even do anything to get what they want. Because of materialism, people are working their ass off for MONEY. We are so much controlled by materialism that we are never contended with what we have. Are designer goods and wealth that important??? “Must the nature of a person’s soul be determined by his ability to play a tune (like those rich kids)? Must it be determined by his family background?” This was quoted from a scene in Taiwanese drama, Meteor Garden, which said something about materialism.
Competitions are supposed to be good. As we compete, we are being spurred on and constantly pushing ourselves to improve. However, I find competitions scary at times. Before I entered Ngee Ann - Film, sound & video, my brother warned me, “Poly life is different from secondary school. Everyone is like climbing a mountain there. They won’t give you a hand when climbing. In fact, they will try all means to kick you down when they see you catching up.” Although it wasn’t as scary as what he’d said, it’s still NOT impossible to find people who are close to that. But why is this so? Why can’t we remain happily as friends?
Because of competition! Competing to impress the lecturers, competing to get a place in University, competing for their future rice bowl.
Even at work, competitions are constantly on. The last time I met up with my favourite teacher, he revealed that he was suffering from slight depression due to over-stressed at work. We got to know from him that it was because everyone’s boot-licking the next principal-to-be, and he doesn’t like doing such thing, yet competition seemed to be forcing him to do so. And I could totally understand how he’s felt.
Competitions are EVERYWHERE in fact. Vying for guys, isn’t that competition too? One thing I like about working in sales line (during my holidays) is that I get to observe people everyday. I observed how girls are competing to be as skinny as possible nowadays. Recently, I watched this Korean film, 200 pounds beauty and there’s a quote that says “pretty ones are treasures, fine-looking ones are presents, ugly ones are rejects”. I seriously think that’s why girls are trying their best to lose weight, no matter how skinny they already are. The recent famous-overnight blogger, Michelle Quek is 38kg (BMI = 16.0) and yet complaining that she’s fat! Oh gosh, how crazy is this world going to be? If there isn’t comparison, I guess there wouldn’t be such thing.
“Your life” seems to be meaning it’s your “property”; it’s your call. Yet I think our lives are getting beyond our own control. We are all followers now…we are all like socially-operated robots now.
OH MY GOD! Are we going to turn into these robots in this sci-fic trailer (made by my groupmates and I for our Year 1 Computer Graphics project) and fight war like this?! =D
Part 1
Part 2
