Finished

At Home by Bill Bryson. Very enjoyable read, I must say. The only complaint being the rising price of books (RM120? Daylight robbery. Fuck Inflation)

And now I am plowing through Farish A. Noor's What your history teacher doesn't tell you. I realized, all the philosophy books I have read are a form of history. So yes, I have been deeply immersed in history reading for the past two years. Surprising, even to myself. Even more surprising is I don't know shit about my country's history. I know more about the West. Tells me something, does it tell you something?

Back in High School, history was one of the chew-swallow-regurgitate subjects. It is not one to give much thought for, my past thoughts were that they are past events. Despite the quote 'Those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it' printed in the textbook, it is not appealing at all.

Now, slightly more grown up, I still loathe the school's history textbook. For entirely different reasons. I abhor the methods employed in getting us to know our history. I absolutely hate the twisting of history (and I did question why the heck are we honoring pirates in our textbooks, simply because they fought the anjing penjajah?). Now academics are piling up the texts about how wrong the history we learned are, and at a time when History is becoming a must pass subject? So what's a student to do? Learn the wrong stuff and pass simply because the government wants it to be? Talk about senseless education. Talk about meaningless education. Talk about purposeless education.

And through my twenty odd years, repeatedly the government has tried to reach out to me and preach their ideas of racial superiority. The BTN comes to mind, NS not so much, and the school syllabus? Total insult to academics. Teaching what, and not why is one thing I can never ever swallow down. This is why you are getting idiots, mass produced even. And the idea of racial superiority is utter bullshit. Privilege can be given, no problem there, but when it comes to assigning levels of civilization based on races, then definitely it is done by those who feel they are inferior. We are born equal (misfortunes like mutations aside, and external environment like family richness aside), the essence that differentiates each of us are our thoughts.

Which is why I do not like politics. Nobody does, except if it helps them get rich.

Incidentally, despite what I wrote up there, I do not believe racism can be eliminated. For each day I am identified as a Chinese, that's when racism is alive. Make everyone beige, as Russell Peters suggested, then we may be able to talk of racism as something of the past.

Democracy is an excellent idea, provided you get the right people up. And that condition is almost impossible to fulfill, as I am now led to believe. And no, don't even consider about the other government structures. Shifts could be well bloodied. Ideas in the hands of people can get dangerous, and history has shown it many times.

I like night time. It helps me think, because of the silence. And yet I have to sleep, for I have work in the daytime. Sometimes I wish I was an immortal who does not need sustenance, yet am able to partake in food. SOMETIMES. Living forever does have its perks, but I shudder at the consequences.