this land is blessed with a powerful mediocrity of mind. it has saved you from communism and it has saved you from fascism. in the end, you don't care enough about ideas to suffer their consequences. - attributed to george steiner. - the english - jeremy paxman (1998)
i have an epiphany reading this. here, in this description of another people, is the reason singaporeans do not partake of issues or causes. we are firmly grounded in utilitarian realpolitik, fundamentally unimpressed by high falutin' ideals and most comfortable with any prevailing state.
we are what you get when you cross chinese pragmatism with english mediocrity in the colonial crucible.
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