Today let us talk about the random things. Rather than giving the usual full piece article, this time I will let my readers do more thinking on their own. But we will build on the discussions from previous articles.
Despite advancement in farming, generally we can still say that crops planted and harvested this year will be the supply for next year. The food we eat today was from last year. The Russia-Ukraine war started this year, which affected the planting of crops. Ukraine did not get to farm. Many countries are on Russia’s unfriendly list. Can we depend on Uncle Sam’s generosity? Or can we rely on China to extend a helping hand? What will you do if you are a country who has achieved self-sufficiency in terms of food? In the face of food shortage, what will each country, and by extension its people, give up in order to survive?
Recession has already started. Globally, people are being retrenched as businesses either scale down or shut down. Who will the companies choose to keep? Those who have the hard skills to do actual work, or those who are only good at PowerPoint presentations? For those with the hard skills but are mediocre, will they be able to keep their job? What will happen to those who choose to lie flat and cruise along in their job? What will happen to people who insist on working-from-home? How intense will the future job market be and how far do people have to go in order to get a decent salary?
Interest rates concern all of us. One good example is housing loan. Housing has become expensive due to inflation and increasing interest rates. Yet people are continuing to buy. Are their income stable enough to maintain their mortgage for the coming years? If many people are retrenched and can no longer support their mortgage, will their only option be to sell at a loss? If everybody is selling their houses, will the property market come crashing down? If the Government choose to make their country a safe haven for foreign funds, will it cause a takeover of properties by foreigners, pushing the prices even higher while the commoners continue to lose their job and be unable to support the mortgage? At least if they sell their houses, they can get some profit.
Elon Musk is selling Tesla shares. If we assume logically that the owner of the company knows the company best, does it mean that his actions are an indicator as to what is to come? As the world richest man, we deduce that he first has the intelligence, the information network, a whole bunch of experts advising him and of course a keen sensing and foresight of what is to come. Cars are optional in many countries with an advanced transport network. But everywhere on Earth, new cars are a luxury when there is an abundance of second-hand cars. If Elon Musk sold Tesla shares, does it mean Tesla profits are expected to drop, and by extension, the luxury market, and by further extension the global economy not doing well?
You are a woodcutter. Your friend is a shepherd. While going out to work one day, you met your friend and both of you sat down to chat for a whole day. The sun went down and both of you parted ways. Your friend’s sheep had eaten their fill. But have you brought back any wood? Do you have anything that earns you money even as you are sitting down doing nothing?
On 20 July 1969 mankind first landed on the moon. Officially, a total of 12 men walked on the moon, with the last one on 14 December 1972. Despite big advancements in technology, mankind has not yet stepped on the moon ever again. Why is that so? One of the main reasons given is that going to the moon cost a lot of money, and since mankind has gone to the moon already, there is no point in repeating that again. To scope it more clearly, only the US has gone to the moon. The others in the space race (eg China, Soviet Union and now Russia, Europe as a whole and lastly a faraway India) has not yet. When a country achieved something in space exploration, the other countries must follow suit to prove their own capabilities. That was why it was a big deal when China sent its first astronaut, Yang Liwei into space. That was why it made news when China’s Chang-e 4 rover landed on the far side of the moon. It is not because people have done it, that is why there is no point doing it. It is precisely because people have done it, that is why we must do it too. Even if we have stepped foot onto the moon, we have not conquered the Moon. But we are now telling people we are going to Mars. Really?
“Justice may be late, but will never be absent” is a feel-good line which lets people feel that retribution will one day come to those who did evil. First we ask ourselves, who gets to define what is justice? We ask again, even if evil is taken out by justice in the end, for all the years justice was absent, how many more and how much must people suffer? Heroes are but a concept in the movies to give us a feel-good pill, so that at least in our head we fantasize about defeating evil. The concept is much like porn, in that we fantasize what we can never get in real life across the screen. You will never get to have a threesome from delivering pizza, just like how you will never get to see Batman taking down Two-Face in real life.
However, fantasies are an important part of control and management. With porn, people have a way to release their stresses and desires. You are allowed to, and even encouraged to fantasize as much as you want, for as long as you want, with whomever you want. The system will even promote your fantasy for you. In porn, you can fantasize all you want, but if you dare act out any of it in real life, the full weight of the system will be on you. Afterall, it is against the law to molest and rape someone in the bus, and nobody will be aroused just because you flashed your privates. Only when you clear a very specific requirement that your fantasy can be acted out – consent. Only with consent, are you allowed to act out your fantasy. But how do we get consent? Through our sincerity of course. The only question left is, from who do you get the consent? The women, the pimp controlling them, the syndicate controlling the pimps or…?
