elite uncaring face

haven't heard it said that way before, preceded by "get out of my...", and from an elite 18-year old from naturally an elite jc with an elite mp father who defends her point of view (but mitigates her harsh tone by way of concession). glad to hear that the insufferables haven't skipped any generation at all, quick to pass unthinking judgement, an intolerance for alternative viewpoints, a brash tone stemming from the unshakeable assumption that one's opinion must be indisputably correct, and a clear disdain for the hoi polloi.

some bloodlines should be left to peter out ingloriously.

(the straits times, 24 october 2006 for the article - it's a must read)

atherosclerosis

in this day and age everyone's been pretty well-warned as to the dangers of LDL and cholesterol deposits in arteries at what not. once again ironic that something necessary for survival (manufacture of hormones, cell membranes, vitamin metabolism) we either accumulate too much of, are unable to process effectively, or hoard in ways that hinder other areas of life.

the starkness of this irony in materialistic pursuits, emotional pursuits, achievement pursuits is too obvious: too much of a good thing - up to and not including workaholism, dotage, affluence, obsession et al. it's a fifty-fifty chance of not dying from a heart attack or stroke, fifty-fifty all these pursuits will bring us happiness and contentment.

this has made us soft on the outside, and hard on the inside.

codes 3 - doing your own thing

on the other hand, minding-your-own-business-ness; the trope of individuation in the face of norms and mores; testing and renegotiating social and cultural boundaries; the blurring of private taste and public self-expression; all leading to the expectation that the accept-me-for-who-i-am actualisation (maslow's to blame) justifies itself as more central than anything else: the self-definition paradigm.