Me in the Matrix

Me in Reality

I am Melvyn.  I live in Singapore.  I am happily married to Joyce, my first true love and wife by divine appointment.

I am a rock star.  I have hordes of female (and rather disturbingly of late, male as well) fans.

Outside of work, I am quite involved in what many today may consider the superstitious pursuit of God and Christian ministry.  No matter, as I live in a modern / post-modern time of moral relativism, where everyone is entitled to his beliefs, faith seen as harmless and irrelevant at worst and good for self-actualisation at best (just can’t go round proselytising to others!).

This is a time of unprecedented economic, scientific and philosophical progress.  Free trade has brought not only prosperity, but together with the Internet, the free exchange of ideas to the masses.  Democracy is taking root everywhere; oppression – whether of the mind or of the body – is at an end.

Science has delayed death and we are hopeful that it will find a cure for all disease and eventually the elixir of youth.  New ways to conserve the environment (“sustainable development”) are being discovered even as I write.

Philosophy has liberated our minds and freed us from the shackles of tradition and religion.  While there is freedom of beliefs, “separation of church and state” ensures that religious and moral convictions are relegated to the private sphere; superstition rightly is objectionable as it is subjective and clouds secular, rational decision making.  Interestingly, the artistic expression of nudity (“pornography”) has become less objectionable than the practice of religion in public.  Tolerance of all by all regardless of religious, moral or ethical persuasion is slowly but surely bringing an end to all hate-mongering – taking positions is a sign of intolerance; we are entering an era of peace.

9/11, the Second Gulf War, SARS, the Bird Flu and the London Bombings are but minor hiccups in our inexorable march of progress.

Man is the measure of all things, the masters of our destiny.

In these days, there is no king; everyone does as he sees fit (Judges 21 : 25).

I am Melvyn.  I live in Singapore.  I am married to Joyce, my first true love and wife by divine appointment.  We are happy with each other, most of the time.

I am not a rock star.  I work for the Organisation (“where the mind stays future bound”, which I dispute) where I’m underpaid and largely under-appreciated.

Outside of work, I am quite involved in what many today may consider the superstitious pursuit of God and Christian ministry.  But in this a modern / post-modern time of moral relativism, where everyone is entitled to his beliefs, faith is seen by many as oppressive at worse, or irrelevant or possibly good for self-actualisation at best (hence there is a creeping intolerance of my beliefs and greater restrictions on talking about my beliefs in public).

This is a time of unprecedented economic, scientific and philosophical progress.  But free trade has brought only prosperity to some; it has not delivered the promised quality of life to the masses.  Together with the Internet, it has facilitated the free exchange of ideas – some good, quite a number bad – to the undiscerning.  Democracy has become an excuse for the liberal acceptance of all ideas, good or bad; the ability to think critically is at an end.

Science has delayed death but has not found a cure for all diseases.  We hope to eventually find the elixir of youth, but have done little to restore its innocence.  New ways to plunder the environment (“sustainable development”) are being discovered even as I write.

Philosophy has clouded our minds without freeing us from the shackles of tradition and religion.  While there is freedom of beliefs, “separation of church and state” ensures that religious and moral convictions are relegated to the private sphere; religion is confused with superstition and wrongly considered a subjective cloud on secular, rational decision making.  Depressingly, the artistic expression of nudity (“pornography”) has become less objectionable than the practice of religion in public.  Tolerance of all by all regardless of religious, moral or ethical persuasion is slowly but surely bringing an end to rational argument – taking positions is a sign of intolerance; we are entering an era of spiritual and moral rootlessness and chaos.

9/11, the Second Gulf War, SARS, the Bird Flu and the London Bombings are signs that we are not on an inexorable march of progress.

Man is the measure of all things, the masters of our destiny.

In these days, there is no king; everyone does as he sees fit (Judges 21 : 25).