on Sep 2nd, 201021st Century Slavery of The Mind
During a conversation with a good friend, I discovered that most of my closer friends are people that do not hold full-time 9 to 5 (9am to 7pm in Singapore) jobs. The conversation went on, and I started churning out philosophical ideas about life and whatnot. The 21st century slave, as I would like to call it, are people that uses 80% of their available brain power for their careers and spends the remaining 20% for basic daily functions such as walking, talking, marketing, socializing etc. Many of these people only have three to four hours a day to themselves, and if you have a family, that few precious hours goes to them.
The working culture in Asia is one that encourages people to act like drones – just act, don’t question. The more opinionated and vocal people tend to find themselves getting depressed in their job, or have to find a job in the creative sector (which is really small in Asia). You have to understand that in Singapore, one’s work is graded since they start schooling, even for art! These unqualified teachers actually gets to grade your drawing, not knowing that one might be a Picasso in the making! Companies run on a hierarchy, whereby the people who are most able to execute commands and please the one sitting above you gets promoted. Not that I am proposing companies to run any differently, but this is particularly so for Asian countries like Singapore, where it has been instilled upon us since young not to challenge someone that is above you i.e. your teachers. I call the working life in Singapore, a constriction of the mind. Even if you are absolutely loving your 9 to 5 job and you’re not made to work like a drone (let’s say you’re the boss aka drone operator), by the time you get home, your body and your mind is so tired that you can’t think about anything else.
After work, many of us still have to go home and look after our families. For the women, some still have to cook and do household chores AFTER their 9 to 5 job while the men watches TV and rests. That’s Asia. Others have to look after their children, help them with their homework or read story books. There’s basically very little time for people to stop and think.
This is in no way their fault, that they are made to be drones. That’s how the society works. That’s how life is.
But what else could the time be spent on?
Expanding your knowledge of anything and everything. Learning shouldn’t stop where you graduate from school. There is so much to learn and know from this life… Not knowing about this life, is like playing an RPG game without reading the story-line, sort of. We are made to lose our child-like curious, innocent, creative minds so that we will all become standard issue robots some day. Without that curiousity, that creativity, how do we further explore ourselves and the world we live in? How do we feel fulfilled?
Think and digest why things are the way the are. Why people behave the way they are. Don’t just blindly follow and accept things as it is. Why should we? Do we really want to be drones?
I guess all my points, points to Maslow’s hierarchy’s self-actualization. Being self-actualized is being someone that doesn’t just live a bitter and unsatisfying life and don’t do anything about it. Many of us can’t do anything about it, because of bread and butter issues, I blame the social construct and unhealthy expectations of the Asian workforce.
I know I’ve got a “talent” for making people misunderstand my core concept of my argument, so if you do feel strongly against what I said in this post, you could leave a comment and I would clarify myself.
For the rest of us, we’re happy to be treated to free meals 
