Found some thought provoking material at Holly Q...
As usual, though, one must turn one's attention back home, as far as it can be described as "home" anymore. At least half our population has been drilled, for anywhere between 24 to 28 months of their lives, in the values of the military. These are values that don't sit well with the values needed for a democracy. It breeds an unhealthy obedience to authority, and a most unsavoury misogyny. It increases the palatability of violence.
Life is not that simple. Neither is the "breeding of values".
ReplyDeleteI don't think my NS experience bred in me any obedience to authority. If anything, it bred in a sense of cynicism and the ability to detect bullshit in large organisational setups.
And I think many Singaporeans probably learned the same things as I did, from their own NS experiences.
The Singaporeans I have spoken to who have had to undergo NS, really do have a very mixed interpretation of how it affected them. Some enjoy it, others dispise it. I wonder how the majority think though.
ReplyDeleteMost of the ex-service men I have met from other countries, refer to their time in service with glowing terms, and references to how it prepared them for the 'real' world of corporate life. Then again most of them were there out of choice.