armchair theoreticians

I just wrote this, like maybe five minutes ago. I'm hoping to get in to this desk for a monthly paper for my faculty where I get to write what I think. Putting it up here in case this article (or me) doesn't make the cut!

P.S.: I've switched to Century Gothic since UWGB found out that it is the most ecofriendly font (for the Roman alphabet). Saves 30% more ink than EcoFont. Oh but wait, Ecofont might save more paper than Century Gothic.

Armchair theoreticians

Daphne Tan

Each time a person stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, these ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.

Robert F. Kennedy

With knowledge comes empowerment, but often also deception and cynicism. At least that’s what I’ve realized in my own life.

I’m on to my final year now and I’ve learned so much about the world at FASS. It’s intellectually stimulating; I’ve become more appreciative and open-minded towards different opinions and personalities. But the knowledge pretty much stopped there – I was an armchair theoretician with nothing practical to offer humanity in return.

That troubled me. It is so easy to live in our own comfy little bubbles, a parallel universe where only people like us exist: college-educated, middle class, English-speaking, elitist, even…and ignore worldviews and lifestyles different from ours maybe because they seem to threaten our own. Not to mention the denigration and outrageous violence that is happening right here in Southeast Asia, to say the least.

We can evaluate to no end about social injustice, ideological and systemic failures, altruism, grassroots movements and so on, and yet have no compassion for the very people who are oppressed and suffer. Or we can get so caught up with fundraisers and volunteer projects and forget who and what they are meant for. Or judge others for not being as socially sensitive and active as we are, replacing compassion with anger to fuel us to help others.

Have we become too cynical for hope? Being hopeful doesn’t mean being starry-eyed, thinking that we wake up every morning to cotton candy and hot air balloons, and go to bed in Nevereverland. Maybe what true idealism means is to still believe that every of our small act of compassion counts, especially because the world sometimes seems to be too complicated and ugly: our good intentions turn stale or bad. We second-guess people and we assume things since we cannot know every thought of someone else. Theories may be so perfect in themselves, but we are not. All of us live with our own wounds, needs, and desires. Each one of us carries our own creativity, baggage, and personality. Change cannot happen unless we express our opinions about an issue and do something about it.

Have our eagerness to forgive and see the best in the worst of everything when we were kids corroded away into an ugly bitterness apparently justified by knowledge? Getting out of the comfort zone to know the Other takes courage, and sometimes your own friends might even raise eyebrows at you allegedly for being ‘weird’. Life is too short for us to be normal anyway. It’s too boring. With the school year starting again, I’d love to live increasingly by compassion than be contained in my own social recluse. Life like that is more real and exciting.