Uncle Yarv #10: Singapore edition
"IT IS A NIGHTMARE. DO NOT BELIEVE PHOTOS."
Melissa from Burundi writes:
Thank you for these series of illuminating human relationships analysis. You have put into words what we have all experienced in a dazed unconscious way.
I'm gonna do a total female thing here and talk about what I actually want to talk about assuming I have your attention here ( I don't have any questions since you seem to be answering them on a regularly basis before I even know I have those questions)
I have lived a pretty clear-pilled life given that I have been an immigrant all my adult life, in Singapore and currently Japan. My race also have very little political power in my home country Burundi, so being clear-pilled is a standard affair. Just on the sidelines watching the show, occasionally avoiding the arrows that come your way.
I would like to disabuse you of the notion ( if you subscribe to it) that Singapore is any sort of model to aim at. Maybe I am just short-sighted in that it is a transitionary model in the general correct direction.
However my experience is that it is:
1. Hostile to toy makers.
2. Breeds and cultivate NPCs like nowhere I have ever been.
3. Extreme knack for turning a profit, thus forcing all values to be judged solely on profitability.
4. Soulless, soul-sucking built environment (I am an architect-ish). THERE IS NO GRASS TO TOUCH ALTHOUGH IT IS BRANDED AS A GREEN CITY. IT IS A NIGHTMARE. DO NOT BELIEVE PHOTOS. ALL FAKE AND GAY
5. There is no crime and things run reliably well but you do not see the human hand in it. By contrast to Japan, there is an unmistakable trace of human effort in how their systems are kept functioning well.
6. Being predominantly English speaking, they are extremely susceptible to the latest liberal fad. Friends teaching in university have reported workplace sensitivity training and transgender issues cropping up.
7. General Covid management gayness.
I am aware that all of the above are symptoms of Universalist cities and unavoidable in the current state of the world but they do feel extra in your face when I was living there. I'm sorry it has gotten a bit long.
I have never felt any great desire to live in Singapore (I’d probably prefer it to Burundi, though). My view is that both the American liberal and conservative views are true—it is both a successful neocameralist city-state, and “Disneyland with the death penalty.”
Singapore has a nouveau-riche character to me. The city-state could not afford the luxury of any kind of disorder. Grass? Someone needs to mow it. Wood? It rots. Put down astroturf and concrete—it’s modern.
I hate when all the examples of anything like what I believe in are bad. If the Lee family picked up Brooklyn in a firesale, would they sterilize it and treat it this way? Brooklyn isn’t Brooklyn if it isn’t thumping with some kind of godawful music at 3am.
Most of all, I agree with you that Singapore is not any kind of cultural refuge. I fear it will inevitably be infected with what the Iranians call “Westoxification,” and disappear—the cultural infection will cause a political infection, there will be riots etc, and all that concrete will sink back into the swamp, with the people being eaten by crocs.
Or something like that. But “Based Singapore” is definitely a myth. Thanks, Melissa!
"5. There is no crime and things run reliably well but you do not see the human hand in it. By contrast to Japan, there is an unmistakable trace of human effort in how their systems are kept functioning well."
This is an illustrative point. Singapore has little tradition to bind its diverse people together. It's the archetypal 20th century state --- a destination for globalists, a Disney Land for nouveau-riche and fuerdai to play aristocrat, second rate food from every ethnicity (and great Chinese food, to be fair), economically prosperous but devoid of soul.
Japan, despite radical demoralization in the 20th century, has managed to preserve its spiritual and ethnic identity (at least they are doing well by modern standards). Japanese are born into a home, a culture, a way of life, and even (the remnants of) a tradition that they by and large wish to protect and maintain rather than abandon or subvert. This is their secret ingredient, which is probably no surprise to GM readers, but is largely overlooked by most westerners.
I lived in a part of Tokyo that was considered a bit of a shithole by Japanese (but was, of course, incredibly safe, clean, and functional by western standards). There was a sign on the train station that said, "Together We Can Protect Our Town!", just completely unironically, a manifestation of a social phenomenon alien to my western experience. Even though I was just passing through, I was inspired to go above and beyond to protect this precious thing.
Anyone looking for a city similar to SG but with soul to spare, check out Hong Kong, before it's smothered by the mainland.
Sidenote, the other day I saw some Japanese guy on youtube talking about a book he'd read by a social scientist claiming all Japan's problems stemmed from Bushido culture, and Japan needed to abandon their roots and envision a more individualist and emancipated future to truly flourish. I commented something along the lines of, "might want to check how that went for the west..."
As as the great emo-pilled Sir Roger Scruton pointed out, all that is beautiful exists to be sacrificed.
Singapore is an IQ Shredder. Intelligent and productive people immigrate to make money while driving down their fertility rates.
See “Lee Kuan Yew drains your brains for short term gain” by Spandrell and “IQ Shredders” by Nick Land.