221 - 9.8.26 - -9: National Day #61

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As someone who gave up the idea of the nation state - round about the same time as I gave up the idea of organised religion, which coincided with my discovery of feminism and the importance of mythos and story telling - I do find national days anachronistic. I also find things like founder days and class reunions and all the things which commemorate things which are clearly done to celebrate some accident of birth which singles you out as better than everyone else. Birthday are different though. They are about celebrating someone's arrival here, although I am also very bad at celebrating those. In fact, I am generally bad at celebrating anything. I'd like to say that life is a celebration day to day, but that would also be a lie. It was not always so, but I do think the longer you live the more these days flatten out until the terrain is just an endless one to death. It is a bit depressing, but also true.

This is a roundabout way of me saying, I do not care for National Day at all. I have no idea what the big picture is for Singapore. I have seen the monopoly like creation of towns with their shopping centres and town centres. There is no music nor arts to speak of. Everything is very dull. But then David Byrne says Heaven is a place where nothing happens. I guess this is a kind of functional, dull, concrete version of Heaven. 

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