Patriotism Or Its Lack
I suffer from an extreme case of political apathy. I truly do not care who governs my country so long as I have food to eat and time in which to indulge in my interests. Neither do I care about the policies or laws set by the government unless they affect my lifestyle personally. Be politically active? I'd rather be hacking. Vote? I'd rather be hacking. Quite frankly, my political opinions can be summarised as follows:

If it ain't broken, don't fix it.

I seriously don't even know who our current president is. Does it really matter? As long as no fucking gestapo-like secret police is bugging all our homes, why should I care who's running the country? As long as we're not having a civil war, why should I care who runs the country? As long as we're not all living in poverty, why should the question of who governs the country bother me?

Sure, I may disagree with certain policies of our government, such as the fucking smoking ban, but on the whole, considering that I have the money to afford an internet connection and the time to bitch about the ban on the internet, I'd say they've done an adequate job so far. I will be the first to admit that our government isn't perfect, but which government ever is? It has always been my opinion that one of the most important functions of the government is to serve as a focal point for the collective resentment of the people.

Sure, our government may be heavy-handed and coddle us excessively, but remember, my humble readers, that they really do not have much of a choice. I mean, look at the number of slack-jawed, drooling fellow citizens infesting the streets. Let us take, as an example, the idiot who flamed Sheena for that post where she expressed her ire at recent events happening on our sunny little island. The comment is no longer there, but the bugger said something like, "If you don't like this country, get out."

Even though Sheena did flip off the whole country in that post, it is immediately obvious to me that anyone who bothers to write that much about anything must really care about it. Needless to say, this line of reasoning may be applied to yours truly as well.

Yes, this may come as a shock to some of you out there, but Don A.Q. is a patriot. I am not a patriot in the sense that I sing the fucking national antem everyday. I am not a patriot in the sense that I can recite the names of all our presidents, past and present. I am not even a patriot in the sense that I attend (or even watch at home) the amazingly boring National Day Parades.

I am a patriot in the sense that I love Singapore, warts and all. I love our coffeeshops and the swearing, smoking uncles sipping their coffee/beer. I love despising the kiasu citizens elbowing each other out of the way during sales. I love our lack of appreciation for the arts, and our self-delusion that we do. I love not patronising the "works" of our arts fags. I even love not watching our dumb and boring Mediacorp drama serials. I love comparing them unfavourably with Hong Kong dramas. I love bitching about the government with other disillusioned Singaporeans. I love to "chao keng" my way out of doing chores in the SAF, and I love despairing over the stupidity of the average Singaporean.

You see, one need not beat his breast everyday while reciting the national pledge to be a patriot. One need not mindlessly support everything the government does to be a patriot. One can speak up against the government and still be a patriot. Who loves you more, the person who agrees with everything you say even when you're making a mistake, or the person who informs you of it?

P.S. In case you were wondering as to the point of this post, there is none. I was just thinking out loud. Anyway, if any of you has any criticisms whatsoever of me in general or this post in particular, I have this to say to you:

  ¶
Permalink

If you don't like what I say, why not subscribe me for some porn?