Jia and looness, out of good nature, brought to my attention that someone had written certain things which they thought had been about me. I’ve read her post, and it does seem to be about me, doesn’t it?
Disclaimer:
I’ve written this post as a reply. I do not wish to precipitate any hate-relationship so please don’t make it so. Nor am I wishing that anything between us will change after this, I like being distant from you, especially after what you’ve written.
A few points:
1.
Let’s avoid making this a partisan issue.
2.
The point is…that greed--for lack of a better word--is good. Greed is right. Greed works...Greed, in all of its forms--greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge--has marked the upward surge of mankind…--Gordon Gekko (Wall Street 1987)
The scripwriter was an idiot – the word should have been ambition. But my point is that ambition is something parallel to what Dworkin called “trump” rights; rights which cannot be impoverished by the force of majoritarian democratic processes which are predicated upon public opinion. Thus, however much disdain you feel about my ambition, it is my right to have one. So leave me be. And stop insinuating against it.
Although you can very much bow before me if you so choose =)
3.
Since you do not enjoy glorious nights of bottles of calefacient passed around a smoky room, since you do not enjoy what we enjoy, forget it then. Don’t chide me for liking what I do. In fact, it is these times when loyalty is tested and proven, as jack and looness will surely know. Anyhow, hobbies are (again) a parallel of Dworkinian trump rights. And yet, the epitome of hypocrisy is when I see you at Zouk with your newfound friends. Hmmm.
4.
I wasn’t and am not trying to insult you. What I thought was constructive criticism, as admittedly you have given me in the past, has been contorted out of its intended meaning. So be it. And yes, I may rant to my friends about you, but I didn’t mean it in any hurtful way. And perhaps I might not have needed to do that if you were more receptive to listening in the first place.
5.
My friends are far from being “just like (me)”. Jackson, looness, jiajia, jiejie, beef – they couldn’t be further apart from me, as they are from each other! Perhaps they know how to respect people and tell it straight to the person, just as I do, which obviously some don’t.
6.
Ours is not any recondite circle. What began as a patchwork of people pieced together by me has now grown organically as well as artificially to become its own life-form. To the point when I sometimes wish I had more control over this creation. You were offended when you thought (wrongly) I had excluded you; then you moved to exclude yourself, and now you are blaming me for having an exclusive circle!
Devlin wrote that a society's existence depends on the maintenance of shared values. Violation of the shared morality loosens one of the bonds which hold a society together, and thereby threatens it with disintegration. Thus society can move to protect its moral institutions, the same way we could have moved to exclude you. But we didn’t. You excluded yourself. A decision which you have chosen must bear its own consequences. Do not move to blame others for your own decision. But that’s a personality flaw isn’t it? Id bet my bottom dollar that you wouldn’t give anyone else credit if whatever choice you made played out immaculately, knowing you.
I am lazy to carry on.
Pathetic. You try to write an erudite and literary piece to obfuscate your cowardice of telling it to me straight to the face.
And to the other person: you snitched what i told you about her in confidence, whilst i distinctly remember you partaking in the criticism. I had utter faith in you. I did.
So now i shall dissociate myself from a pair of hypocrites.
