When Elon Musk sent his Tesla into orbit back then, he played the song 'Life On Mars' by David Bowie and stated his intention to land on Mars and inhabit it.
If that is not an example of a mistake in reading the signs in literature, I don't know what it is. David Bowie was sarcastic when talking about life on another planet in the chorus to attract listeners and lead them to see the real thing that is being spoken - about life on Earth.
Yet Elon Musk took it literally. And being labeled as one of the greatest minds of our time, the trend of mistakes in reading the signs is a bit worrying. But we will get back to that later.
THE EDUCATION SYSTEM
Now we talk about something closer to us in Malaysia. Anwar Ibrahim is PM now and is famous for this motto in pushing reforms. We can also see him going all the way in taking in financial investment into the country from all over the world to bring Malaysia back as the region's leading economic 'tiger'.
But it is quite disturbing for a noob like me to notice that a statement like him is overseeing one of the greatest investments a country should be concentrating on, which is the younger generation and their education.
As the famous Confucius saying which says, “If your plan is for one year plant rice. If your plan is for ten years plant trees. If your plan is for one hundred years educate children.”
Don't tell me Anwar Ibrahim hasn't heard of this one. And more disturbingly, how he recently answered a question from a school girl about quota in the country's higher education system. and how he literally yelled and reminded her about the 'social contract'. Sure, Anwar also said that any changes would not come overnight and it involved many factors but his tone expresses disappointment on the query.
As to the earlier mentioned Confucius's saying, things are not changing anytime soon. At the state where we are now, where we see corruption and those who are not qualified heading their departments because of just that - The education system, particularly the quota system.
In the latest YouTube video by Syed Ali Tawfik Al-Attas entitled, The Greatest Investment Malaysia Can Make, he points to the very reason why Malaysia especially the Malays is where they are now. It is the racial quota for the higher learning. He said (I am paraphrasing) the problem lies where those who do not qualify to further their studies get a place in the higher learning, canceling those non-Malays (despite being a citizen) with higher merit.
Tidak meletakkan sesuatu bukan pada tempatnya. Zalim.
This directly affects the syllabus, merely to cater to those who did not qualify for the spot in the first place. Fast forward, these students then become the lecturers for the future students. A classic Catch-22 situation. As George Carlin said, they had to lower the passing grades to make the headlines look great. He was talking about the situation in the US back in the 90s.
Maybe it is all not true. But like the other saying which says, 'You reap what you sow'. And after over 60 years of independence, we see those representing us in the parliament house acting like monkeys. Why? The education system. If we don't change now, what Anwar Ibrahim has been fighting all these while about 'Reforms' will not happen. Changing leaders is like cutting off the branches yet the roots are still of the same thing and the branches will regrow bearing the same fruit. And like what Syed Ali Tawfik Al-Attas further said (I am paraphrasing) how is it Islamic if you just cannot be fair?
Once I was labeled a heretic when I cut a senior colleague ranting about how we must not give this and that to the Malaysian Chinese by saying, "What if the Chinese is a Muslim?".
It is all about the perceptions that have been embedded into the people's minds. We are observing the fruit of it all where the Malays, who are the by-product of the local education system which simply cannot compete outside the country. And these ppl are running the house! What does an incompetent leader do to keep his position at the top? It is by kicking out those smarter than them and keeping the less smart ones. Sure, it is a dog-eat-dog world. But don't hide it behind the terms 'Islamic' and 'Malays'.
BACK TO ELON
One thing I remember back when I was in school, the lower grades were placed in the 'aliran sastera' while those in the higher grades were in the 'aliran sains'. This has created the illusion that those in literature classes are not smart. Thus here we are at the point in humanity where Elon Musk who has a brilliant scientific head has misread the sarcasm and irony in that David Bowie song. But who cares?
Which brings me to my main point. Recently, I bumped into someone saying that an advancement of a civilization does not need to include advancement in literature. Ironically, that has been one of the reasons why civilizations eventually fall, simply because they never learn from history, and misread the symbolism from the older tales which contain hidden warnings.
The modern civilization lacks an important archetype of the old, which combines science and literature (philosophy and spirituality, objective and subjective) into one. It is the Alchemists. They are the old masters of ancient science, whose main quest is to find a mythical substance for changing an ordinary metal into gold. Quite ironically, they called it the Philosopher’s Stone. It is as mythically significant as the Holy Grail and the Ark of the Covenant.
This quote from Joseph Campbell might be particularly relevant to Elon Musk's situation. Campbell argued that myths and symbols should be interpreted for their deeper meaning, not just their literal sense. He compared a mistaken interpretation to "reading a metaphor in terms of the denotation, instead of in terms of the connotation."
It is like what Bruce Lee said about another Confucious saying, about the finger that points to the moon.
“It is like a finger pointing to the moon. Don’t concentrate on the finger or you will miss all the heavenly glory”
Perhaps, by then, we won't have the top mind of our time looking at using the advancement in science on another planet instead of our own. Perhaps by then, we will have a country leader who understands that Confucious saying. And perhaps one day a true reform finally happens and leads that race out from the cave of the 'dilemma'. Worse, Malaysia does not even have an 'Elon Musk'.
Bowie has hit Musk right in the head from the dead with his literature sarcasm and the latter did not even see it. Ah, bliss.
Via Tenor
Credit: megareigns
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