Why Elites End Up Dying All The Time
March 17, 2009 by Brotherhood
Filed under Review
Written by Darkness of the Brotherhood, Guest Columnist :Why do some scholars take a bad turn? To paraphrase in direct terms: how did it **** up? Does it have something to do with the venality of online games – I mean, it makes sense right! When you consider to get to the seventh level of war craft one has to vaporize at least ten thousands aliens and a few penguins – I am sure that’s bound to have a scouring effect on ones character.
Nope, I don’t buy into that straight line logic; anymore than I believe all women drivers are bad motorist because of late auto manufacturers seem to be provisioning cup holders.
Fact of the matter is; the reason why some scholars screw up isn’t so different from how many of us and even big juggernaut firms manage to egg it up – you’ve be surprise how remarkably democratic and class blind the laws of cocking up really is.
And it matter little whether you’re running a juggernaut fortune 500 firm or just trying to trying to chalk up the years to finish your miserable scholarship bond or even if you’re an average Joe like me, who is basically just trying his level best to get the best deal in life – the rules of success and failure apply just the same irrespective of class, color or creed.
So that’s the first myth out of the window; the low down is we all compete under one and the same sun.
Having said that do you notice the folk who usually take it the hardest are those who are really smart? If you don’t believe me just cast your mind back to your averagely miserable campus days; who were the ones who usually landed all the hot chicks? Was it Mr Ace-all-the-grades or the bad boy?
And just in case you think that’s another one of my crack brained theories; erase it from your mind; there’s even anecdotal evidence supporting the contention smarties have it rough and tough. Yes, according to Dr. Alex Benzer, a Cambridge and Harvard-educated hypnotherapist who had a piece in the Huffington Post last week called “Why The Smartest People Have The Toughest Time Dating.” There you go proof.
But why is that so? Well if you really want to understand why the dice is loaded against smarties; it just boils down to one theory; they aren’t that smart to begin with – that’s to say when we use the word “smart.” Its conceivable, we may be just applying a very narrow band of intelligence that bears little or no relations with the whole idea of using ones brain to carve out competitive advantage in life.
And what we should all consider is whether the whole idea of smart hasn’t been somehow scripted, packaged and sold to everyone of us since the day we are born – we are all told for instance – good grades = the good life. As a consequence most of us aspire to be scholars.
But what are we really producing?
Well if you consider that the word smart is synonymous with specialization – and specialization is just another word for focusing on one area of your life till it squeezes out everything in between and the middle to roughly the diameter of a pin head – then I don’t think that’s a very smart way to go through life; I am not saying everyone that gets good grades and manages to land a scholarship is narrow minded; but I don’t believe that’s necessarily the best way to build a better human being – besides there is more to life; then getting a string of A’s or making they the mythical tape line whenever one decides to take to sports.
My feel is there has to be a cost associated with being so focused in one area of interest that it excludes everything else.
And this bears out only too clearly when you speak to really smart people; they can tell you everything you want to know about lets say what happens if you throw a golf ball into a black hole; but the downside is when lets say they cornered in alley by a bunch of gay militant bikers bent on spot of free ass – they have absolutely no street wisdom how to talk or fight their way out of it – in short, they’re pretty lousy survivors.
Bear in mind; this is just my theory; based on my personal observations – smart people in my opinion have to be myopic people; they tend to get fixated on one point; they suffer from severe tunnel vision and it matters little whether its an object of interest in their research field or getting by in life; and if you really look through the life and times of smart people; they all have one thing in common; most of them don’t even make it past 40; they just seem to burn out and drop dead for some strange reason – again it matters little whether they are really smart composers; artist, scientist or even businessmen – it all reads like the curse of the Pharoah’s.
One reason why some of them seem to go down the dodo hall of fame is because being smart may not be the best way to get ahead in life; I mean if you look carefully at the animal kingdom – the most resilient species aren’t specialist like Koala bears who can only climb upside down and munch only on Eucalyptus leafs or Russian Sturgeons who only seem to be so manja (spoilt) they can only spawn when the temp hovers between the narrow band of 21.5 – 22 °C in the Caspian Sea.
Survivors are generalist par excellence; like rats and roaches; they can survive any where; in the case of roaches; the more you spray them; they just develop more immunity and come back twice as strong – all you’re really doing when you try to kill them is create the ultimate pest – my point is they are very versatile creatures – they don’t cling to fixed assumptions like the smart losers.
And one reason why the generalist wins is because he cannot afford to live in his make belief world of no regrets; generalist as the term implies have to always to pop up their heads like a periscope and take a sweep of the bigger picture. They learn to get by with plenty of duct tape, rubber band and super glue – since things never go their way most of the time; they just need to adapt, improvise and overcome and that could just as well be not having the right paper qualifications or like me graduating from a tin pot university that no one has ever heard of before – and in some cases they even get marginalized, discriminated and looked down on – but that doesn’t kill them off; it just makes them stronger; but elites can’t do that.
For one they’ve all bought into a shitty master plan where they’re told they’re infallible and the best in the world – and soon even the best of them get caught up in the gyre of mythologizing their existence, ratio and being – and when you buy into that shitty plan where failure is no longer an option – that’s simply trouble.
Because in real life shit happens whether you like it or not, airplanes drop from skies; your ipod doesnt synch and even your girlfriend may decide to open her legs for another man or show her bush to the whole world in the internet - that’s life man ; so you better get used to it.
The problem with elites is they cant roll with the punches and get up and fight again; that’s what happens when one becomes terminally fixated – things just have to work out their way, one way and our way; if it doesn’t they just pull the pin on the grenade and say bye bye.
In short elites dont take failure very well – they rather do themselves in then to admit that they have failed – it matters little whether what they once egged up happens to be running a business, relationships, career or the whole idea of being a man – THEY RATHER DIE THAN ADMIT FAILURE. In short, they no longer possess the ability to see the world in the right scale and perspective – that probably means their judgment has become so warped, its worthless.
You could just as well take this kernel of an idea and just superimpose on lets say the question of why big firms go bust; you could even use it to explain stuff – like why do firms fail? Sure you can say it’s poor execution – bad planning, poor design, sloppy handling or just plain lousy market intelligence – but at the end of the day, if you really boil it down to one sentence it just comes down to – having a lousy perspective.
Somewhere amid the medley of making money they got carried away with not 100 or even 10 or 5 ideas that got them into a hole – but usually, they got so fixated on only one idea – could well be putting all their chips on one market niche like banking; or maybe deciding to spend hundreds of millions, or even billions, of dollars to build a vehicle that can just run on fuel cells like the Segway.
In game theory; we call this the all or nothing game and it’s not so different from walking into a casino and putting all your chips on one number. The long and short of it; that’s no way to win unless you consider dying in the speed a light some way to get ahead in life.
It always pays to remember life is valuable only because it can be lived in so many ways; it’s so versatile – – makes far more sense to buy into an idea of a multi-tool Swiss knife that has everything from box cutters to a cork opener; may even be slightly clumsy as we all know Swiss knifes don’t seem to do any of the things they are supposed to do very well; may not even get you the first prize when it comes to a book shelve race - but that could just be what separates a real winner from the losers – the all rounder, that is.
Only losers kill themselves.
Darkness 2008
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I see on Tue, 17th Mar 2009 1:39 pm
Wow so this is the perspective of a self-professed ‘regular joe’, so this is the ‘view’ and all that a peasant looking in from the outside sees. And they think they know what’s going on inside from outside. Fascinating.
p/s: Allan Ooi is not a scholar, and neither is he elite. You didn’t know that, because you’re an outsider trying to peek into a place you’re not in.
Saywatyou`vegot on Tue, 17th Mar 2009 6:25 pm
I see:
Absolutely !
“Human beings who leave behind them no great achievements, but only a sequence of small kindnesses, have not had wasted lives.” – Charlotte Gray
The the intricacies of human nature is a gem on it own. No one kills himself for any love but for himself, because the greatest love of all – reveals us in our nakedness, our misery, and our vulnerability! To be alive is to be vulnerable in times of uncertainly and challenges- such is HUMAN NATURE.
“People that live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.” – how many sincerely appreciate and blissfully able to apply in reality?
How easy it is to judge on impulse after one sees what evil comes from judging wrongly even without knowing it, I wonder? To those who judge another through rose tinted glass, you`re only merely defining YOURSELF as a character! Each of has a particular idea of concept that best suits “us” in which we define by our OWN experiences- who is to judge who?
Like Allan, some prefer to live completely free with self worth, honesty, and respect- above all, value and live by the essence of TRUTH & JUSTICE than to live in vain! The worst loneliness is to not be comfortable with yourself.
What matters is not what others see in us but what matters most WITHIN US. And Allan, good on you brother because PEACE & TRUTH live in you eternally – what more to expect on earth ?
Allan, YOU COUNT !
anony on Tue, 17th Mar 2009 7:58 pm
well, im a scholar, and i can see how most people look at us because i was from a neighbourhood school and neighbourhood jc. the interesting thing about ‘them’ ( im not considered a typical scholar) is that most of them are extremely motivated in one way or another. im not saying all, but they make all the impossible things look possible, but that of cos does not mean that they still fail. beyond that, i dont agree that we’re narrow minded and suffer from severe handicaps in other social aspects of our lives(that is just stereotyping, like how all gamers stay at home or all anime lovers are otakus).
and with regards to your last remark about how only losers kill themselves, do you not have any sympathy for a man who went the wrong turn and took his life? it can happen to anyone, even you. he may have made a grave mistake in doing so, but rather than just narrowing down on his suicide, why did you not take a more ‘general’ view on the circumstances that led to his death? had he received more support from his friends and family, his death could very well be averted, just like many other suicides that occur daily in this world.
bah on Tue, 17th Mar 2009 11:23 pm
This article seems to “debunk the myth that scholars are invincible, since they’re mortal after all”.
The thing is, I don’t believe most scholars think they are immortal superhumans in the first place. That’s (unfortunately) what many Singaporeans think of them.
talljoanne on Wed, 18th Mar 2009 8:39 am
There is some truth to most of your article, but to conclude with “only losers kill themselves” was highly presumptuous. You and I, through a looking glass, have no way of knowing the intensity of one’s desolation, and therefore what brings one over the edge of the cliff.
Besides in life, there is some room for 宁为玉碎，不为瓦全。
sandman on Wed, 18th Mar 2009 8:42 am
If you go to hong kong and ask anyone on the street who do they most want to be. Most people will answer li kah Shin. They will never say Donald Tsang. If you go to the US and do the same, most ppl will say Warren buffet or Bill Gates. Never George Bush or even George Washington. But when you ask people who they want to be in Singapore.
How do you think most people will answer?
The Brotherhood never ever believed in this myth. Otherwise Darkness would not have had so many running battles with Philip Yeo. They tried to name and shame them. It didnt kill them. It just made them stronger and more stubborn. We cannot progress if we hold on as the author says to shitty programming.
When will they learn?
1st time visitor on Wed, 18th Mar 2009 3:48 pm
Personally, I respect his decision to end his life after reading his letter (despite not being an intended recipient and for that I offer my apologies and condelences to his family members or friends who may be reading this) of intense self reflection and rationalisation. However, I cannot sympathise nor agree with his decision to do so, as there are definitely better alternatives to an action which effectively ended his possibilities (in our world, at least). In this aspect, my thinking is in accordance with Brotherhood’s last statement about losers and life although I would have preferred it in a different format. I will not go as far to rationalise Mr Ooi’s death as a consequence of our nation state’s programming. For those who truly yearn to change things or the system, do it through meaningful actions and not comments which, in my opinion, exploit another person’s death and do not serve your intended agenda.
Scholar or not, it is indeed a sad loss of, human life and his potential to make a meaningful difference to our society or even the world at large.
- 1st time visitor
WinnerNot on Wed, 18th Mar 2009 4:23 pm
Being able to suffer through day after day of drudgery, and find contentment in compromise is in no way victory.
A life should be judged in its entirety, not solely based on a rapid surefire judgement that attempts to be so omniscient by its logic.
Darkness, its thinking (or lack thereof) like yours that undermines what you attempt so weakly to stand for.
Your article had good points, your conclusion did not. See the parallel? And its thinking like yours in a reader that would condemn it.
mensasam on Wed, 18th Mar 2009 5:00 pm
Hi
I may not agree with Darkness, but I think he is entitled to this opinion. And I respect it. People dont read the brotherhood press because it is nice, polite and gives you a feel good high. You notice they dont even advertise 99.9% of the time and yet they still get manage a decent cachet of readers despite treating their own readers like rubbish. So what is the pull. The only reason why people read the BP is because they know they will always get the unvarnished truth. And that includes the good, bad and the ugly.
If you think you can influence them to write differently 1st time visitor. Pls be my guest. You will not be the first and I suspect, you will not be the last to try either. But the results will be the same every single time.
It just means you have no idea what the brotherhood press is all about.
Saywatyou`vegot on Wed, 18th Mar 2009 7:39 pm
mensasam:
Right!- It is merely an OPINION of his, alone, at worst- but, it does NOT mean it is credible or accepted by all. So, once again, the conclusion is, say what you wish, for acceptance is not in your power.
WinnerNot- I can`t agree more !
bah on Wed, 18th Mar 2009 11:10 pm
“The only reason why people read the BP is because they know they will always get the unvarnished truth. And that includes the good, bad and the ugly.”
And who are you to judge that everything they say is unvarnished truth?
I read the BP to see how I should NOT write.
From what I understand of wayangparty, they concentrate on flaming the parts of the government they don’t like.
The BP on the other hand flames the government, people who work for the government, Singapore, Singapore’s culture, Singapore’s architecture, Singapore’s scholars, Singaporeans’ aspirations… What are they trying to do exactly, other than to vent internet RAGEEEE?
Why Real Elites Live and Fake Elites Die « on Fri, 20th Mar 2009 10:09 am
[...] go back to my conference call now – but before I go maybe, I didn’t make myself very clear here Why Elites End Up Dying All The Time; maybe the message was garbled, so here it goes again, loud and clear – only losers kill [...]
Saywatyou`vegot on Mon, 23rd Mar 2009 8:39 pm
People, we also learn what and how NOT to write!
Acceptance is still NOT within your power.
LOL
shoestring on Mon, 23rd Mar 2009 10:10 pm
“only losers kill themselves”
If you decide to drop out of the game (e.g. by killing yourself) because you think you can’t win or the rules are unfair, the other party doesn’t lose, you do even though you’ve walked out with your head held high. Because you’d have lost the chance to be a winner.
But if you persevere, there is still a chance that you will be the winner. Or at least it’ll be draw and you won’t end up being the loser.
If you win, you are a winner.
If you lose, you are a loser.
Those who walk out, by whichever way, lose and are therefore losers.
So, what is the problem?
Saywatyou`vegot on Tue, 24th Mar 2009 9:58 pm
LOL…
Such simple mindedness sure works for some,unfortunately,NOT all.
If only each and every situation/case is as simplistic as one wants it to be, given the facts under distinctive circumstances, then it is perfectly well and fine- BUT, it is NOT- WE know !
Since when is Life’s equation so straightforward to the point of boredom and disbelief?
Wake up and smell the coffee… time will be your best teacher- life lessons to be learned, oh YES !
LOL
randommindlessness on Tue, 24th Mar 2009 10:49 pm
Hahahaha…yea…but I like it simple.
Your pain, my entertainment. Your joy, my entertainment.
Both ways I win.
Oh I find life boring for the most bit, that’s why I seek entertainment. I like coffee too.
shoestring on Tue, 24th Mar 2009 11:07 pm
You know not who you are talking about or what experiences in life you are referring to.
shoestring on Tue, 24th Mar 2009 11:26 pm
Oh yes, by the way, it has nothing to do whether what Dr Ooi has done is right or wrong, or about the circumstances or even anything to do with him at all.
It is about life and what it means to be a winner. And, certainly, refusing to acknowledge the truth, nothing but the truth, is a sign of denial.
Winners accept reality, losers deny it.