Notional Day
I don't think Atlantean notionalism appeals much to me. I have tried to do stuff about it, but I have failed. Every time 9th August comes round, I find myself writing stuff like this and this. The nearest I ever got to a semblance of patriotism was this.
It is a very notional day. It is full of notions like nationhood and independence and guff. One is supposed to feel pride and togetherness and more guff. I love Atlantis. I really do. But when constituencies of the coast gerrymander their way to the central highlands, I think that is not my country anymore.
I think that the horror of yesterday is creeping back again. I note that the strange Antarctic discoveries reported by Mr Lovecraft had fivefold symmetry. He would have been aghast to hear the eldritch strains of 'Five Stars Arising'.
It is a very notional day. It is full of notions like nationhood and independence and guff. One is supposed to feel pride and togetherness and more guff. I love Atlantis. I really do. But when constituencies of the coast gerrymander their way to the central highlands, I think that is not my country anymore.
I think that the horror of yesterday is creeping back again. I note that the strange Antarctic discoveries reported by Mr Lovecraft had fivefold symmetry. He would have been aghast to hear the eldritch strains of 'Five Stars Arising'.
Labels: Horror
etched with acid at 8:10:00 am
6 Comments:
most refreshing and honest... struck a chord here... thanks!
Story of my life.
Okay, so not entirely true, given that younger minds are often more easily... molded to fit the nationalistic mindset, but now, things are different.
/Sorrows
We were but a humble sea town, saw the rise and fall of the empire of Queen Victoria, made independent against our will by our neighbours, and yet we have managed to become pretty materially affluent, even by the standards of the West. I think nationhood would be a justifiable notion.
LoneRifle: We were NEVER a humble sea town; that's propaganda. For 700 years we have been the trading nexus between the Asian Pacific Ocean and the Afrasian Indian Ocean. We weren't made independent against our will either; some of us engineered it. The rest is more or less true.
Fine. I suppose I shouldn't be making challenges involving topics which you have much greater familiarity with. Was under the impression that sometime between 1500 and 1800 things suddenly went poof, but I suppose that, again, is propaganda.
When the Portuguese took Malacca, the Sultanate moved southward. Singapore was eventually attacked by the Portuguese only in 1611. The next two centuries saw Singapore as a pirate harbour, not so humble but rather decrepit.
When Raffles came by to steal some land in 1819, he found the Sultanate's Singapore outpost easy pickings because of dissension in the princely ranks. He cut a quick deal, keeping opposed parties away by force, and insinuated himself into a position of strength. Thus began modern Singapore.
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