You know it is the time of the year when certain towns in Malaysia are experiencing heavier inflows of traffic and there is the perennial jostling for space as more and more cars fight for the right to park along the narrow public roads surrounding housing estates. And since small towns lack the attractions of big cities, you see bored and listless faces streaming into the pack-to-bursting shopping centres. Restaurants are taking advantange of the yearly influx by upping prices and forcing set meals on their patrons (and in Chinese-centric towns, this is particularly severe for the lack of shops that are opened to service the appetites of the annual visitors).
I have had the usual family dinners (for some reason, my family decided to have THREE big family dinners in the space of 4 days, though I missed the third one owing to my school reunion). I also managed to visit some old friends, and especially the little pride and joy of my life. Most of all, I got to indulge in hours of tv, something which I do not get to do back in KL for the lack of a tv set. I was curious to know what's new on tv, what are the latest ads, what are the latest fads, the latest movies (well as latest as they can get in Malaysia) and the latest interactive design MTV/V Channel has (not to mention who the new VJs are).
While watching TV, I was also simultaneously reading some works on philosophy and history (YES, while watching tv, though of course, when the interesting scenes came on, you can guess what took most of my attention :P), as well as fashion and design (: It has to do with trying to squeeze in as many things as I could in the short space of time (though it also has to do with my short attention span during the holiday seasons). Yet, reading the discussion on life through the books and watching the portrayal of life via tv shows and movies, one notice a strong parallel between them. Here am I, reading works that have nothing to do with the shows I was watching (which ranged from 70s sitcoms to travellogues to Hollywood blockbusters to Hong Kong movies) yet I could feel the words of the authors resonating strongly through the visual effects created by the movies. I was reading the philosophy of Ayn Rand while watching Armageddon (believe it or not, I only just watched it for the first time on the first day of Chinese New Year), so many discussions of Ayn Rand with regards to Atilla, the crude Barbarians (the reactionaries), the Witch Doctor (I suppose you can say Rand intended these to be the communists, whom she had an aversion towards- I guess what Mr Syed Alattas would call the soft-hearted "Bebalians") and the Producers (who is her perfect exemplification of fair play, ego-centrism, original creation and capitalism, I see such different personas reenacted through the different personalities of the men who were the characters in this movie (with the exception of Liv Tyler as Grace the daughter of the hero, and the lady engineer on the space shuttle (whose name escapes me for now), there aren't too many heroic ladies portrayed in this show, which is after all about American patriachalism defending the world against end-times caused by an asteroid relentless hurtling towards Earth. I kind of feel that the Bruce Willis character epitomised the ideal of the Producer, though he has the prepondency towards being an Atilla when it concerns his daughter, with his Paternal protectiveness and dominance.
However, the two professional thieves in a Chinese comedic romance starring Andy Lau and Sammy Cheng, who gained riches through their thieving activities would not sit so easily within Rand's three categories. They did gain their riches through the use of their canny and cunning. They were not reactionaries nor were they barbaric looters. Yet looters they were nonetheless, running off with bootie that were not earned through legitimate means. Perhaps if they have decided to channel their obvious abilities into let's say, derivatives trading and fund hedging, they might to a hell of a job. In which case, they would fall into Rand's concept of the rational and ethical producer (though should one read the Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, you will notice that Rand has a long discussion on the idea of ethics through her protagonists). But their thievery places them under the same category as Atilla, even if they do not use any violence, but rather their brains, to commit such acts. In fact, in the movie, it seems obvious that they intersperse legitimate activities with their highly-polished kleptomaniac tendencies. And they were both diehard gamblers. Capitalism does work on the precept of a certain amount of risk and gamble. However, these two characters epitomise more of the tendency of a rather refined Atilla rather than the Producer. (:
I also began to reread history but that is a post for a different day. As for what I've learned from meeting back old school friends? That is also another post for a different time. And I hope to find that time to write about metaphysics real soon. (:
Happy Doggy Year!
