thinking about identity, food culture, and culture in general

I've actually talked about something like this, but today, there's a different epiphany of sorts. I remembered talking about social change with my pals at NS, and they were hardly receptive about the idea. They erm... well... can't really connect to that idea of a different Singapore. All they want to do, was to get on with life, go to university, get a job, have a nice life. The old me back then would hold partially-elitist thought at them being satisfied with the status quo, and try to convince them that a better future was possible.

But now, the present me would go, 'Thats cool!'

I realise that talk about all those abstract things about social and technological revolutions - all of it seems hollow (vacuous) when I look at the guy in front me in a coffeeshop chopping pieces of meat. I wonder what he wants - just a simple life, I guess, save up enough money, buy a house, even a car, have a family, raise kids, send them off to university, perhaps. And its all the same. All of these choices seem to be equally valid ways to live their lives, and there's no badness or wrongness about it. Its only elitist people with their heads in the clouds who would want to impose a different choice for them, and to declare that ONLY these lifestyles are 'good', 'right' lifestyles to live. Which is plain nonsense.

At the same time, I'm starting to not really care about who's in front me when I order food. Be it Chinese nationals (which is beginning to become common) or anyone else - it just doesn't matter. Its a decent job, serving happiness in the form of food - everyone needs to eat, right?

As for issues of integration and assimilation, well... I guess its just one of those things that takes time. Time for them to settle down, to adapt to Singapore society.

And I'm thinking about the need for creativity. Even culinary creativity, and not just the traditional notions of academic or artistic creativity. Thinking about the notion of cultural hacking, looking at how we might change cultural norms of food and rituals, and how they might be transformed in new ways - something unexpected, but pleasant and desirable. In this instance, I'm thinking about how we might hack our food to become unique Singapore variants of food eaten in SEA.

Is it still feasible to think about intelligent jobs? The perspective that all jobs are really a form of information arbitrage between the source and the consumer. Intelligent jobs are suppose to break down the information asymmetry between the producer and the consumer for mutual benefit. How might that work out?

I guess I'll be on this line of thinking for a while...

So, what really is social change? Its more like, social justice - meaning, have equitable jobs for all, even redistributive income system of taxation, political fairness, inclusiveness, openness.

Again, coming back to the point that the average person on the street really just want to get on with life, unless there is something that captures their imagination.

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