The Dark Shadow Shrine

embrace the darkness; that you may see the light nestled within it......

Monday, June 08, 2015

Bye, Bye Car!

Click HERE  
A thought-provoking article about how the comforts and convenience brought about by technology can actually shield and alienate us from the reality outside, causing us to lose touch with it. In the Singapore context, it could mean little interaction with the various segments of the population (low income groups, the disabled, the ex convicts, the foreigners, etc) that we are less likely to meet unless we take public transport and rub shoulders with them....This lack of contact can perhaps cause us to regard these people as invisible or non-existent as we continue our day to day interactions rubbing shoulders with those of our own kind. This is why social institutions like schools, HDB flats(with its ethnic quotas), pubic transport, hawker centres., etc provides those crucial public space for those diverse segments of our society to come together to rub shoulders....never mind that we may not actually 'scratch each other's back' and become firm friends....that is not the idea.....the whole idea is to come into contact with, to acknowledge their existence, so that when it come to making major decisions and crafting major policies, we take them into account and regard them as part of the equation. ....
But the possession of private cars, and even the lifts that land at EVERY floor (hence doing away with the need to walk past the long corridor, past your neighbours' flats on your way to your own flat....)... all these afford us the convenience, efficiency and privacy that we crave, thanks to technology..... but thanks to technology also, we are deprived of the chance to come into contact with the other people in our midst, robbing us the 'kampong spirit' that makes life endearing.....
Riding in your own car thus comes with all the advantages; but in that comfortable bubble that shields us from the harsh elements outside, it also robs us of the ties that we could otherwise have formed with the people outside, and our consciousness that our society is more than just those of our own kind.

 Qn: Does modern technology always improve the quality of people’s lives? (Cam. 2006)