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In China, we were educated to be antitheists from early school years. I joined a “church group” in university, however, partly because I was skeptical about the atheism propaganda of the government, and partly because those bible, sheep things did appeal to me. (now I think I took it as an exotic fairy tale thing…incredibly romantic, hehe) I agree with you that there is something bad about religions as I was once IN a religion. I don’t think there is anything enlightening about a religion, at least not in the religious sense. Those stuff only makes sense when good and / or wise people employ them to work out their own philosophies and formulas that benefit others. It’s more likely to see hypocrites do bad things in the name of God, though.
And it’s always like this: even if these big and powerful entities - a religious group, a corporate or a country – are established for good purpose (or it’s necessary to do so), finally it’ll be manipulated by the minority. We individuals, most of us, are injured without noticing it. This is the basis of my thoughts, which has probably made me a very critical person. I hope you don’t mind my being too radical. You may raise objections, I won’t mind.
About lawyers, think about it: why do we make the constitutional law, based on which other laws and regulations are made and enacted? It’s about allocating interests, rights and obligations among all citizens. All citizens…not just the rich and the intelligent. And the legal system is now developing into such a ridiculously complicated thing, complicated enough for anything law-related to appear in a pretentious way. Sometimes it's vain. When it comes to the legal persons that I deal with at work, I shall say SOME of them are doing shitty things to make themselves important, or to show to their boss: hey, I’m worth the rate. I mean, it’s still understandable if these people are not valued that that that more than an honest craftsman or those street food guys, or they don’t think themselves superior to others. But yes, they are.
I’m sorry that I have to work for expats, too. It’s too easy to sense their arrogance in your everyday work. When they speak of “local”, they are usually indicating “inferior”, “regressive”, “bad taste”, “messed up management”, and sometimes “cheats”. What saddens me more is that these accusations are not all wrongly placed… Sometimes I find myself using “local” to refer to bad-looking creative work, too, and I do loathe myself. YES, I LOATHE MYSELF.
Sorry I’ve complained just as much as you. I feel very depressed and hopeless at this moment, so let’s talk about your vacation.
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