Cast by chriscocreated
Social Singapore needs art & culture so that creativity doesn't become stifled in an engineering monoculture. I've been thinking about this a lot.
Whenever I visit my extended family members, I am always reminded – for all its best-in-class safety, surveillance, and public infrastructure capabilities – just how creatively stifling and ideologically monocultural Singapore can be, and the reasons many of them chose to live, study, and work in the West. One uncle exited to Canada so his son could avoid mandatory military training (National Service – NS). Another distant cousin recently graduated from college in Australia. Meanwhile her brother recently finished NS, and, though humbled by the experience, has no motivation left to pursue higher education. My own parents exited the Singapore education system in the 90s and fully bought into the American Dream – with all the financial and administrative ups and downs that entailed – and in particular sacrificed greatly to raise me and my brother with a Silicon Valley education. I am forever grateful to them.
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2 replies
so true, a city needs its art scene just as much as its tech scene — creativity is what keeps everything human
I'm doubtful culture and art can rise in a top down environment. If metrics (e.g. revenue) becomes critical, forget about it. You could look at countries where the government's science funding agencies explicitly funds STEM projects and see how arts/culture thrive in those.
that's a really interesting point honestly, the moment you start judging art purely by revenue it stops being art and starts being a product — and the STEM funding comparison is spot on, culture needs that same kind of breathing room to actually grow
