To die so not to depend

In today's ST interview with suicide expert Chia Boon Hock, he made the following comment on the state of mental health here, "We live in a very stressful society where the costs of living are sky high. Singapore is a great place to live if you are young, intelligent, rich, successful, capable and healthy. But the average person isn't all that." Quite a strong statement isn't it? Maybe a bit biased because he is 73 years old.

Anyway he warns of higher suicide rate with the recession and job losses. He is particularly worried about the lower socio-economic level whose identity unlike the rich is not attached to their wealth but attached to being providers for their families. Another group of concern is the retirees who lose their savings and those who feel guilty about burdening their families. Hence he is worried about the legalising of euthanasia which may lead to the old folks feeling obligated to make an early exit instead of burdening their families.

This again brings me to ruminate about the "utilitarian" focus in life which seems to be very strong in our society. Somehow I feel this is reinforced by the government's relentless call for people to work as long as they can. Although the main intention is to keep the citizens' mind and body active so that they will be less sickly and do not burden public healthcare, the unfortunate negative message is one that brings on the feeling of shame and guilt upon the jobless and elderly dependents.

Mind you even if you have enough savings to support yourself and can actually choose to spend the whole day at your absolute discretion day-dreaming or whiling away the hours in idle pursuits, you can't run away from people's seemingly judgemental question, "So what do you do with your time?" Maybe it is my own sensitivity that the question is "judgemental". This may be due to my generation growing up in an environment that was in praise of usefulness (eg. in being able to help out in the family), receiving education in an era that churned out technocrats to get the country's economic engine grinding and now forewarned to shape up or live with the dire consequences of landing in nursing homes away from this city state.

So this guy is right to a certain extent. Unless you are really "rich, capable, healthy etc...." you will always live in fear of not having enough and will always be plagued with insecurity and inadequacy. Although both giving and receiving are acts of graciousness, I think people will find it harder and harder to be on the receiving end, even from their family.

As Henry Miller once said, “The dreamer whose dreams are non-utilitarian has no place in this world. In this world the poet is anathema, the thinker a fool, the artist an escapist..."