All men should be given equal
chances in life, but we should not expect equal outcomes.――――Will the PAP Last?
The successful have forgotten
that without the peace and stability that made their education, their job or
their business opportunities possible, they would never have made it. But
having made it, they think they made it on their own.――――Will the PAP Last?
[O]nce… you can speak untruths
and go unpunished, you’re going to have many untruths and they are referred to
repeatedly until, like Goebbels said, it begins to be believed.――――Will the PAP Last?
If [journalists] write something
and the other side cannot reply, they sound very clever. But when they write
and they get rebutted in a succinct and acerbic manner, then they look very
small.――――Will the
PAP Last?
The reality as societies
developed is that leaders often come from the same social circles, educational
backgrounds and even family trees. Lee pointed to the experiences of other
countries, where leadership selection is equally elitist but masquerades under
the guise of egalitarianism. Oxbridge graduates stock Whitehall in the United
Kingdom, Ivy Leaguers in the United States, graduates of the grandes écoles in France, powerful
oligarchs elsewhere in the world. Even in China, which pays ideological lip
service to egalitarianism, many second-generation leaders are relatives and
acquaintances of the country’s founding fathers.――――The Cream on Top
A reality is, however you start,
however open and meritocratic the system is, as you develop, the population
gets assorted and stratified. People get educated, the bright ones rise, they
marry equally well-educated spouses. The result is their children are likely to
be smarter than the children of those who are gardeners. Not that all of the
children of gardeners or labourers are duds. Occasionally, two grey horses
produce a white horse, but very few.――――The
Cream on Top
Your mental capacity and your EQ
and the rest of you, 70 to 80 per cent of that is genetic. It takes time for
you to mature, that’s all. Twenty to 30 per cent is nurturing. That’s life.――――The Cream on Top
As for the argument that public
office is about honour, not money, [Lee] has one word for it: hypocrisy.
Politicians in Britain and the United States positioned themselves to profit
handsomely later with book deals, lectures and consultancy services. It often
led to leaders preoccupied with crafting “exit strategies”.――――The Cream on Top