Fifteenth Note to “Botkhana Neshin Hastam”

Doubt and pessimism arise over certainty and optimism once I begin to contemplate and think. And by virtue of being a bicultural individual with one foot in the East and one foot in the West, I wield the advantage of being able to compare different cultures as well. I am inclined towards comparing different cultures. And recently, a question arose in my mind which is worth asking: If Singapore, for instance, is able to keep the peace between different ethnic and religious groups who would otherwise be killing one another, all while having a government that is financially stable as well as the luxury of having a brothel next to a mosque, why can’t we? Why do we have to be broke and mentally ill and polarized as a government and society, while Singapore has different religious groups who peacefully coexist with one another, all while having a stable government and the luxury of a brothel next to a mosque? And of course, some will dismiss the question by arguing that America is big and Singapore is small. But how does that explain China and Russia’s rise in recent times? China and Russia are bigger than the United States in terms of size. So no one can dismiss the question. We should know how and why, and we should be able to explain and understand it somehow.