“For the family, one may be sacrificed; for the village, a family may be sacrificed; for the country, a village may be sacrificed; for oneself, the world may be sacrificed.”

There is a distinct streak of ego-centrism ethics about the last phrase that I find resoundingly appealing within my personal belief system. It delineates the merciless pursue of goals for the ultimate benefit of oneself, the cold, selfish focus towards self-improvement at the sacrifice of any unnecessary bonds. Perhaps it is after the establishment of my nihilistic belief that all things are insignificant (including me), that I tend to regard materialistic and humanistic concepts as nonessential (perhaps this word is somewhat mild).

Indeed, perhaps what differentiates me from the nihilists would be my high regard towards knowledge: I believe in its value in enabling us to understand the world, extending our comprehension of the universe before making judgement towards the uselessness of our existence. In that sense, I am quite similar with Friedrich Nietzsche, who, according to Wikipedia, came to similar conclusions after his own brush with nihilism.

If there were light and dark sides in the world, I would belong to the dark.
22:50
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Over the next few days, I shall be writing a series of articles on ideals, and how they govern almost every aspect of our lives. Hopefully I won’t get bored and give up halfway through, as I did for so many other would-be posts before.

On more mundane matters, I recently completed my first biathlon (Singapore Biathlon, 1.5km swim, 10km run) last Saturday, 1st March, clocking 1:36:00, missing my target by 6 minutes. Fortunately, I was still placed 523 out of 1105, top 50% of all participants, which is a rather favourable result in itself.

The very next day, I got involved in my first biking accident with a car, ramming into the side of the car door at 25kmh. I was very fortunate to get away with nothing more serious than glass cuts all over my right arm, and sprains in the wrist and left thigh. It was a truly tumultuous day, with me having to enter Tan Tock Seng Hospital with blood all over my body, riding an ambulance, and making statements at the Traffic Police headquarters. Memorable indeed, although it was something I very much would not like to repeat again.

Now, to repair that bike...
18:35
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