Rising Above the Mob

It's that time of the year again when every word uttered, every gesture expressed has to connote optimism, growth, expansion and well-being. All negativity, gloom and apprehension has to be swept away in cacophonous bursts of firecrackers, the clanging of cymbals and the thumping of drums.

Melancholy is absolutely anathema to the Chinese, especially during the time of Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations. Oracles and geomancers are consulted to ward off evil, bad luck and perceived hindrances, and should favourable opportunities arise, to leverage them to the hilt. Everything, absolutely everything, must be geared towards a better and brighter future.

A people with such an attitude are unstoppable. You don't engage them, you unleash them. And because of this, they are admired and feared in equal measure. This surge of Yang energy is determining the direction of the world now, like an unstoppable tsunami. The world of the future will be a very different place. As one empire, like an actor who has delivered his lines on stage, takes its bow, another enters in his fresh and garish costume, to the rousing cheers of the audience.

To be born a Chinese is both a blessing and a curse. It is like one is being carried forward by a surging mob, towards a direction not necessarily of one's choosing. But one relents, because the mob always rules and if one goes with the flow, one partakes in its power.

If the mob has a weakness, it is its insanity. Its satisfaction comes from steamrolling everything in its path. It is driven by an unconscious frenzy. But a roused mob is never a happy one: it only possesses an unquenchable thirst.

And if one has the wisdom to rise above the mob, and yet still be able to harness its energy, happiness may not be such an elusive thing after all. Thus one wishes that the Year of the Pig brings such a happiness to everyone.