opinion
Solipsism, or the idea that nothing exists outside the self, is a very old and well-worn idea. An ancient Chinese philosopher, Chuang Tzu, reportedly said he once dreamt he was a butterfly dreaming he was a man. When he woke up, he was uncertain whether he was a man who dreamt he was a butterfly or was still a butterfly dreaming he was a man.We can be certain, however, that throughout his dream the sense of self had remained intact: it was only the identity of the self and other externalities that raised doubts.
Philosophy students will, of course, remember Descartes' methodological doubt. ' Cogito ergo sum ' - I think, therefore I exist (while other things might not). Descartes, however, believed in God, and therefore not a real solipsist, though he paved the way for many skeptics to become one.
Solipsistic images are quite common in Western literature. There are, for example, many passages detailing the self-absorption of Goethe's Werther .
In an autobiography, GK Chesterton talked about the time when he could not "distinguish between dreaming and waking: not only as a mood but as a philosophical doubt."
And in Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland , the young Alice wondered whether she was dreaming: if so, she hoped it was her own dream and not the Red King's. "I don't like belonging to another person's dream," she soliloquized.
Corporate bailouts
Solipsists tend to be brooding, introspective individuals, and we might be forgiven for thinking that they are found mostly within the ranks of unemployed philosophers or writers. Alas, this is not so. Today, the largest source of solipsists are politicians - employed, unemployed, or otherwise.
For example, if Barisan Nasional ministers really believe that there is a world out there besides themselves, a world populated with thinking individuals, they might have thought twice before sanctioning (again!) the RM6.1 billion MAS bailout.
They might also have realised that there is a public out there staring at the RM3.2 billion corporate bailout for Halim Saad's UEM 'put option' debt.
Also, if BN politicians believe that other people besides themselves do exist, they would have credited those people with memories of how pledges of support for mother-tongue education had been systematically broken over the years, how the Suqiu appeals were repudiated soon after the 1999 general elections, and as such stop trying to fool the Chinese community all over again.
But it is not only BN politicians who are solipsistic: some opposition politicians and their supporters also suffer from the same malady.
For example, there are people who think that whatever they do or not do would have no effect whatsoever on the Indera Kayangan by-election.
They think that by playing neutral they are really being neutral, thus denying the realities of BN's grip of the mass media and BN's use of the ISA to cripple all democratic opposition.
Disregarding the real world, these people talk about irrelevant matters such as whether the opposition can provide a true alternative government when the crucial question today is whether some checks and balances can be instituted to save the country from total moral and financial bankruptcies.
Sending a signal
Luckily, despite the solipsistic behavior of some people, there are a few opposition voices that keep reminding the people that corruption exists, cronyism exists, injustice exists, poverty exists, the disenfranchised exist.
The people of Indera Kayangan must remember that absolute power corrupts absolutely. They must realise that the only way to check that power is to vote for the opposition, regardless who that person is, or which party he or she comes from.
The people must send a signal to the ruling party they can no longer be frightened by threats, swindled by false promises, bribed by grandiose schemes.
They must vote in order to protect democracy and instill good governance. They must vote to protect themselves and their future generations.
And last but not least, they must vote to ensure that they exist in the eyes of the solipsistic ruling party.
LC is a a self-proclaimed literature hog interested in applying a multi-disciplinary approach to world affairs.
