Back Again

I am back. A most mundane but crucial aspect of reality, survival, has pulled me away from my favorite hobby, political commentaries, for too long. To be honest, I kept my knowledge of the world to a bare minimum in the past two months. The networking world is so sunny that it doesn’t tolerate much sullenness. I just could not get myself to follow another story of disaster and incompetence. Instead, I have caught up on news in the business world, news important for individual survival and interesting from an economics geek viewpoint, but news ultimately ephemeral.

Networking in the past three months, and death of a family member dear to my heart, have been prompting me to think about what my life is about lately. I had a heated conversation with a close friend the other day. She quoted an equation, knowing that’s the format of wisdom I have most respect for:

Financial Capital + Educational Capital = Cultural Capital

For argument’s sake, I said I beg to differ. This world I am in right now has definitely evolved towards the prediction of Carl Marx. I run into people with Cultural Capital aplenty but no Financial Capital every day (Duh!).

However, I did come from a world where that equation is more or less true. In that world, if you are lucky, you can run into Porsche ostentatiously touring around on muddy country roads, and mansions that have stacks of books entirely untouched. More likely though, you meet people steeped in books but bitter towards life simply because they cannot turn their book smarts into financials and provide for their family. Probably because I was an excellent book worm in that world, my family warned me many times: pay attention to your EQ! Insecurity creeps in when you hear that enough times.

But I must remind myself I am in a different world now, a more advanced world perhaps. Financial Capital is no longer a necessary condition to achieve Cultural Capital. This world has plenty of options and mobility to allow its inhabitants to live with dignity, even with very little money. Although my insecurity is hard to fight back and I may still chase after greenies, my new perspective soothes me, because I do not have to feel the resignation Buddha had when he discovered the endless recycling of human birth, living and death. I am fortunately living in a society that has passed the Animal stage of Capitalism.