There used to be a time, not too long ago, when the Lees of Singapore tried to position themselves as morally superior to decadent, overly liberal American culture.  That was the whole "Asian Values" thing of the 1990s, something that does not seem to get talked about anymore in Singapore, or just about anywhere else for that matter.  I was always deeply skeptical of these claims, seeing them as a thin excuse for continued autocratic rule.  Now, it seems, the Lees themselves have pretty much given up trying to distinguish a morally righteous Singapore from a hopelessly debauched America.

    Las Vegas, the most garish and vulgar of American culture, is coming to Singapore. (Of course, my friends at Singabloodypore posted on this first).

     The plan to build casinos strikes me as an admission of failure.  They cannot come up with other means of economic development, so they will try to lure rich folks from elsewhere and make nice and take their money.  Great.  I am all too familiar with this: it is the last resort (so to speak!) of the declining northeastern sector of the US where I was born and raised and live.   As we have de-industrialized, we have been unable to maintain living standards for the working class.  We become dependent on tourism, with low paying and unsatisfying jobs, which can keep some people here but which ultimately contributes to our declining population. People leave in search of better jobs elsewhere (yes, they leave for a wide variety of reasons, but the hollowed-out, tourist-oriented economy certainly does not keep them here).   

    Perhaps we should blame globalization: as competition opens up to the world at large, places like New England, and increasingly Singapore, can only create a limited number of high-paying jobs.  Manufacturing is gone; many services are also being outsourced.  The only thing left is to try to lure rich people to pleasure domes, ply them with alcohol and gambling and cajole them into spending their money.

    I do not want to be a scold here.  Although I have never been to a casino, I imagine it might be fun.  And I enjoy a bit of hedonism as much as the next guy.  My only question here is: what happened to Lee’s vaunted Confucian righteousness?  I would agree if he stood up and said that Singapore is becoming, and should become, more liberal, in the classical sense of that term.  But he is not saying that.  He is not publicly admitting the reality behind this gambling scheme: Singapore under the PAP cannot truly distinguish itself from the "Western" practices that Lee had, not so long ago, denounced as decadent.  Welcome to the gutter Mr. Lee!

   Just to be clear: I think Lee’s construction of "West" v. "East" was always flawed, a crude device for political purposes.  The "West" has never been as "Western" as the stereotype suggest; nor has the "East" ever been wholly "Eastern."  Lee’s turn toward gambling just confirms this.

   Of course, no one would try to argue that gambling is somehow consistent with a Confucian world view; even Lee would not attempt that one.  I would only point out that neither is it consistent with a Taoist perspective, at least based on this passage from Chuang Tzu:

Games of skill and cleverness being in a light mood, but they always end up dark and serious.  And if things go far enough, it’s nothing but guile.  Drinking at ceremonies begins orderly enough, but it always ends up wild and chaotic.  And if things go far enough, it’s nothing but debauchery.  All our human affairs seem to work like this.  However sincerely they begin, they end in vile deceit.  And however simply they begin, they grow enormously complex before they’re over. (55)

    But gambling may well be consistent with "Chinese culture," a category always larger than any single perspective or school of thought, as Lee Kuan Yew’s own father is quoted as saying:

"We Chinese are gamblers," he told club historians before his death in
1997. "If two lizards scale up a wall, someone would bet on them."

   Not quite the "East" his son was trying to conjure up.  At least there is was one honest Lee!