When people say they don't want a nanny state, they are, in fact, in a conflicted state of mind. On the one hand, they want to do whatever they want and not be stopped. On the other hand, if something goes wrong, they want to be rescued.
Interpretation
The quote reflects the contradiction in people's desires for freedom versus the need for security.
Lee Hsien Loong's quote explores the inherent conflict in human nature regarding freedom and responsibility. While people often advocate for unrestricted freedom, they simultaneously expect assistance and protection in times of crisis, revealing a fundamental contradiction in their beliefs and desires about governance and personal responsibility.
In practice
During a debate about government policies, this quote could highlight the tension between individual freedom and societal safety.
If we did not have a sense of who we were, how we got here, why we want to achieve something - which, on the face of it, on the logic of it, is probably not worth trying - and prove that logic wrong, then you wouldn't succeed; then you would just evaporate.
You need people who have their own views, whose views you respect, whom you can have a productive disagreement with, and work out ideas which you might not have come up with, or who improve on ideas you had.
Just as our forefathers saved and invested to build what we, the current generation, are enjoying today, so, too, we must plant trees so that our sons and daughters, and their sons and daughters, can enjoy the shade.
You need to have good people: honourable, capable, committed in politics, standing in public office. It's not a guarantee, but it's the ideal we have to aim for.
No government prospers by saying, 'I don't need to do anything. Just by being there, we have made the country thrive.'
Attention, if sudden and close, graduates into surprise; and this into astonishment; and this into stupefied amazement.
When death comes, it's just like winter. We don't say, "There ought not to be winter." That the winter season, when the leaves fall and the snow comes, is some kind of defeat, something which we should hold out against. No. Winter is part of the natural course of events. No winter, no summer. No cold, no heat.
I'm pretty, but not beautiful. _x000D_ I sin, but I'm not the devil. _x000D_ I'm good, but I'm not an angel.
Clouds and darkness surround us, yet Heaven is just, and the day of triumph will surely come, when justice and truth will be vindicated.
Politeness is to human nature what warmth is to wax.
Sometimes you want to whisper in God's ear, "God, we know you are in charge, but why don't you make it slightly more obvious?"
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