Jai guru deva om

I've got the Beatles' Across The Universe on repeat as 2009 slowly ebbs away. I spent the night on Baudrllard's Simulations and suddenly everything looks different, and yet I know nothing's ever changed.

A new year approaches, to be welcomed, to be ushered in. Yet the funny thing is, we never had a choice whether we wanted a new year to come in or not. A year is nothing more than a convenient measure of a span of time. Time moves on in a linear fashion, whether we 'welcome' it or not. Rather, it should be the new year welcoming us as we move forward. (although there is always an option of not moving forward, that of the termination of consciousness and by virtue of association, existence. I will not waste breath in explaining why consciousness has to be terminated before existence.)

So ever onward, the shackles still dragging on our feet as we shuffle forward. No, 2010 will not be a new year, for every year in existence (past, present of future) is 'new' in the sense that it is unprecedented. It is new to the human experience. At best, 2010 is only new because it is unknown.

Tomorrow, people will count down to the arrival of a new year. But they will have gotten it wrong. By counting down, we're counting the seconds left of the old year. We are chiming the death rattle of a year past and best forgotten (in most instances).

Having said all that, I am excited by the prospect of 2010. I haven't set any resolutions for myself, other than that of having a steely resolve. A resolution of resolve.

No, the world's not going to change, it is Nothing which plays the catalyst of change every single time. Possession does not spark revolution, it is dis-possession that ignites the conflict that boils beneath the surface of every simulation.

Ang Heng