The Benefits of a Slap

 

Say what you like about the slap that Will Smith gave to Chris Rock but it was a very necessary respite from news about the war in Ukraine and the Covid-19 pandemic. Instead of talking about people dying from horrible things, they started talking about celebrities behaving like school children. The moment that gave us a break from the Russian-Ukraine War and Covid can be found at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dQ5ibKPRAQ

 

By turning himself into a talking point, Mr. Smith saved the Oscars from becoming an irrelevance. Viewership had been steadily declining and you could say that the Oscars were becoming an event for industry insiders to indulge in moments of self-congratulatory masturbation. Whilst the viewership for this year’s event was the second lowest in history, the viewership figures increased by 58 percent. That means that for every 100 viewers last year, there were another 58. The story can be found at:

https://variety.com/2022/tv/ratings/oscars-ratings-2022-academy-awards-1235210795/

 

Let’s put it this way, Mr. Rock mocking Mr. Smith’s wife for losing her hair was not friendly and Mr. Smith’s slap was “unacceptable,” the entire event somehow managed to reignite interest in the Oscars.

Whilst Mr. Smith’s now infamous slap is currently the most talked about slap on the planet, its not the only one and the lesson that we need to take from this is the fact that “bad things” and “arseholes” have a role to play in the scheme of things. The old adage being that the problem is not failure but success.

Who does not want good times? Who does not want to be healthy and wealthy? Since a good portion of us are usually not healthy or wealthy, we spend our time wondering how those of us who are live. The entire self-help industry depends on people aspiring to the good things. Nobody wants bad things to happen to them and just as much as we try to be healthy and wealthy, we work to avoid being poor and sick.

Whilst success always feels better than failure, there is an adage that says that problems don’t come when you are a failure but when you succeed.

Being down and in the s***house should provide “real” people with the drive that they need to get out of a bad place. Just look at the “Leader of the Year,” the Ukrainian President, Mr. Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has become the living embodiment of every ideal of leadership. He’s united the Ukrainian people against a much more powerful enemy. He’s stayed in a situation where the risk of being wiped out is very real. He’s not hiding in a bunker but goes to the front line and the results have been good. He’s managed to hold off a much larger military force. Russia is not waltzing in and taking control.

Prior to the Russian invasion, Mr. Zelenskyy was what you’d call on the verge of being a disappointment. He was elected as an outsider, who wanted to end a conflict and tackle corruption. He failed to end the conflict in the Donbas region and as to tackling corruption, the main claim to fame was being featured in the Pandora Papers.

Thanks to the bad situation given to him by his Russian counterpart, all that his forgotten. After getting the proverbial slap from his Russian counterpart, Mr. Zelenskyy has stepped up in ways that nobody imagined. Getting a slap brought out the best in Mr. Zelenskyy.

By contrast, success makes one complacent. Success has a way of deluding people into believing their own propaganda. It’s a case of “How I can be wrong when I’ve managed to achieve so much.”

I live in Singapore, which is the epitome of success being a problem. Its famously proclaimed that “Singapore went from fishing village to metropolis in a generation.” Everyone seems to love us. I think of the Dutch expat who looked at me and said “Singapore – where else in the world would you possibly want to be.” Our first Prime Minister, Mr. Lee Kuan Yew spent his post-prime ministerial life as a “development consultant” and “sharing his vision” in a column in Forbes.

That’s all well and good but as a native, I’ve started to note a “decline” in governing standards. I remember a friend who said, “Have you noticed that ever since the Old Man died, there have been more potholes on the roads.” Its not to say that our roads a bad by any standard but they are getting worse – not better. Instead of fixing the proverbial potholes, we’re told that we should just trust the powers that be because they helped grandpa out of the village into the metropolis.

Instead of seeing success a goal to work towards, it become something that is bestowed upon people. Take our “best and brightest.” We send them to school and nurture them for national leadership. The reality is that we spend our time ensuring our best and brightest never face a serious challenge thereby ensuring the best brains rot in a deluded cloud of self-entitlement (“I am successful” because of something I did 20-years ago not because I am constantly working at it).

The government has been slapped with the loss of two GRCs in the last three elections. Yet instead of analysing why they got slapped and how they can learn from it, they work to stop the electorate from slapping them – think of defamation suites, laws on “fake news” that give power to certain individuals” and closure on alternative sources of media.

This is a problem of success. You think that just because you succeeded and did a brilliant job in the past that you will continue doing so. It gives you the false sense of belief that all you need to do is to stick to the proven formula. You see failure is something that doesn’t happen to you. These are all problems brought around by success and when they’re not addressed, this becomes the point when success turns to failure.