Facing your deepest darkest fears

I saw this video on youtube, and I must say, I have to salute these kids for facing up to their fears and keeping a clear head even when they are frightened. =) Makes me contemplate about our NS system.

These kids have spent all of their free time planning about how to defend their home if a zombie comes, the same way we make plans to defend Singapore should any enemies come. The video shows us that no matter how well planned the defense strategy might be, accidents do happen- traps may fail, the enemy may not take the traps set up for him, etc. Most importantly, training and planning cannot prepare you for the psychological elements of fear and stress. Notice how the kids had so much bravado that they are not afraid of the zombie, but when the zombie came, they were terrified. Same way, many people in Singapore like to think that Singapore is an impregnable fortress, given the amount of prevention measures drawn up by the Defense Ministry's Total Defense strategy- Military, Civil, Social, Economic and Psychological Defence.

To me, the last one presents a big problem, its never possible to be fully psychologically prepared to suffer. In reality, well-off and spoilt Singaporeans may just crack mentally during the stress of war; the loss of property, food shortage, exposure of injuries and deaths of loved ones can break a normal man. Many have been lured into a false sense of security when they are thought that the government has massive stores of food that have been stocked up, state of the art weaponry, excellent training and preparation, etc.

In a real war, that may count for nothing. We can train our NS men how to fight well, but can they fight the horrors of war? Its not easy being exposed to real battles, you'll watch your comrades get blown up, bits of blood and bone may spray all over you, you might lose a limb or more! In wars, you are lucky to die quickly. In the World Wars, trench warfare proved to be a true horror.

When people get torso wounds, they may take hours to die. So imagine this, after a failed attempt to charge into the enemy lines, the entire company has retreated back into its system of trenches. However, not everyone made it back alive. Your best friend is still out there, lying down about 10m away from you. He's still alive, but he has been shot in both legs and his intestines. You can hear him moaning and screaming for help. You try to crawl out of the trench, but the enemy fires a few rounds in your direction. You squat back down in your trench knowing that you can't help him and you'll be hearing his screams and moans for the next few hours until he finally dies of hemorrhaging or something.

That is a psychological battle that no one can prepare you for. So how prepared are we to face our deepest and darkest fears?