Again, election fever is in the air. Intrigue sloshes across the chattering classes who exchange factoids on the latest politically-motivated circus — the Gwen Garcia spectacle in Cebu, the Miriam vs Johnny imbroglio in the Senate, and the Aga Muhlach vs the whole system impasse in Bicol among others. What is the common denominator amongst these partisan dramas? Not much other than people of consequence and involved in events of little consequence.
Former United States First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was said to have said:
Small minds discuss people
Mediocre minds discuss events
Great minds discuss ideas
Where are the ideas that underpin the the competing forces in this year’s 2013 elections?
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Who knows?
Resist stupidity and idiotic thinking too!
Run the above fact through the So What? Test and you will get a categorical fail.
Liberal Party: So What?
UNA: So What?
Everything about the 2013 elections fails the So What? Test at all levels because there are no ideas at stake.
So the UNA is the “opposition” party this year. What exactly is it “opposing”? A first-grader’s guess will be just as good as a rocket scientist’s educated stab at the answer. There are no philosophies at stake in Philippine elections. Only businesses to protect, dynasties to maintain, and pork barrel funds to salivate over. Other than that, Philippine politics is a vast intellectual wasteland.
Look no further than political campaigns and compare the rhetoric now with rhetoric of years past, specifically 2007 when I wrote about the moronism behind the so-called “Black and White Movement”…
True enough, despite pages and pages of blurb on the need for “reform” all over the Black & White Movement website, it all came down to this statement by “helga” (one of the B&WM owners) in a comment in their blog:
[…]it would be a no brainer list, really. Everyone from Team Arroyo would be on the Black List. No fun in that.
This was referring to how the Movement presumes to classify Philippine politicians into Black (no-vote) and White (yes-vote!) as a “guide” to the electorate in their efforts to “elect into Congress men and women of moral courage…”. To which they add “…who will exact accountability from the GMA regime for the unabated corruption and extrajudicial killings”.
Filipinos for their part eat this all up, conveniently forgetting for the sake of hollow-headed partisanism that corruption and “extra-judicial killings” have always been a fact of life in the Philippines. The fact that they crested significantly during the Arroyo administration is beside the point. The shallow way by which Filipinos continue this never-ending cycle of beholdenness to the mind tricks of “united” oppositions — the images and fantasy worlds they paint of a corruption-free Philippines where truth, justice, and accountability prevail once they are elected into office.
Sound familiar? Of course it does.
That’s because corruption and rub-outs are systemic issues that can only be solved by systemic approaches that transcend any one administration or political fad. Yet the way that Filipinos regard elections involves vision (if you could call it that) that goes no further than the next election, the latest slogan, and the latest dance craze.
Even back then, the bottom line of Philippine elections and the spectacle of political campaign surrounding it was crystal clear to me:
Just like mass marketing, propaganda, and the ramblings of evangelists, campaigns are nothing more than quaint mind tricks. However, even Obi Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader themselves admit grudgingly that their Jedi mind tricks work only on weak-minded fools (like the drone-like stormtroopers and Jabba du Hutt’s pig-like henchmen). A “free” society populated by, in Nasty‘s words, starstruck ignoramuses indeed is a mind trickster’s paradise. The trouble is, lazy brains are quick to delegate their thinking to the most popular belief systems and their slogans. The unfortunately lame duck (or is she?) President Arroyo is the the strawman of choice at the moment and “Patalsikin Na, Now Na” is the slogan of the day.
What is difference between the 2013 elections and the 2007 elections? Just people and events. But the ideas (or the lack of these) is pretty much the same.
As Raquel Welch was said to have said:
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and then expecting different results.
But the Philippines is not insane. Insanity is a heaven only the truly enlightened can enjoy. No. The Philippines is just plain stupid. The good news for Filipinos is that any moron can enjoy stupidity.
In the Philippines,
even a cat can run for office…
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.
The cat’s hit his term limit, but he’s got an offspring that can step up.
by Kim Bhasin | Jul. 16, 2012, 5:58 PM | 8,295
Fifteen years ago, a few
residents of Talkeetna, Alaska —
a tiny town of 900 — didn’t like
the candidates who were
running for mayor.
As a joke, they told people to
vote for Stubbs the cat as a
write-up candidate. Somehow,
he won, . So, they gave Stubbs the title
of honorary mayor, and they’ve been re-electing him ever since.
George W. Bush’s first Attorney General was a guy who lost a Senate election to a dead guy.
Benk
And what is the issue with that?
“The attorney general is nominated by the President of the United States and TAKES OFFICE AFTER CONFIRMATION BY THE UNITED STATES SENATE. He or she serves at the pleasure of the president and can be removed by the president at any time; the attorney general is also subject to impeachment by the House of Representatives and trial in the Senate for “treason, bribery, and other high crimes and misdemeanors.”
Don’t tell me that it is just an FYI thing…
That election likely happened before he was appointed Attorney-General.
Jeez ChinoF, it’s alreay obvious.
But can you once in a while think what you’re spewing?
“George W. Bush’s first Attorney General was a guy who lost a Senate election to a dead guy.”
As if there is no appointing committee. And as if the FA is a bad choice for Dubya.
Jeez!
WHAT APPOINTING COMMITTEE? The AG may have to be confirmed for the post by the U.S. Senate after being appointed by his boss, the President, but he is appointed to the office by the President, and no one else.
Joe,
Am I wrong in saying that an AG is NOMINATED by the president and there’s a committee on appointment (is it wrong to call them appointing committee?) in the senate to confirm the nomination?
My bad if I didn’t call them the confirmation committee.
An idiot proposal from the head of MMDA – complete ban on alcoholic drinks 45 days before the election!
Stupid are the people who vote in the candidates they themselves call stupid.
Any Moron can run for Public Office; and get elected. Then, they will do political zarzuelas in Congress or Senate ; or even in the Presidential office. Political promises will be there again. Along with Wowoowee shows. To get your votes. They will become like Chamelons, change colors , to fit the voters. Billionaires and multi millionaire politicians, will claim to be poor. Or, came from the poor. Some will distribute: tuyo, daing, rice, etc….
What a country we have….full of idiots…
The elections are rigged, or is that in doubt? The Philippines political system is anything but a democracy. It is an UGLY scene, complete with the sleaziest of the sleazy! Funny how they masquerade as if they are somehow anything but sleazy, and try to act as if respectable.
Despicable, really and it gives a bad odor to anyone from the country travelling outside the country. Part of the bad reputation being from the RP gets some people, it is in no small part because of the sleazy scambags who inhabit the halls of government.
Getting rid of all of the incumbent politicians should be job one for the citizens of the country.
charter change to a unicameral system would be a step in the right direction if accompanied by other safeguards but vested interests will ensure that this will never happen just like 60/40 provision and FoI.
3 measures which could fundamentally change the economy, democracy, and social change on a macro scale rather than all these sh#ts simply having pissing contests amongst themselves, and focussing on either the irrelevant or the absurd.
the senate is clearly irrelevant and just a money laundering operation for all dishonourable senators, most of whom hardly ever turn up and certainly never attend full sessions. political jokes.
the hypocrisy season in pinas is about to begin(well some epal has started since last year), starring the filthy and greedy animals vying for the positions and the gullible electorate.
Where are we going to start the change that we wanted since the era of presidency started?
I guess none, political zarzuela became part of Filipino culture and tradition. Some people make a fortune out of it and I dont think these shitty heads are willing to give up the luxury they could get. the benefits of evil are overwhelming.
Trapo vs Trapo.
Keep on fighting the good fight. In paper and in action.