Whether we like it or not, the Philippines is changing. Whether it is because current Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is making good on his campaign promises or not, change will come to Filipinos. We need to put a stop to the traditional thinking that any one person, clique, or some sort of “god” is behind our fortunes. The fact is, the world is a complex place and there are many variables that account for what happens next.
For example, while traditional Filipino “activists” lock horns on which world power the Philippines needs to be allied with (the old choice between being a “US-[insert current president here] Regime” or a “province of China”, and on whether or not “poor” Filipino workers are accorded enough “rights” to keep the big bad ugly capitalists honest, the rest of the world moves on to face modern challenges with eyes wide open. Key here is the obvious fact that technological progress is galloping along — becoming an ever bigger influence on the lives of ordinary people.
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Old-school “thought leaders”, for one, lament the rise of Chinese-run Philippine Online Gaming Operations (POGOs), seeing these as parts of sinister plots mounted by Chinese “imperialists” to invade the Philippines by stealth and by attrition.
Zzzzzz…
This hollow-headed rhetoric fails to recognise bigger factors at play — how much of these operations are made possible by technology (it is often businesses outside of the scope of “polite” conversation, porn and gambling, that are the quickest to find technological solutions to their legal challenges), and how much of the cash China is awash with somehow needs to go somewhere to be parked and played.
So while the bigger things going on — big boys playing with their technology and cash toys — drive change, our dear small-minded “thought leaders” in the so-called “woke” community whine about what are essentially non-issues. After all, there is nothing new about the Philippines being just one of the little pawns in the globo-politics of world powers. It just happens to be the easy topic that lends well to the crafting of moronic catchphrases that pander to old Victim Mentalities used in Cold War-era street “protests” we continue to be subject to today.
There is a strong need to lift the quality of the national discourse. This will not happen if we continue to allow it to be dominated by the Old Guard — people who have rebranded themselves into the so-called “woke” crowd but are, underneath that clever disguise, just the same moldy 1970s-vintage mob led by the disgruntled Old Fart holdovers from the discredited First Quarter Storm mythology told in old (and also discredited) Philippine History textbooks.
One cannot uphold a bold and modern vision if the motivation to dream big is held back by a chain hooked on to 1970s thinking.
We therefore need an Opposition, and, for that matter, political parties that embrace a bright but more challenging future that is rich in opportunity for those who possess the imagination to harvest these. These new parties need to regard that future with minds unencumbered by the thinking of the old order of fear mongerers, oligarchs with vested interests in the status quo, and “analysts” who issue uninformed commentary without knowing enough about the technologies that are now the core foundations of the social orders we inhabit. In short, we need political parties that apply modern thinking to the strategic vision that they pitch to Filipino voters.
If we continue to rely on parties that constantly remind Filipinos that they are “victims” then, guess what, Filipinos will continue to think like victims. The time has come for Filipinos to refuse to be victims. It begins with the individual and that change needs to come from the grassroots — in the way ordinary Filipinos raised and educated. However, the most influential amongst us — people with big audiences and the loudest bullhorns also need to be taken to task in a broad initiative to change the Philippines’ political culture and discourse. It starts now.
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.
“Change cannot be avoided. Stop thinking like VICTIMS. Refuse to be one!”
There are only five basic principles I’m suggesting, and I will repeat them again:
1. Be not a burden!
2. Be independent!
3. Be practical!
4. Be not left behind!
5. Be educated!
This is the only way to “help” everyone, by making them uphold each principles, the only way to stop thinking like victims and being an object of pity.
As a responsible parents, the question is, what kind of citizen do you want your children to grow up to be?
The concept of ‘Victim-mentality’, as a thinking, is not exactly in the same vein as being the ‘Victim(s)’, as the individual(s). They are not exactly one and the same in the area of this so called victim-hood.
If there are people with status who posses relevant experiences in life and education who can best handle such thinking, still, there will be people who will have to contend, one way or the other, with the reality of becoming victims… as victims of circumstance, of inequality, of crime, of poverty, of corruption, of injustice…
One’s thinking can be controlled by the self, but, many becoming real victims in the ways of the in-egalitarian society’s powerful elite, both in or out of the government, outside of your own control, is still potentially real and potent.
The whole society (with its leaders in charge, with the support of its people) has to change from being a society of privilege for the few into a society of opportunity for the many. If that will be granted, all else follows!
Yes, although we can extend what you said further by saying that the individual situation is not an apples-to-apples comparison to the macro/collective situation.
Victim mentality as framed in this piece is more in reference to the collective character of Philippine society. This recognises the reality of wide variances at an individual level. But because policy and political platforms can only be designed (for economics’ sake) around an “average” (plus/minus an agreed/accepted variance range), we need to be able to aggregate the parameters as such.
We all have to go beyond the , obsolete EDSA mentality. .. We have to remove all the remnants of the Aquino Cojuangco political axis propaganda like the : EDSA Shrine; the EDSA holidays ; the Ninoy Aquino name in the Manila International Airport; the Aquino name in the Rizal Memorial Stadium; the teaching of the Aquino martyr, saint and heroism in our textbooks; the influence of the Roman Catholic Church in our politics; the participation of the CPP and the NPA in our politics; the extortion of our taxes by the CPP and the NPA thru the Partylists/Legislative assembly ; the nasty pictures of the Aquinos in our currency; we have to trash the 1986 Cory Aquino constitution – it works for them, not for us; etc…
We are now in the Information Technology Age …we Filipinos, must take advantage of this new technology, to get as much reliable and true information for ourselves. We can debate and discuss topics in our social media, to improve ourselves and our country. We can also inform each other thru the social media…We, the People, are the active players in the mainstream media. We don’t need oligarch controlled media, to dish us political and self serving propaganda; or politicians’ controlled mainstream media and information sources…
Of course, there will be paid internet trolls, who will peddle the political agendas of whoever paid them. However, we have to educate ourselves how to know the truth from the falsehood; and how to identify these trolls…
It is our own decision, if we continue to rely on our “obsolete EDSA mindsets”, or to Move On to have a better discriminating mindset of our own; that is In Tune with the Times !
There has to be a better approach than that. Failing to recognize injustice won’t help the problem. How can the “big boys” with toys and money move forward if many are still behind?