Why Paradise is Efficient

Democracy need not be an exercise in disappointing everybody. Democracy is the practice of freedom and self-governance aimed at reaching the best outcome for everybody. The best outcome for everybody is what right, just, moral, and true. Anybody on the side of what is right, just, moral, and true should get their way 100% percent of the time in a truly democratic way of life. Democracy does not need to be messy and unwieldy and slow. It should be efficient and effective as a tool to achieve noble goals. Achieving noble goals should please everyone. Democracy should be an exercise in truly satisfying everybody's higher ideals, and not of ineffective and disappointing compromises at every step that dispirits our most sincere and truest intentions.

"Filipinos are Kind"

Filipinos are kind. They are gracious. They are dignified. They do not yield. We will give ourselves the highest compliments if we talk about resilient hospitality and people-pleasing skills but one thing we do not say we are is "Excellent".

"Filipinos are excellent." We compete, we excel and we win. We are not ready for this. In terms of the greatest Filipinos who have contributed so much to the development of our country we have stopped recording at Rizal's generation, as if our soil never generated the likes of them again and the best we can ever aspire to be now if we ever still want to be excellent are to be media-trained, palatable athletes and actors.

Filipino scientists? They have to only come in public service ads and free-use images or clips where they always have to have just one look: wearing some variant of lab coats and lab goggles examining a test tube and/or a more rural preservationist attire examining mangroves at some anthropology site. Then, that's it.

The best and greatest Filipinos our minds can apparently handle now post-Rizal are sanitized, generic looking "do-gooders" who ascribed fully like trained seals to some prescribed way of being. That or be bohemian, free-living looking athlete or vlogger.

"Filipinos are kind." To whom exactly? Not to the best among us apparently.

A Second-place Finish

This post is not about politics. It is about the state of our nation. 

This year's PH SONA was like a second placer's awarding ceremony. Yes, there were improvements, progress, wins, gains, victories since the past that we all can make a show of applauding loudly for. Yes, there were serious preparations done, more care to details given, more attention to intended effects and possible consequences practiced. But no one ever dreams of a second place finish in anything. The second place podium is never the goal. A close second is still a loss. It may seem harsh to say it, but we all know it is true: unless you win, you are a loser. Until the Philippines win, we are still collective losers. We still fall short of our highest aspirations.

Should it be enough to content oneself with small victories? Should it be enough to satisfy oneself with taking small steps? Should we always humble ourselves and not ask for something better? Should we always worry about pacifying hurt feelings or bruised egos in the name of saving face or social harmony? Widespread social harmony at the expense of a single martyred life will always be an unjust equation. And we martyr many lives each day because we have just not been good enough for so long. We have been so ised to losing, that second place begins to look like a championship.

If you say there are no winners or losers in life and that we are all part of one human family, then you are probably so used to a dysfunctional family that your senses to seek a better quality of life for all have dulled. Families do not need to live with injustice. Injustice can be eradicated. Eradicating injustice need not be slow. It does not need to come in baby steps. Taking one step towards the right direction does not need to come with two steps backwards.

The state of the Philippine nation at the moment can be likened to a one time prized fighter who got lazy and cocky and neglected his training and conditioning routine for a long time, and now wants to redeem himself in one final match so he puts in the effort again to get in shape to fight, but the years of neglect have taken their toll and the ghost of the past have caught up with present memories. Unless it is a win, it's a loss.

I'm tired of us losing and being told that it's just baby steps. We've been babies for too long. I'm tired of us losing and being told it's just birthing pains. It's already way past nine months and we are just lucky we are not dead yet. I'm tired of sugarcoated ego strokes. No one ever heals from a deep wound without feeling the sting of a disinfectant and we ever want to get rid of this cancer sore on our collective psyche we have got to get used to the bitterness of some of the most effective medicines. We have to take bigger steps. We have to let a few bruised egos and hurt feelings stand without feeling the need to soothe everybody's care at every turn. 

To lead a country you need to build consensus, yes. But whoever said consensus is only built through soothing and pacifying statements for all? Whoever said that nobody can get 100% of their way in a democracy? You should be able to get 100% of your way in a democracy if you can build a consensus behind the idea that some things get 0. Is it difficult to determine what gets 100 and what gets 0? Is it imposition of some dominant view to say that one thing will be fully supported and another thing will not be supported at all? No. It just takes conviction. 

How can you have conviction against enemies and not sacrifice social cohesion and harmony? Are Filipinos even allowed to have enemies or must we be friends of all? If you make yourself enemies of some, can you still be a good person? I think it is silly we even have to ask ourselves this. For a people who put in a lot of effort to get along well with others and who painstakingly try to avoid being called a bad person or being hated, we sure can be pretty mean-spirited and hateful in our everyday dealings. 

We are, at worst, spineless cowards who are afraid of openly judging people's mistakes because we fear to be judged by others on our countless errors and yet we secretly gossip and judge and laugh at every little mistake of others just to pass the time. Then, we have the arrogance to publicly claim decency and care and consideration and that we are all only for preserving social harmony, while inviting to the table the very people guilty of destroying our social fabric in the name of God knows what.

I never understood why we have to be "gracious" to those who have caused us so much harm and I never will. I refuse to understand it because I think attempting to do so is to engage in the worst form of brainwashing which is to brainwash yourself. I don't understand why we are so concerned about reforming sinners and redeeming offenders while we so carelessly martyr do-gooders and burden so easily the best among us.

The state of the nation at this time is that of a sad second-placer who has not yet learned that champions win because they have the drive to beat the others and not because we all get trophies in the end. Unless we win, we are losers. We can all win but we have to be willing to beat that loser in ourselves.

Phony, Hack, Fake

The worst kind of liar are those who lie to themselves and believe it.

An incurable affliction of the mind begins with falsehoods that a person lets sip in to their reasoning leading to a path toward irredemption. It bears repeating that "once does not make a habit, but choosing wrong again and again will make a person rabid."

Lying only leads to more lies, and an irredeemable liar will ruin others because they have already ruined themselves. It is hubris and debased flattery of one's ego to think that redemption is afforded to all. Redemption is a promise given only to the faithful, and fulfilled only by striving to cultivate virtues.

A covenant for peace is not unconditional. It is a pact to be uphold faithfully by those who enter into it. Those who fail to uphold their part have already invited ruin, and come judgment time, the unfaithful's protestations will only fall on deaf ears. Just as how they denied the truth, so too would a liar's final bargaining pleas be rejected.

Is Inequality Unavoidable?

I am no economist nor in any way savvy with trends involving money, but I am a citizen striving to live each day with dignity. 

I also have a strong belief about human nature.

I believe that each person is meant to fulfill their greatest potential. Each person is meant to go as far as their talents and character will take them. I also believe that the law of nature favors equilibrium, meaning everything must end up fair after all is said and done. Just as every person is given the freedom to strive and reach their full potential, every person is also accountable for their own in/decisions and in/actions. Every person is also afforded the freedom to opt out of fulfilling their potential. Because a human person is a free being, a human person can choose their own salvation or ruin.

But going back to inequality in the economic sense, here's what I think (I can explain better in the vernacular): Mayroong tatsulok ngunit hindi kailangan baliktarin ito. Kailangan patabain ang gitna. Ang magiging hugis ay maliit na tusok sa magkabilang dulo at malawak at pahabang espasyo sa gitna.

Ang mga inihayag kong paniniwala sa simula tungkol sa kalikasan ng tao ay maaaring maging argumento rin para sa importansiya ng pagsulong ng matatag at malawak na middle class. Kung ang bawat tao ay mayroon mang kalayaang umangat o bumagsak ayon sa kanyang karapatang mamili at mag-desisyon para sa sarili, sa kanyang paggamit o hindi paggamit ng sariling potensyal, at sa kanyang karakter o pagkatao, ang kalayaang ito ay maaaring magsimula lamang sa isang matatag na pundasyon sa gitna. Hanggat hindi pa lubos na nabibigay ang kalayaang ito sa lahat, hindi pa natatapos ang gawain para sa tunay na pagkapantay-pantay.

Is inequality inevitable? It is not if we are willing to strive for its eradication.

The Things Dreams Are Made Of

Freedom is not light nor is it heavy. Freedom gives you the power to move unimpeded however you may please and all the weight that comes with this. Thus, something that has been set free has both power and responsibility that can never be acquired any way else by those still in shackles. A free being knows to pay the rightful tribute to the past, to be still in the presence of the now, and to build a future worthy of both those that yet to come and of the binds that gave rise to itself.

The Morality of Evolution

Studying Darwin's work on evolution is an important part of the discipline of Psychology's scholarly spirit. After all, if we want to explore the human condition, a study of the origin of our species is an indispensable cog in the wheel. Human nature is build up of many facets and one of those is undeniably our collective ancestry - our biological, physical, social, and psychological past.

Throughout the years, the study our evolutionary psychology and the corresponding consensus regarding its true nature have shifted perspectives depending on new uncovered information, more evidence for past findings or solidifying old assumptions, and the zeitgeist. To my mind, these perspectives can be broadly summed up into two main categorical ideas to date: evolution (and therefore people are) is immoral and favors the strong gene dominating or killing the weaker gene, or evolution (and therefore people are) is amoral and actions happen without any value judgment or principles behind.

But what about the idea that evolution is moral? Is it possible that nature favors the survival of genes that strive to reach a better and more ideal state, while protecting the vulnerable and nurturing the weaker genes in its surrounding because, as evolved and conscious species, we know innately that we are only as strong as the weakest link among us? I believe this is possible.

The discipline of psychology as it explores human nature can give evidence to an, as of now, understated part of a person's natural urges -- the instict to serve, to do good, and to pursue progress and the ideal not only for oneself but for all in the gene pool of humanity. 

If evolutionary psychology is moral, how can we explain the brutality among our existence? If nature and people are innately good, why do bad things happen? Personally, I think bad things should not happen. When they do, that means an error has occurred. It makes sense that because we are still evolving, imperfect creatures, mistakes will still happen. Some mistakes will be grave and difficult to come back from. But, our history as a species is long. We should learn and adapt. As a matter of fact, the only way to survive is to learn and adapt. And if it is true that evolution is moral, that the genes that survive are those that are closer to our better nature, then it would mean that the best type of adaptation is to learn from past mistakes that had pulled us down to moral squalor and to then rise up to our more conscious selves. 

If the unconscious, according to Freud, is made up of our repressed trauma and base sexual and agression drives which leads a person to be psychologically infantile when they are unable to rise above these, then to strive to be conscious should mean to heal from our personal and collective trauma, to control baser urges, and to fully realize the flourishing of our better and more moral nature.