Forgiveness Is Not One Click Of A Button Away

Repentance is not a voucher you just claim at any point. Redemption is not a given. Forgiveness is not a done deal. Salvation is a gift to be received only by those made worthy.

Heroes who have spilled their blood to reclaim the lost and martyrs who have given their lives to wash away our pain will not pop up like mushrooms nor endlessly be on this walk with us. What we have lost, is lost. And there is no guarantee that they will be redeemed.

Anything deemed important must be handled with care for they are not items instantly available to gratify our desires with one touch of a button. If we deem life to be important, then we must understand that some things take more effort than a press of a button.

So as long as we are prepared to give the required effort, then maybe we can be made worthy. Maybe we can be forgiven and redeemed. Maybe repentance can happen sooner. Maybe what is lost can be gained back because everything has been set right again, and the error in our ways have now been corrected instantaneously.

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.

Ang Pakikisama ay Hindi Pakikipag-Kapwa

Sa kulturang Pilipino, ang pakikisama ay karaniwang nangangahulugan ng pakikisabay sa ginagawa ng iba. Halimbawa, sumama sa iba sa inuman, makisabay sa usapan ng grupo, o makisalo sa handaan sa opisina, eskwela, o kahit sa bahay. Nangangahulugan rin ito kadalasan ng pakikisabay o pagsama sa kagawian ng isang dominanteng grupo. Minsan, kahit mali ang mga gawi ng karamihan, may nakikisabay pa rin dito dahil sanay makisama.

Sa kabilang banda, ang pakikipagkapwa ay nangangahulugan ng mas malalim na bagay para sa kulturang Pilipino. Kapag sinabing "kapwa", hindi ito ibig sabihin na ibang tao lamang. Kahit rin minsan ginagamit ito upang tukuyin ang ibang tao kasama ang sarili, iba rin ito ng kahulugan sa "tayo". Kapag sinabing "kapwa", nagbibitiw ng paninindigan na ang sinumang iba ay kapantay ng sarili. Hindi ito simpleng salita na nangangahulugan ng "tayo" o "ako at ikaw" o "kagrupo ko". Ang paninindigang kakabit nito ay mayroong moral na implikasyon. 

Sa ganitong pananaw, iba ang kahulugan ng pakikisama sa pakikipagkapwa dahil bagama't maaari tayong magkamali at makisama sa mali, walang sinuman ang maaaring makipagkapwa para sa mali. Sinasabi nito na hindi kailangan mabura ang sariling prinsipyo para lang mabuhay kasama ang iba, na kadalasan ay binubura kapag nabanggit ang "pakikisama". Ang pakikipagkapwa ay nangangahulugan ng paninindigan para sa tama, sa moral, at sa respeto sa pagkapantay-pantay ng bawat tao kahit magkakaiba ang estado at kinalalagyan sa buhay. 

Instinct

There is a well-known experiment by a psychologist named Martin Seligman, where he administered controlled electric shock to a cage with a dog inside. At first, he would only let the electric current run on portions of the cage. He would see the dog move to safety to the unelectrified sections of the cage. But on one test, he electrified the entirety of the cage and there was no safe surface. 

At first the dog tried to find a safe spot, but when it realized there was none, it just slowly lay down in one spot of the cage and accepted the shock. Even in subsequent experiments where there was a safe spot on the other side of the cage that could be reached by jumping over a low barrier, the dog did not try to escape. This experiment brought about a famous concept in psychology called "learned helplessness". In a nutshell, it is about how both animals and humans can learn to be helpless in situations where they perceive harm as inescapable.

Seligman would later become known for his work in the field of Positive Psychology. The focus of this field is directly opposite to that of inducing learned helplessness. It is about looking at strengths rather than weaknesses, and developing healthy coping when faced with problems.

But, personally, I think Positive Psychology these days have gone on to spawn ideas that seem to circle back to Seligman's learned helplessness, namely those ideas that has been termed collectively as "toxic positivity". Many people are already familiar with this term casually. It is typically used to indicate something that seemingly glorifies only the positive aspects of a situation to the point of appearing to dismiss its legitimate negative sides, just to avoid experiencing negative feelings. "Walang nega, good vibes lang" is a colloquial phrase that easily comes to mind.

I think both animals and humans have an innate drive to reject helplessness. Faced with adversity, an instinct kicks in to fight back. Some may call this survival instinct. But, I think, if it is to be a healthy and sustainable quality, it has to do with something more than just survival. Mere survival is not enough of a reason to sustain perseverance amid difficulties. To supplement survival, some have added pleasure-seeking into their life's goals. At best, it means to chase your happiness, whatever that may be for you. At worst, it gets people caught up in chasing false leads to get to more money, more power, and just more of everything, until greed takes over and no amount of reason can get them out of the endless chase. Just as in learned helplessness, a wrong assumption had already been formed, and they are now helplessly at the mercy of getting more money and power, stuck in a rat race, like a drug addicted person chasing the next fix. Some say, we should temper baser instincts with faith or religion. But we know that comes with its own poison - unreasonable dogmatic extremists who impose their belief system on others while they live a hypocritical lifestyle unmoored from their own beliefs. In all cases, it brings to mind the image of people who are surviving, but who are nonetheless helpless and broken.

So how can we truly go through difficulties without letting our spirits break? How can we live above mere survival and not settle for toxic positivity, broken pleasure-seeking, or fatalistic beliefs? I truly believe no one can answer that for another person. Every person has to find that answer for themselves. But no one can answer something without asking it first. Sadly, for too many people, even the act of asking themselves this simple and, to my mind, an all important question, goes neglected. It is buried as a priority way below daily distractions and activities, unscheduled leisure and scheduled work -- never to surface again until perhaps at a final, regret-filled hour. 

I have asked myself this question many times, but my answer won't matter here, because again, it might not be your answer. But, I will say this, I believe that compromise do not mix with values and principles, and that change for the better is not meant to be slow. And, I think that if psychology can prove to us that helplessness can be learned, or reveal that positivity can be toxic, then perhaps it can also give evidence to another side of the human condition. One that can reflect the idea that to be driven to realize progress founded on unwavering values and principles is as much a part of the human spirit as any other instinct we might have. 

Malaya at Mapagpalaya

Ang Sikolohiyang Pilipino ay naitatag bilang disiplina sa pundasyon ng mga pananaliksik ng tinaguriang Ama ng Sikolohiyang Pilipino na si Dr. Virgilio Enriquez. Ang bisyon sa likod ng disiplinang ito ay napapaloob sa mga katagang kakabit ng pangalan nito, na parang bang isang motto or ethos: Malaya at Mapagpalaya.

Ang isinusulat ko na ito ay hindi isang leksyon tungkol sa kasaysayan o pagtatatag o di kaya'y mga assumptions sa likod ng Sikolohiyang Pilipino bilang disiplina. Ito ay isang paglalahad lamang ng aking personal na pananaw ukol dito. Isa sa pinaka-mahalaga para sa akin na aspeto ng Sikolohiyang Pilipino ay ang bisyon nito na maging isang disiplina na "malaya at mapagpalaya". 

Mahalaga ito sa akin dahil i-dinedeklara nito na ang sikolohiya bilang disiplina ay hindi lamang tungkol sa pagiging maunawain sa problema, o pakikinig sa hinaing at pagiging maintindi sa bigat o suliranin ng ibang tao, o di kaya'y pag bibilang lamang ng numero at pagtingin sa tao bilang specimen na pwede lang suriin base sa kanilang maliliit na kilos o galaw. Deklarasyon ito na ang sikolohiya sa Pilipinas ay mayroong tungkulin na maging malaya at mapagpalaya.

Dinadala sa isipan ng ganitong motto o ethos ang halos mitolohikal na imahe ng isang taong pinili umangat mula sa kasadlakan at kumuha ng matalim na sandata para sirain ang kadena na naghihila pababa sa kanya, habang tinutulungan ang iba ring nakakadena na makakuha ng kanilang sandata at masira ang lahat ng amunang humahadlang sa personal at pangkalahatang kalayaan ng isang tao, at lalo na ng isang Pilipino.

Nang aking mabasa ang mga sulat ni Dr. Virgilio Enriquez ay tila may pintong sinipa pabagsak sa loob ng aking utak. Nagbukas ito ng bagong perspektibo, bagong pagintindi hingil sa mga bagay na luma nang matatagpuan sa ating buhay. Mga dati nang problema ng bayan. Mga dati nang suliranin ng tao. At ang nagpapatuloy sa laban para sa tunay na kalayaan, para sa atin at sa kapwa.

Redemption

Nobody should endure pain or suffer for any reason. The only reason nearly acceptable is if someone committed a crime and suffered as a punishment. Some religious beliefs propagate the idea that our sufferings as human beings are a way to cleanse ourselves of sins. That we are all born sinful, carrying the sins of our ancestors, and must suffer to purify our souls. I don't want to venture into analyzing or opining about religious dogma, but I reject such belief. 

Even in the case of an immoral criminal who must suffer the consequences of their actions, it still begs the question why and how such vile acts were permitted to begin with or why such a vile being was allowed to exist. In our depths of despair, it becomes necessary for some to believe in a higher power or conjure a godlike entity, in order that they may still hope and believe that their suffering were not in vain.

The only thing I believe in is the first statement I wrote above. There are a lot of different takes on why suffering exists. This is my take: it shouldn't. The only thing that gives me hope is the idea that any and all sufferings are unjust and justice means an elimination of such in all its forms. Until want, despair, poverty, abuse, and any and all types of corruption are definitively and completely eradicated, the work to bring about the end to that which should have never existed must never stop.

Moral Bankruptcy as a Psychological Illness

Seeing people in power who abuse and exploit the vulnerable and defenseless can elicit different reactions in us, like fear, despair, or anger. Sometimes, the reaction can be that of wanting to understand - a certain curiosity, of how such a morally bankrupt person can exist among us. The latter can be likened to witnessing a train wreck or a car crash and not being able to look away.

At worst, such misguided curiosity can lead us to become stuck, like a deer staring into the headlights of a car about to kill it. We obsess with media depicting mass murderers, serial killers, pedophile criminals, rapists, and sexual abusers. We have engrossed ourselves to much in depictions of twisted realities in the form of self-looping psychological narratives that lead its audiences to nowhere but a steep fall from a meaningless cliff. In short, we begin to consume slop in the guise of exploration and learning.

We become too slow to recognize that the best we can get out of examining a morally bankrupt person's life and the times that gave rise to them is to learn from the mistakes committed that bred such hate, so that we may never repeat them nor propagate the illness of moral bankruptcy.

False Leads?

Some would say that engaging in discourse about morals, values, intents, motivations, or right vs. wrong and good vs. bad is only an exercise in chasing false leads leading to logical dead-ends and falling into an unavoidable self-righteousness trap. But, I would say, that humans, like all evolved creatures, have certain built-in, integral functions that define their very beings. And one such fundamental function we have as humans is the capacity to make sense of who we are. 

It might get repetitive, boring, or preachy to some, but the fact that human beings are not meant to be power-hungry, money-obsessed, amoral cheaters and liars, bears repeating. We sell ourselves short if we think that just because we aren't perfect and we make mistakes that somehow that is a license to keep making mistakes toward our own persons, or worse, a license to exploit and harm others.

There is such a thing as, "to be on wrong side of history". To be judged in hindsight as someone who caused their fellow people more harm than good, more suffering than peace. To be judged as those to have made grave, moral mistakes against their fellow men and all of humanity. Even in light of this undeniable truth, there are still a few who argue that history can be rewritten. That one must only acquire wealth and power and that those who have both can turn even lies into the truth. Those who argue this have been proven wrong, time and again.

We have the capacity, as human beings, to eliminate our physical, social, and psychological ills. The barrier to our realization of this capacity to its full potential is our tendency to choose a known harm over the unknown search for a cure. But we know from history that those who chose to settle with flawed and harmful ways, failed to progress, and did not realize the promise of a better future. 

At the risk of chasing false leads and falling into a self-righteousness trap, progress in our collective understanding of ourselves requires that we venture into roads that may be considered dead-ends, that we examine what may be considered losing arguments, that -- all the while guided by sound reason, an unwavering spirit and an internal moral compass -- we come out of the other side of this search more knowledgeable, more progressive, and less afflicted than when we began.

Tama o Mali?

Kapag ang isang tao ay nagkamali, dapat ba siyang bigyan ng isa pang pagkakataon para maituwid ang maling nagawa?

Oo? Hindi? Depende?

Kung anuman ang iyong sagot, may dalawang bagay na hindi napagkaila: una, ang tao ay maaaring magkamali; pangalawa, ang mali ay may karampatang tama. 

Ano ang halaga na pagisipan ang tanong na ito? Mahalaga ito para bigyang ebidensiya ang ating pananaw tungkol sa moralidad. Sa panahon ngayon na tila ang bukambibig ng marami ay "wala namang tama o mali" o "lahat naman tayo nagkakamali" o di kaya ay "kanya kanya naman yan wag tayong maghusga" na para bang katumbas ng ating hindi perpektong kaalaman sa tama at mali ay ang lisensya upang bumitiw sa moralidad, dapat isipin na hindi man natin alam ang lahat ay may alam pa rin tayo.

Dapat ay alam natin ang tama sa mali. Dahil kung totoo na ang pagiging tama o mali ay nasa kanya kanyang interpretasyon lamang natin, ano ang humahadlang na sa oras na ito mismo ay bawiin sayo lahat ng sa tingin mo ay tama sa buhay mo? Kung mayroon tayong lisensya na gumawa ng anuman kahit masama sa ibang tao, ano ang pumipigil sa ibang tao na gumawa ng masama sayo? Kapag gumawa tayong lahat ng kasamaan, ano ang mangyayari sa mundo? Di na kailangan lumayo pa ang isip para matanto ang sagot dito.

Kahit hindi natin alam ang lahat, mayroon tayong alam. Kahit hindi tayo perpekto, marapat pa rin magsumikap abutin ito. Dahil kapag ginawan mo ng masama ang sinumang tao, binubuksan mo ang pagkakataong may magawang masama sayo. Ang kabaliktaran ay totoo rin. Gumawa ng kabutihan at ito ay magbubunga ng mas maraming mabuti.

Ngunit, ang pagsisikap maging mabuti at pag-abot sa huwangis ng perpeksyon ay hindi nangangahulugan ng pagiging mapang-mata sa pagkukulang ng iba o ng sarili man. May kanya kanya tayong gusto at ayaw sa buhay. Ika nga ng Ama ng Sikolohiyang Pilipino na si Dr. Virgilio Enriquez, may dahilan ka kung hindi mo gusto maki-sama, ngunit walang dahilan ang sinuman na hindi makipag-kapwa.

The Physical and the Psychological

We know that humans are not only physical beings. We know humans have a mental, social, and emotional nature - or more holistically can be referred to as a psychological being. 

It is reasonable to assume that every physical phenomenon can have its corresponding psychological effect to a person experiencing it. For instance, sleeping is a way to rest the physical body, but we know it also affects our non-physical needs. Therefore, there is a difference between physically sleeping and feeling rested. 

When we apply these reasonable assumptions about the physical and psychological nature of a person to other phenomena, we see that our psychological being permeates what we normally only see as a physical encounter. 

For instance, when a retail shop sells you its goods and you pay to obtain the goods, a physical exchange of money occurs. A physical profit is gained by the store and by the buyer. The store gains money and the buyer acquires the physical item. But, a corruption to this ordinary physical exchange can also happen. Think of profiteering. A retail shop can manipulate prices so that its side gain unfairly more from an exchange with a consumer. The consumer in this case loses rather than gains. 

But what about psychological exchanges? Say for instance you go about your daily business then you see on your social media feed manipulated content designed to provoke negative psychological reactions you would not normally feel at that point. Can this not be considered intrusive, unfair, psychological profiteering? Who gains from such an interaction and who loses? We know social media is a causative factor in many adverse psychological conditions, especially for the vulnerable and young population. They say, "think before you share". But are social media users given the fair benefit of having the mental capacity to thoroughly think before they can act? Or is someone obviously profiting with an unfair psychological advantage? We know the answer to this. But maybe what we know is just the tip of an iceberg.

How are we to defend ourselves from obviously existing covert, manipulative, intrusive, psychological profiteering? Social media detox? Thinking before sharing? Think of a poisoned water stream or of historical events where drugs were covertly spread to certain communities. These are physical attacks. How were those communities supposed to have defended themselves?

I want to protect myself from psychological attacks that we know abound everywhere these days. They affect us in our online interactions and spill over to our physical lives. The physical and psychological are intertwined. So I share these opinions to defend my own mind. They say "think before you share". But, maybe, it should be challenge any idea, whether you share or not. I personally would not buy into any hype that easily. I will defend my opinions but I will be reasonable about it. Most of all, I would hold on to enduring values and try everyday to live up to high ideals, because just as clean air and clean water keeps our body healthy, a clean heart keeps our mind sound.

Old Habits

When we complain about the Filipino's tendency to have a short memory of his nation's history, to be soft to his most brutal adversaries, and to be forgiving of the gravest mistakes committed to his dignity, then we naturally ask how this came to be and why is it still so. The answer: we relapse into old, bad habits easily because we never bothered building up a national stamina for sustained hard-work, no drama politics, and for prioritizing service to others above personal comforts.

When you want to summit a formidable mountain, you want to build up stamina first and the lung capacity to withstand thin air. When you want to run or cycle through a long marathon, you want to condition your body to function well even with sustained exertion. If you want to be effective with thinking and executing long-term, you have to be effective with what needs to be done in the present term. 

If Filipinos are disappointed with our slowness and ineffectiveness, if we know that more can be done but we always seem to come up short for our countrymen, if we feel that many of our problems could have been resolved long ago if only we had the will to fix them, then we can only blame the fact that we did not do our necessary collective pre-work. Much like how the old story goes, when times are good we simply lie under a fertile tree and wait for the low-hanging fruit to drop to our open mouths as we take a nap. We never really trained our minds to think of and prepare for the winter even during springtime. So we always end up scrambling for crumbs during lean times.

Maybe because we don't have the four seasons to teach us how to prepare for winter. Maybe it's too hot and humid and it causes our laziness. Maybe there can be a thousand other excuses if excuses are what we are looking for. Pag gusto may paraan, pag ayaw...

The truth is, even in countries with four seasons or whatever other advantage we think they have, they still had to do the requisite pre-work of their nation. They had to build up the habit of hard-work and foresight. Hard-work most especially. Any advanced and stable nation you can think of is known for the no nonsense, no drama, hardworking sensibilities of its people. Sure, they may have another side when it comes to leisure, but they know that work is work. And again, work does not start or end in the workplace. A hardworking and serious streak is not like a faucet you just turn off and on. It is conditioned through time. It is discipline built through a pre-work routine. It is a consciously developed good habit.

The Truth Shall Set You Free

Many societal ills seem convoluted and hopelessly linked to larger ills that persist since time immemorial, and therefore, this leads us to believe that what we don't like about the world are unchangeable. We begin to think that this in turn gives us the license to do harm and that good is relative and non-binding. This type of assumption is fundamentally unsound reasoning because it does not factor in our internal capacity, mainly human being's capacity for manipulation to self-preserve. 

In other words, what seems like unsolvable, intractable, social ills that are hopelessly persisting since time immemorial may actually be our own failings and problems with ourselves that we refuse to let go of lest we are exposed to the sting of a disinfectant. It is like a wound we harbor and nurse and keep away from water and sunlight because we fear to take the steps to cure it until the wound festers and the sores run. Then, to hide our illness, we fool ourselves to think that it had always been this way. We cling to those that can confirm our manipulated reality. We become complicit in our own sickness and refuse to get better. We lie and engage in more lies. We bury the truth.

The truth is that nothing is as convoluted and intractable as we make it seem. We can heal our own illness. We should choose to heal social ills instead of profiting from it, whether in a monetary or in a psychological sense. Because the profits we think we gain from prolonging a fundamentally flawed assumption will only turn out to be the shackles that hold us back from becoming better.

Of Rights and Responsibilities

Everyone has the right to be respected and be treated with dignity. But nobody can save a person who do not respect themselves or those who choose short-term spoils over a dignified future. 

We, as conscious and free beings, decided to move away from a world dominated by privileges and move towards fulfilling the promise of equal rights and opportunities for all. But even now, in an age where we no longer dwell in physical dark caves, there are still some of us who have yet to make that decision, not for others and not even for themselves.

Those who cling to primitive fears and hate do so either out of a lack of capacity to be conscious and responsible for their own actions, out of greed resulting in a refusal to let go of inequities that serves them well enough at the expense of other people, out of not believing that the time of privileges for a few is over and never was an option to begin with, or out of a denial of this simple truth: that if we want to be free, then choosing to be ignorant and reveling in it is evil and that we owe it to ourselves to choose goodness in all that we do.

We are only as strong as the weakest link among us. The goal is for all of us to act for the benefit of each other in order that there will no longer be such as a thing as a weak link. Commanding the respect of others begins with respecting ourselves -- sa isip, sa salita, at sa gawa. Commanding the respect of others ends with each of us maintaining disciplined vigilance against any attempt at cheapening our freedoms.

It Was Heard

The lone voice in the wilderness was heard. The echo got through the haze and fog of the confused night. The message was received. With the break of the dawn, the ship will sail once more. All of those who heeded the call are onboard. They will bear with them the names of the heroes of the last voyage, as they forge a new path forward. And all of those who failed to hear the cry will fall behind. Until the lone voice in the wilderness once again rise up and proclaim that the time to repent is now, for the final judgment is at hand.