dissecting a brain

Hear ye! Hear ye! The greatest show on earth is not in Russia, nor in China, nor in the US. It's here! It's in the Philippines. No need to go anywhere, folks. You've got your circus right in the comfort of your own living room. Yes! In your own humble abode... thanks to the technology that is... TV!

The Filipino has no eye for the evident. They see all the clues hanging around battered society, and it seems their talent of ignoring problems of obvious causes to nonexistence. Unfortunately, we seem to exhibit and to be masters of the art of producing false beliefs. Tsismis. And it seems tsismis has more appeal to the Filipino than the truth. For us, truth is boring.

Examples? We don't need to look afar for obvious clues. The recent election itself is a living and reliving proof of the ignored obvious. Every year, countless cases of dagdag-bawas and other innumerable sorts of cheating, as well as abuse of power to influence illegal alteration in the process come out during and after the electoral procedure come out. Has any of them up there in the pedestals of high power punished for the crimes they allegedly have committed? No. Why? Because we choose to ignore. Because we easily forget. We rather dismiss effortlessly than take the difficult task of uncovering the truth- a wearying task for an allegedly lazy people.

We like truth, or its somewhat pirated versions, served instantly because our society has defined "instant" as "good." But we all know that aside from that truth that truth hurts, truth also is a priceless jewel which is very hard to locate. Also, truth comes in two flavors: good and bad. Good news isn't that popular to the Filipino society for now, for we have a surplus of bad news to savor. It seems the former tastes better than the latter in the case of the Filipino, for we oftentimes ignore good news for more flavorful spicy controversial news. And so many may as well listen to The Buzz or Startalk than focus their attention to more sensible shows in the Discovery Channel, perhaps, or public affairs programs like Pipol, Jessica Soho Reports or the evening news. Instead of reading newspapers and national broadsheets, many would rather inch every word in entertainment tabloids. Also, it seems that we enjoy witnessing entertainment than the truth that always hurt. So many would rather watch politicians sing and dance, rather than deliver their sane yet oftentimes betrayed promises enclosed in their speeches and platforms. Many would rather hear novelty songs on the radio than news about significant events happening around the country or the globe.

The people learn through media. The media learn through the people. The media, regrettably, to cope up and make advantage of this screwed perception of the Filipino's reality, would rather air noontime shows of senseless games that breed ridiculous faith to fortune than labor so as to gather a significant amount of what they call "ratings". Instead of putting on television screens visuals and audios that would contribute to the mindfulness of its viewers, they televise nonsense scandals, monotonous telenovelas that inflict only bad psychology among its viewers, and scenes and sounds that are sometimes above the PG rating which is most suitable in the afternoon. It is undeniably true that the media plays a major role in the formation of the idealism of the masses. Is the media at fault in the birth of this distorted perception of the Filipino on reality and truth? I think so.

Reality shows? You've got to be kidding me. They don't even come close to reality- to the reality of an ordinary Filipino life. Yet it still sells. Why? Filipinos would rather forget their society's cancer, even for a moment to three hours every evening, than facing them by finding solutions by more reasonable means.

I think I heard a great man say that information is the most powerful tool of any society in this generation for progress and integrity. Ignored, misused or abused, information may also be a powerful weapon AGAINST any given society, even our own. Take for instance, the losyang group of Armida Sigeon-Reyna. Yes. They're what we call "laos" (withered) in showbizness, so what better way to spend the rest of their lives in the spotlight rather than meddle with the dirty game of deception, brought about by, of course, politics! Here's a group of old fags, whining in all the glamour left in their bones on national TV, complaining and threatening the whole electoral system itself about their dream sequence on what would happen after the so-called "planned defeat" of their desperate bet FPJ, who has already unleashed his ridiculous act (this is a circus, afterall) by declaring by himself alone that he won the election. Just seeing Reyna's barren face being involved in politics makes me quiver with disgust. How much more their claims that their puny words would cause the Supreme Court of the Philippines bow upon their unreasonable requests to withdraw their decisions (regarding the banning of quick counts). Aw c'mon! The society's sooo sick, it's not going to get "sicker" with these insignificant old worms around. Yeishh...

Anyway, if I were to dissect the concerns of a common Filipino, what would I find? Probably 77.5% of it is about daily survival in a desperately poor country, 10% is about other unimportant life accessories for simple delights like text load, etc., 7% is about what tsika or tsismis to earn everyday about their favorite showbiz personalities and political figures, a substandard 5% on more self-enriching concerns like education (since it's already considered nowadays not as a necessity but as leisure and something that only a few people can accomplish), and a supremely unacceptable .5% on spirituality or perhaps on nationalism or charity.

People of such kinds of concerns are the assumed patrons of the likes Senator Tito Sotto, whose present fame rose to the top with his one-liner "I have one word for them: GARAPAL." The likes of Tito Sotto in the arena of Philippine politics think that words of such narrow-minded insults would be bought by the unknowing majority who also buys pirated CDs of movies of their idols whom they look up as almost demigods. For the likes of Tito Sotto who would rather throw mindless and rude foul language as counterattack, the people would rather hear him snarl than answer reasonable contentions from invisible creatures in a respectful manner that should define a senator of the Republic. These are the politicians and the people that the present condition of the media of information breeds.

If my tolerance level to these maggots were low, I would have immediately shifted nationalities the first time I learned the meaning of politics in this country. But no, I'd rather stay here, where I am born, to expose these maggots to the sun by the simplest means possible. Whining? No. Just complaining.