Preaching to the choir

They say people who blog (bloggers), a tremendous percentage of which are well-educated, well-informed, “well-off” and well-“everything”, are the ones running the “online show” — and this assumption is not without basis. Go ahead and search the net for familiar terms and you’ll most likely see the same blog over and over again. Another case of the “bourgeois” lording over the masa crowd looking for vital information online? Maybe.

An unwitting, unconnected, un-influential, regular Joe searching for “best presidentiable” being diverted by Google to so and so’s PR9 ((this is an exaggeration, obviously)) blog and being lectured and enjoined to vote for “change” — the good old “good vs. evil”  sort of mentality — putting personalities in a box or grooming a personality to fit in a customized ((like good guys wear yellow, bad guys wear orange or green)) box.

This is what it has come to — the mad crowd being led by a reluctant savior, where do you suppose this messiah plans to take us? To the promised land? I think not.

Haven’t you noticed how beguiling the chants have become? They have become nothing short of a promise of deliverance. Doesn’t that bother you?

They populate the net with their propaganda. They are quick to put out fires in forums and blogs. They stroke each other’s egos and glance satisfactorily at this kingdom they have built for themselves. They pretend they have something to say. They pretend they have a feasible platform.

Who is listening? Ah yes, the people clad in yellow — them with their iPods, iPhones, iMacs and iDon’tKnow’s. You think these people actually give a damn who wins? You think these people actually have a significant stake at what’s to come? No they don’t — because they are the same people who dictate what’s to come, who gets to eat, who gets to slave-off. They don’t want you to get out of poverty.

Why would they? Who will serve them coffee? Who will buy their yellow shirts? Not them, of course — anything less than a Lacoste is beneath them.

Who’s the underdog now?

I go to the mall to buy shirts and all I see is yellow. Penshoppe has gone yellow. Bench is getting yellow. All the “masa” shirts are going yellow! What used to be “in remembrance of ninoy” has become “a fight for right, a walk towards the light”, and I say wtf?

Don’t get me wrong here. I’m all for remembering Ninoy ((in all fairness to Noynoy, I am almost sure they themselves didn’t dream that the “I Am Ninoy” campaign was destined to set the stage for Cory’s near-martyrdom status and Noynoy’s eventual decision to run for president in 2010. Maybe there is some greater plan at work here, who knows.)). I’m all for remembering Cory. Heck, I’m all for the return of Che Guevarra-ish clothing phenomenon. But to use these merchandise that sell for around 400-500 pesos each for a “subtle” political campaign is just too much. Imagine how the young generation’s fascination for the hero that is Ninoy is now being used to fuel someone’s campaign.

They claim that putting blood tinge in yellow ribbons to remember the Hacienda Luisita massacre “desecrates” the yellow ribbon. Come again please? Did you just say desecrate? Has the yellow ribbon suddenly become a holy symbol? Golly, I didn’t get the memo from the Vatican.

They say they are the underdog, coming in late for the campaign, having a weaker political machinery ((as opposed to the ruling party Lakas-Kampi CMD)), having insufficient funds ((as opposed to real estate billionaire Manny Villar)) etc etc. And yet, they have resorted to some strange form of emotional blackmail ((who can compete with the legacy of a dead democracy icon everyone loves)), they are now becoming the party to beat ((more and more politicians are leaving their parties for LP)), and business tycoons great and small are flocking to LP and providing funding ((even free PR)).

These fanatics can go ahead and bask in the glory of their presumptive success. I won’t even argue whether it is deserved or not, whether it is destined or not — not even whether it is fair or not. I just hope they stop soliciting sympathy where it is not needed.

Come to think of it. These poor “other” candidates would need to spend a fortune buying shirts, printing quirky campaign slogans on those shirts, give it for free and even prod people to actually wear them. While these yellowish people would flaunt their gears, ever so proudly after spending hundreds of pesos for a shirt whose iconic symbol has been reduced to a mere market hype. These people will be walking political billboards. And the candidate don’t even have to spend a cent.

The symbol is still there. It is still yellow. But the message has been lost. Thanks to the marriage of fashion and politics.

Tell me, who’s the underdog now?

Today’s electoral problem is not that same old, same old issue of money ruling the ballot.

Today’s electoral problem is the same old, same old issue of this country’s delusion of an endless movie-like battle of extreme contrasts — of black and white — of good and evil — or at least, that’s what they all want us to believe.

And that’s precisely why we never go forward — because we’re stuck in this archaic “knights versus witches” thinking. After so many hundred years, we still see ourselves as this damsel in distress waiting for our knight in shining armor — we think we are this sleeping beauty waiting for our prince charming. What’s common between the two? Both just lie there waiting.

Easy preys

Inaction is not equal to apathy as most of the self-proclaimed apathetics want us to believe.

Inaction is equal to sloth. Laziness. The classic “Juan Tamad” lying for hours on end under that guava tree,  waiting for the fruit to fall into his lazy, open mouth.

I will say ((and yes, write)) what others in this vast cyberspace never write for fear of being hit by the same boomerang one throws. You say talk is cheap? I say blog is cheap. But there’s something cheaper than that — it’s trolling someone’s political blog and leaving cheap propaganda trying to pass off as comments.

Beware of the unbiased.

Whoever told you that unbiased writing is done in pursuit of the truth is just trying to be “proper”. Truth is out there alright, but you don’t go looking for it with blindfolded eyes, otherwise you’d run into a cliff and die. No, you don’t do that.

You search for truth with eyes open — with preconceived notions — and yes, with bias. Only then will you know where there’s a cliff. Only then will you find yourself one day, face to face with that overrated truth you so romantically seek.

Disclaimer: I am not anti-Noynoy. I am anti-hype.