Emancipation is a well-trodden theme in pop culture. Off the top of my head I think of classic cult hit “The Matrix.” Neo, having glimpsed the truth behind the human condition, had the choice to down the blue pill which would make him forget what he saw and revert to his life of habit. He would forget his encounter with Morpheus and his crew, forget the sinister Mr. Anderson and go on with living out his life.
Morpheus: This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill – the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill – you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.
But Neo chose to swallow the red pill – in pursuit of truth. He later on found out that he, and all of humanity, have been living simulated, fantasy lives as their bodies served to power the world created by machines. Later on another character Cypher, expressed deep regret in forgoing the blue pill. Knowing what he knew then, he would have gladly reverted to his simulated life – back in the blissful arms of ignorance.
This same choice was offered to David in “Vanilla Sky.” Near the end of the film he finds out that in grief for losing a loved one, he chose to be cryogenically preserved, living his simulated perfect life indefinitely. Upon learning the truth, he chose to jump off the building and wake up to face his painful reality.
I remember these pop culture references as I read this article entitled “Barrel of worms” by Rene Azurin. In it he depicts the hesitance of officialdom in digging too deep:
If nothing else, congressional zarzuelas on the World Bank’s findings of bid rigging and “kickbacking” in public works projects highlight the fact that no agency in this government — not the Department of Public Works and Highways (obviously), not the Senate, not the House of Representatives, not the Department of Justice, not the Ombudsman — is interested in opening up the whole barrel of worms. A logical conclusion is that everyone has an interest in keeping this barrel sealed.
Thieves guarding the bank can be expected to deflect attention from the intricate ways in which wealth is siphoned off the bank.
But what of the depositors?
It is probably in their interest to believe in the credibility of the institution which houses their fortune, their hopes, their fate. Believing otherwise would trigger a crisis. Given a choice between reality and the comfort of ignorance or even the relative discomfort of innuendo – do we take the blue pill or the red?
We go about our daily lives in varying levels of consciousness. Most of us probably prefer to sleepwalk. Reality may be too much to take. For those who see a glimmer of light behind closed eyelids, I dedicate “Anino” by Wolfgang. Anino
Popularity: 1% [?]
Oo nga no — nobody really among these so-called investigators goes all the way to reveal the whole-truth-and-nothing-but-the-truth. Does facing the consequences of the truth in this country means death? Death for who? Seems like the country is slowly dying anyway from all these rotten institutions.
matagal ng bukas ang mga mata natin.
Yun nga lang ang iba deadma,iba sa iba nakatingin, yung iba walang magawa.
Ma’am Caffeine,
A chilling situation is how the man on the street himself has become almost fatalistic…. realizing that the barrel of worms actually has anacondas which have mutated into vampirical anacondas.
Blue pill is the Viagra…Thieves in any form
or in any place are everywhere.
Let us enmesh ourselves with Yasmien Kurdi’s humdrum telenova, “Kailan Darating ang Bukas”. The plot revolves around the family of deceased Joel Torre who was swindled out to penury by a very scheming relation and did not lift a finger about the indignities and have to wait for benevolent villain-turned hero, Dindo (Joel Torre’s brother in the series) to rescue them from their pitiful conditions.
Put that plot in the context of Pinoys being ravaged, exploited and lied to by our politicians and would not do something about this lying and thieving instead would hope for another politican delivered ala-Terminator style complete with majestical lightning and thunder strikes from heaven to rescue us from our pathetic existence. We have a culture mentality built around dreams or around plots or subplots of telenovelas that revolve around trite concept that good is rewarded and evil is punished.
The TV’s and movie industry have been so conniving in imparting that culture of servitude to our populace that they refrain from using the big screens and colored tubes to depict the tyranny of our leaders and the injustice of our times and offer some resolutions to our problems. Only plots about meekness and mundane topics that make money and perpetruate ignorance, understandably, from their standpoint, are worth bankrolling. After all, developing telenovelas and movie plots that are trite do not involve brains, and therefore cheap from production perspective and we have ourselves rampaging over the cinemas to watch these rubbish films.
Ang di narealize ng karamihan ay matagal ng dumating ang bukas…nilagpasan na tayo ng oportunidad. We had the chance to make things better when FM was brought down..and thought we already won the battle…we celebrated..thinking we will finally taste the better life…but instead of moving on and continue our journey to real victory…we stopped, and left the rest to yet another corrupt politicians exploiting an innocent widow/president and the Filipino people.
And then we brought down erap..again we had another shot of getting better..but then, history repeats itself nga daw sabi nila..so here we are again..in the same shithole we used to be.
Maybe this is all we can have…maybe this shithole is the only thing we pinoys deserve to have…a shithole with shitty politicians leading us all…and yet to another shithole.
its me…on of the shitty-politician voter :)
Why do we need to refer to pop culture when I vividly remember how inosente I was not decade ago. It’s our fatalistic nature, our upbringing, it’s hypocrisy, so natural for us it’s best described as a virtue (yep, how many times in my life have I gotten flak simply because I refused the sweet medicine of hypocrisy?).
We deserve the Blue Pill, Viagra…As things change,
they will always be the same…dont worry, be happy.
it’s been said that “the truth will set you free”. but truth and freedom can both be fraught with problems and danger, if not death. adam and eve found this out in genesis after they ate the forbidden fruit. so did pandora after she tried to satisfy her curiosity and opened the forbidden box. many a time, ignorance is bliss indeed.
btw, the global swiss bank, ubs, under heavy pressure, is on the verge of revealing the names of “secret” depositors the world over. that would be one gargantuan “barrel of worms”. shaking in their pajamas, many are getting bald overnight.
The main rationalization [aka cop-out] for those who take the ‘blue pill’ over here is ‘magtrabaho na lang tayo’.
Contextual intelligence/ignorance or Cognitive dissonance.
The main reason why institutions fail is simply because the people in power know they can get away with it. Majority of people are for it as they survive through the system and are dependent on it.
Life is unfair and the strong and smartest will always prevail.
Enough of fairy tales as The Philippines is where it wants to be.
Anyone who wants to change the reigning plutocracy will have to seize power first. Reforming the political system is an oxymoron.
people in power don’t like responsibilities for the people. they are exercising responsibilities to their own respective needs. No body cares for the people. Is this how Philippines understand responsibility as a leader, as a role model or as a public servant? where ‘s the application of that concept in terms of governance.
Mabuti pa, i will sit down with Mang Juan. I can give him a dollar bill for 10 fresh guavas.
There’s no give and take. This country’s political system is a taker. It doesn’t know how to give. It’s selfish and a rotten style of management. It’s not sustainable. It’s embarassing.
ah basta… :)
“Anyone who wants to change the reigning plutocracy will have to seize power first. Reforming the political system is an oxymoron.”
This is so true. Yet, wala atang may lakas ng loob. Every silly little reformer doesn’t or can’t face the fact that the web of corruption must be hacked into pieces. Everybody sees corruption as if it is the only problem in itself when in fact it is just the tip of the iceberg.