Step back and take stock of the topics infesting FV in the last couple of weeks — topics that started out as moderately relevant when placed in the proper perspective but have been so discussed, exposé-d, and then “re-visited” in the piecemeal tabloidesque style that some people here are so comfy with. I can’t help but wonder how publication in such value-crushing volumes and our fixation on them (further validating our culturally-predisposed preference for the droll and unintelligent, focused on the trivial or the irrelevant) actually adds to our collective intellect as a people. Considering that time mercilessly propels our clueless lot down the road towards Fiesta Election 2010, the pressure is indeed on to sharpen our hopelessly dull intellectual faculties so that some semblance of a bit of thinking through can manifest itself in the outcome of this noble democratic exercise for a change.

Change is what we want, right folks?

So how come there is no evidence of things being done differently…

It’s interesting to note how simple the Philippine electorate is.

:D We are either for or against Arroyo;

:D Those who are against her cannot even collectively envision an alternative bozo to run the country; and,

:D Those who are for her, well, can be classified as either clueless headscratchers or hopelessly beholden.

At least that’s how I interpret MLQ3’s brilliantly succinct profiling of the collective political intelligence of Da Pinoy in his latest INQ7.net column:

I’ve argued for some years now that the country’s basically divided; that while half the country opposes the President, that half is hopelessly divided on which options to pursue or leaders to follow. On the other hand, the divisions in the President’s half of the country are simpler: there’s a quarter of the population that calls itself “undecided” on most serious questions, with another quarter supporting her come hell or high water. In the end, the passive and active support combines to form a blocking force.

Firstly, I will have to say what an eye-opener it is for me to note that only half of the country “opposes the President”. It brings to question various pompous claims from so-called “experts” that President Arroyo is a lame duck. For that matter, one begins to speculate on motives behind certain people’s propagation of trivial snippets of news reporting that seem effective at swaying public opinion only as far as its ability to tap into people’s primitive reptilian complexes (that part of the psyche that laughs at Tito-Vic-and-Joey jokes and delights in ogling images of dead bodies regularly splashed all over Bandila). As for the truly relevant and non-trivial aspect of what it means to select a leader, well, there seems to be nothing more than an utter void in the national “debate” (at least the part of it I am aware of) that is begging to be filled with some kind of substance.

I wonder if people still come to FV expecting such a quality in the content they find? ;)

For example, some bozo included the following cliche in a rather non-informative blog post that advocates an otherwise noble effort to encourage us to support “alternative” presidential candidates:

There is a silent majority of Filipinos especially those who are living abroad that are now longing to see change in our country especially in the 2010 elections.

But of course we need change, dude. All the “experts” say so. Getting that no-brainer out of the way, let us ask the harder question:

What exactly is this “change” we “hope” to see over the next ten years?

It would be interesting to see which of the two classes of responses to the above question will dominate the national “debate” in the next 12 to 18 months:

Class A: Describing “change” using a set of insightful ideas that constitute a coherent vision to which a leader can be measured against.

- or -

Class B: A personality that embodies an ephemeral mere promise of change.

In the author of the blog post I quoted above, I find little promise as evident in this excerpt:

I’d like to also believe that there is still enough time for us to work together and support an alternative and reform candidate whether it will be Panlilio, Padaca, Robredo, Puno, Villanueva or any other reform leader but we have to be united and we have to act now.

Names, names, names. Any moron can come up with a name. And any half-witted mob can rally around one. What separates the men from the boys, on the other hand, is the ability to come up with clear standards that differentiates the truly outstanding “candidate” from the merely “winnable” one.

Are we as a people up to such a task — one that requires world-class (as opposed to Pinoy-class) thinking?

To be fair that is a challenge that only the Philippine “intelligentsia” can probably step up to. And like everything else Pinoy, we see that all-too-familiar failure to launch even there. Beyond election automation and the risk to the 2010 elections happening with regard to this ho-hum “cha-cha” business we cannot even agree amongst ourselves what democratic elections truly mean to us as a people. If we as a people do not get the whole idea behind “elections”, one wonders what kind of substance underpins all the discussion about it that we see and read about from our so-called political “experts”.

Indeed, MLQ3 is spot on in that regard:

But as it stands, practically half the country could live without those elections, and the other half would quarrel among themselves as to whose lead to follow in opposing a possible postponement—or conversion of the polls to a parliamentary one.

We constantly lament how Philippine “elections” are doomed to domination by the “resource rich” and how the “resource poor” are forever consigned to watching from the sidelines as the fate of the society is determined by the usual suspects.

Before we retreat into that comfy bosom of our world-renowned victim mentality in the face of such challenges looming mightily over our meagre faculties for imagination, it might help to reflect on that asset lying dormant in our atrophied thought processes that does not require much money to develop into a resource (remember that a lack of money is the excuse de-rigueur of the typical intellectually-bankrupt mind). That asset is substance and as I mentioned a while back, it is an asset that matters in most crises — even those of a financial or economic nature. As such, I can’t help but look back upon the last time a crisis of substance hit FV.

Interesting. Different issue then, same names involved today.

Indeed, one need not look too far from FV to find a microcosm of Pinoy-style politics and, for that matter, the entire society. That said, we, for our part, can take a small step even just here within FV and re-open our doors to discussion and exploration that involve a bit of such substance for a change.

Philippine Presidential Elections

Just like mass marketing, propaganda, and the ramblings of evangelists, campaigns are nothing more than a systematic effort to insult the collective intelligence. Let us not be quick to delegate our thinking to the most popular belief systems and their slogans. Let us evaluate our candidates with a critical mind this coming elections.

It’s simple, really™ — though not for the small-minded. ;)

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