And I thought it was bad enough that the Philippines already is a mediocracy. BongV’s recent article highlights the inescapable reality of the Philippines’ descent into an idiocracy. “Idiocracy” is a term used as a title in the 2006 movie by Mike Judge where (quoting from a movie review by Mike Adams) the world seen five hundred years into the future…
[...is] a world populated and run by complete idiots — the result of 500 years of reverse natural selection, where the stupid people fornicate the most, and the smart people stop having children.
To echo BongV‘s sentiment in his blog post From Mediocracy to Idiocracy, that scenario rings a bit familiar when regarded from the Philippine setting, doesn’t it? More so that those who actually can not only produce less offspring, they leave too!
Technology’s enablement of unprecedent participation is also actually a double-edged sword. It enabled a never-before-seen variety of views to be exchanged but at the same time also provided access for idiocy to acquire an equal shot at capturing popular sentiment.
Even conventional mass communication channels — Old Media — in their desperate efforts to compete with New Media today are also for their part relaxing, down-grading, and compromising the very standards that once made them trusted sources of information.
[NB: To be fair to ABS-CBN's videoloid Bandila, I saw their news program this morning and they actually reported an Eight-People-Dead bus crash ahead of the ocho-ocho politics they usually put first in their playlist. They gave the accident report ample airtime too, for a change.]
Ironically, that cynical view of what the future holds already grips the advanced world (the movie Idiocracy was obviously produced there). There’s actually a book with the title Triumph of the Airheads by Shelley Gare. In the book, Gare speaks among others of how style over substance increasingly prevails and how a a diminished effort to understand the consequences of one’s actions is becoming a norm.
Political correctness and the rise of coffeeshop cultures, some have argued, is eroding the competitive edge and killer instincts that were the pillars of development of today’s advanced societies. Yet from the perspective of one who grew up in the Third World, the history and track record of achieving racked up by the advanced world is already set in stone and robustly capitalised at the very fabric of their socieites. So the process of softening up (if it is indeed underway) in the First World can still be reversed. If indeed advanced societies are declining, they will be from a +100 base to, say, a +90 level but still will have that well of social capital (the +90 they still possess in this thought experiment) to mobilise towards arresting the decline.
In the case of the Philippines, however, we had gone soft even before achieving anything of consequence. We are starting from a zero-base, going into the negative, and have a deficit of resources to arrest the descent down into negative oblivion. Even if we achieve a +20 ascent from our zero baseline, that is still a sorry 70 points short of the +90 level the advanced world may decline to in our little experiment.
Achievement is not a compromise, and losers measure it in relative terms rather than in absolute terms.
If we set a +100 base target for ourselves, it means that achieving +20 is nothing to celebrate about.
So it is with the coming elections. Achieving a “clean and honest” election can be likened to achieving +20. Because we have gone so soft, we forget that the whole point of elections is to seat a good leader in Malacanang (the +100 standard, so to speak). Executing it “cleanly” and “honestly” is not an end in itself.
An election can be as squeaky clean and as honest-Eddie as we want. But if we have that then elect another bozo into office, that “achievement” will come across as just another pwede-na-yan achievement that Filipinos have become world-renowned for.
Let’s not forget The Whole Point of elections and elect a good leader.
And be very afraid, for (as BongV concludes)…
[...] if one looks at the platform of the Philippine presidential candidates, it is a list of motherhood statements. View the Political ads of each candidate – it is mind-numbingly moronic. But for the Philippine idiocracy – the ads are perfect [my boldface].
Achievement becomes a simple business, when we simplify our targets, standards, and aspirations.
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Too much Politics is our sickness. There are no moralities and
good public service ethics on those elected. Politicians steal;
get away with it. Or even produce Family Dynasties. Children of
Politicians do the same of what their parents trained them to do.
Gloria Arroyo is a good example.
This is the mentality that people used to rationalize Gloria Arroyo’s cheating in 2004.
even the rationalization was off-tangent. they ought to have chosen Roco instead of Arroyo.
BongV, are you saying that Roco should have cheated?
cvj:
ganun na ba katalamak ang cheating sa pilipinas? to the point that we can no longer imagine people actually voting for Roco.
There’s a saying along the lines of “It doesn’t matter how you get the job but it’s how you perform your job when you get there that matters…” If the politicians who cheated their way into their current roles perform their jobs well, people won’t even dig up how they got their jobs in the first place.
there has to be “cheating” (not conjectures of it) before anyone can rationalize it, otherwise, the idea is plain and simple idiocy.
It is not because a wrong is rampant. That it should
be accepted as right. Cheating is wrong. It is not
right.
“…if one looks at the platform of the Philippine presidential candidates, it is a list of motherhood statements. View the Political ads of each candidate…” — Benign0 quoting BongV
If that is so, then who is fit to be voted for president?
Suppose anyone of you will run for president, what platform will you be presenting to the voters? Is it not possible that your platform could easily be branded also as merely a list of motherhood statements?
If in case there is one among the presidentiables you liked, then lay your cards and name him/her and explain why you prefer the person to be the next president. Perhaps in that way we might also learn to see the things you see in the person that we might have failed to see.
However if there is none you like among the presidentiables, isn’t it an idiotic improvisation to keep demanding for platform hoping maybe that somehow somebody will attend to you and come up with an excellently improvised platform that may suit your +100 standard?
Improvisation. That is what is shown in the picture above. It reminds me of the TV series “McGyver” or the reality TV show “Survival”.
When improvisation arises from mediocrity, it can be attributed as idiocy. But when improvisation is born out of total lack and severe necessity, it may be attributed as ingenuity.
Given an array of “evil”, logic dictates you choose the least evil. If they are as evil as each other – just do eenie meenie miny moe – whoever you choose will not make any difference in the SNAFU.
Or if all of them are SOBs, just find out which SOB is yours, one who is easily accessible to you (which is pretty much how it’s done in the PI today).
Nicanor Perlas has caught my attention but I am still doing my due diligence. If it’s going to be Trapo-vs-Trapo/corrupt-vs-corrupt – am not ready to go there, yet.
If one say he will Prevent Nuclear Terrorism period. That’s a motherhood statement.
If he says he will Prevent Nuclear Terrorism by doing the following:
Secure Nuclear Weapons Materials in Four Years and End Nuclear Smuggling: Barack Obama will lead a global effort to secure all nuclear weapons materials at vulnerable sites within four years – the most effective way to prevent terrorists from acquiring a nuclear bomb. Barack Obama will fully implement the Lugar-Obama legislation to help our allies detect and stop the smuggling of weapons of mass destruction.
Strengthen Policing and Interdiction Efforts: Barack Obama will institutionalize the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), a global initiative aimed at stopping shipments of weapons of mass destruction, their delivery systems, and related materials worldwide.
Convene a Summit on Preventing Nuclear Terrorism: Barack Obama will convene a summit in 2009 (and regularly thereafter) of leaders of Permanent Members of the UN Security Council and other key countries to agree on implementing many of these measures on a global basis.
Eliminate Iran’s and North Korea’s Nuclear Weapons Programs Through Tough, Direct Diplomacy: Barack Obama will use tough diplomacy – backed by real incentives and real pressures – to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons and to eliminate fully and verifiably North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.
Strengthen the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA): Barack Obama will seek to ensure that the Agency gets the authority, information, people, and technology it needs to do its job.
Control Fissile Materials: Barack Obama will lead a global effort to negotiate a verifiable treaty ending the production of fissile materials for weapons purposes.
Prevent Nuclear Fuel from Becoming Nuclear Bombs: Barack Obama will work with other interested governments to establish a new international nuclear energy architecture – including an international nuclear fuel bank, international nuclear fuel cycle centers, and reliable fuel supply assurances – to meet growing demands for nuclear power without contributing to the proliferation of nuclear materials and fuel production facilities.
Set the Goal of a Nuclear-Free World: Barack Obama will show the world that America believes in its existing commitment under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty to work to ultimately eliminate all nuclear weapons. Barack Obama fully supports reaffirming this goal, as called for by George Shultz, Henry Kissinger, William Perry, and Sam Nunn, and the specific steps they propose to move us in that direction. He has made clear that America will not disarm unilaterally.
Seek Real, Verifiable Reductions in Nuclear Stockpiles: Barack Obama will seek deep, verifiable reductions in all U.S. and Russian nuclear weapons and work with other nuclear powers to reduce global stockpiles dramatically by the end of his presidency.
Work with Russia to Increase Warning and Decision Time: Keeping nuclear weapons ready to launch on a moment’s notice is a dangerous relic of the Cold War. Barack Obama believes that we must address this dangerous situation. As president, Barack Obama will aim to work with Russia to end such Cold War policies in a mutual and verifiable manner.
Appoint White House Coordinator for Nuclear Security: Barack Obama will appoint a deputy national security advisor to be in charge of coordinating all U.S. programs aimed at reducing the risk of nuclear terrorism and weapons proliferation.
Strengthen Nuclear Risk Reduction Work at Defense, State, and Energy Departments: Thwarting terrorist networks requires international partnerships in military, intelligence, law enforcement, financial transactions, border controls, and transportation security. To make diplomacy more effective, Obama will stop shuttering consulates and start opening them in the tough and hopeless corners of the world. He will expand our foreign service, and develop the capacity of our civilian aid workers to work alongside the military.
Have you seen any Philippine candidate come up with anything similar and actually implement the platform?
The platform is just a beginning. It aims to identify what a candidate has to offer – whether it has substance or none at all. It allows you to see the depth and grasp of the candidate’s thinking processes.
Actually, it’s not my loss if you vote for candidates wh odon’t have platforms – I don’t live in the Philippines anymore. I wouldn’t lose sleep if you throw trash in the streets, pee anywhere, poo all over, pay tong in every street corner. It’s your loss, not mine. When that happens don’t feel offended when people point out that you throw trash in the streets, pee anywhere, poo all over, pay tong in every street corner – you broke it, you own it.
Are you serious about Niacanor Perlas? Many think of him as yet another improvisation of certain interest groups.
I heard the man talk in one of the national TV forums on the “face of new leadership” and it seems to me that he has something of what it takes to take on the face of new leadership that yet needs to be proven.
Considering him, I was wondering though that if he is really that good a planner and strategist, why is it that until now (which is already too short of a time left for a new comer like him) he’s still not able to introduce himself to the voting public in a way that at least creates a minimal noticeable impact on the political discourse of the nation — not even ripples in the minds of people. Is he also an improviser who is improvising a strategy of winning the Philippine presidential election?
If a politician’s platform without any detailed plan of action can be called a motherhood statement, what is a platform called if it is full of unrealistic details? An improvisation perhaps? (I’m not implying the “sample platform” details shown above is another product of an improvisation.)
I’m not against advocating for the importance of politicians to present honest and realistic platforms. But the thing that could turn out to be misleading in this whole “Platform, plz” advocacy is the forgetting of the fact that is very easy for politicians to improvise a fancy platform that will capture our +100 standards.
I think I understand Non-malignant’s concern, as I have imagined the same scenario myself.
If a candidate merely commissioned his hired circle of “experts” to develop an elaborate, dare-I-say, impressive, platform that we demand, then that’s an easy way to get said candidate’s foot in the door. It could happen that we see the face of the candidate all the time, but it wasn’t his/her heart and mind that conceived the supposed campaign platform, then all we get is somebody else’s homework. It could even be worse — we could be told sophisticated lies, things that the everyman can’t even begin to understand.
We can all expect that the primary objective of any detailed campaign platform will be to make the candidate look good. All o’ them politicians know that if an action reveals chinks in their armor, it makes no sense to bother until required. (Like really, seriously, legally, required.)
Keeping that in mind, the voter’s analysis doesn’t stop there when the platform is revealed. It’s not like Platform Plez is just an exercise in getting candidates to submit their theses to us; we still have to check them for errors, inconsistencies, unrealistic assumptions, discordance with what WE want, even blatant highfalutin lies. We still need to do the math.
The point is, the information ought to be readily available for our perusal and scrutiny.
Without it, we’re left with advertisements. And oooh, truth in advertising is very much wanting, y’know. An ad may be the last thing you could trust.
Anyway, if candidate X, Y & Z don’t bother presenting a proper campaign platform, that’s already a sign that they don’t see our reasonable demand as worthy of attention. That simplifies the elimination process for many of us.
I think our Pinoy candidates are too brain-dead to come up with platforms as detailed as these. They’ll appear “elitist” to the masa. Thus they dumb down. I hate the masa.
Filo, precisely. Whether the platform published is bu11shit or not, it is still something of substance that can be a basis for intelligent evaluation — intelligent, that is, relative to the current and traditional way that Pinoys evaluate politicians.
More importantly, because they are published, they can be then held to account and taken up on what they have said on record come the time they are seated and serving. You put it quite well in saying that voters’ responsibilities do not stop after the election. The platform/promises that politicians made during the campaign needs to be waved at their faces constantly over the course of their terms.
The platform presented should give an indication of the thinking of the people who are part of the presidentiable’s inner circle (military- and business-leaders, some from earlier administrations and therefore had already shown their approaches to economics, civil liberties, foreign affairs and plain-vanilla wink-wink corruption).
to non-malignant: RESULTS tell. The closer the results are to scruffy, nonsensical or worse, “idiocy” becomes a more appropriate description for the improvisation.
and then, there are more rigorous metrics, like mean-time-between-failures, afferent and efferent couplings (software), average repair cost for 5-mph-or-below frontal crash (cars), miles-per-gallon, standard deviation, loan-loss reserve ratio, or fire-resistance ratings or pounds-per-square-inch pressure load ratings for hollow-blocks.
Yeah, just like we did when we came up with this “ingenious” thing called The Jeepney, right? :-D
If you know the real history of the Pinoy jeepney you might be corrected with your ignorant impression about it.
So enlighten us then, plez. What is the “real” history of the Pinoy jeepney?
It’s not fitting for someone like you to pretend to be mediocre. :-)
(1) What’s so “mediocre” about seeking further clarification on an assertion made?
(2) What makes you think I am “pretending” to be anything?
It’s unlikely that someone like you gets easily manipulated and predictable. :-)
Hindi na masagot yung tanong “What is the real history of Pinoy jeepney?” kaya iniba na lang yung topic :)
yes ilda, what is the real history please?
from: http://caloyancheta.tripod.com/ancheta-alejo-jeepney/how_it_began.htm
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60 years after the second world war – the only improvement is the moving little horse (found in front of the vehicle), those paintings, flags, stickers and much stuff placed in and around this popular vehicle.
resourcefulness? only, if one were still living right after world war II (or a post apocalyptic Mad Max world) – not in 2009.
GabbyD:
This one will have you in fits – http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Jeepney
Let’s just keep those jeepneys off the roads, stick them in a museum and find an alternative way of bringing the public from A to B that is environmentally friendly and won’t create too much chaos in traffic.
“To become a coveted jeepney driver, one must posses 1337 skills…”
Does this include “Basta driver, sweet lover”? ;)
Achievement becomes a simple business, when we simplify our targets, standards, and aspirations. Yes it is very simple abd very basic.. Educate the people to become participative.
Educational quotes:
“We must support as much as possible the people’s desires for activity; not wait on them, but educate them to be independent and participating..
The role of education is to interest a person profoundly in an external activity to which he will give all of this potential. ”
When potential such as skills and capabilities are ut to good use, all we need is employment, employment and employment. Keep the people busy to become productive citizens instead of no work , no jobs and making babies.. :)
i am liking your blog benigs. I am falling for you. Please be consistent and don’t put me in a roller coaster. I go crazy.. lov yah..
Hey, I liked him first ;o) he’s taken.
Ladies, stidi lang kayo. There’s lots more from where all this brilliant work came from. ;-)
I’m afraid all the latest gadgetry from the west is just distracting Filipinos with money from tackling real issues that will help alleviate the majority from poverty. Especially since most of them are prone to being victims of clever marketing
To all bloggers, why don’t we focus our energy to come up with a write-up or a letter imploring the electorate to vote wisely and patriotically (consider the future of the country and its citizenry). Let us help one another as a filipino, let us cross the religion and region barriers, let us reach out, let’s do away with our traditions..help to make our one and only country idiocracy no more…
Hi Rene. A friend of ours is already way ahead of the pack on your request. Check this out:
http://www.betterphilippines.com/voters-education/introducing-hindi-ako-uto-uto-movement/
If you feel you want to email it to friends, there’s even a pdf version that is light enough for you to email around. Look for the link at the lower part of the page.
This, coupled with the principle behind Platform Plez, should do a lot of good. So tell your friends!
“BongV’s recent article highlights the inescapable reality of the Philippines’ descent into an idiocracy. “Idiocracy” is a term used as a title in the 2006 movie by Mike Judge where…”-benignO
Aba, benigs, it’s a universal trait pala, what are you and BongV whining about? Something’s the problem with you dudes?
The problem is nga, if you didn’t understand the blog, as a whole, the society hasn’t even reached it’s intellectual peak pero pabagsak na kaagad ang punta because of the changes in western society of late which we always want to emulate. As he said “..Political correctness and the rise of coffeeshop cultures, some have argued, is eroding the competitive edge and killer instincts that were the pillars of development of today’s advanced societies. Yet from the perspective of one who grew up in the Third World, the history and track record of achieving racked up by the advanced world is already set in stone and robustly capitalised at the very fabric of their socieites.”
So it’s a pity that we never had the competitive edge and killer instincts to begin with.
The problem nga, if you don’t know those dudes, they will bash the Filipino people including themselves and yourself, for anything including the ails of the world as evidenced here in this thread, heheh.
You know Ilda, it’s so easy to picture the dudes, two horsemen of the apocalypse riding in tandem, with their weapons unsheathed, flogging the Filipino people along the way, and flogging themselves in the process, the other horsemen galloping behind them.
I hope you are not one of them.
Bert:
Bashing the entire filipino people is bashing myself?
Since when has pointing out outrageous stupid behavior become bashing?
What am i supposed to say after seeing someone vote for a thief and then later on rally because the thief stole taxpayers money?
he knew the candidate was a thief, naturally, the candidate upon getting elected will steal money – and yet the bozos voted for him/her. I did not vote for the thief, they did.
Eh kung tanga sila, sali ako? Aba sila ang nagboto nun, hindi ako. Salamat na lang sa kape ug tinapay noy.
BongV,
Gloria was clean before she became president. The people didn’t know. For all your resourcefullness, did you know? Can you predict what Roco your candidate would do or not do if he won? Will your and benignO’s platform guarantee a winning president that will not steal? Hmmmn?
Bert:
Anong clean – she lied when she said she will not run again. and then she ran.
Doon pa lang – the die is cast.
If she can lie in public, she can lie in private, without blinking an eyelash.
you folks didn’t notice that?
Can I predict – well, If I’ll go by what he did in DepEd –
Kaya nga tinanggal ni Arroyo si Roco from DepEd because a clamor was starting to build – that other Departments emulate DepEd’s turnaround.
yeah, bert. i agree w u here.
i like the picture. its very mcgyver-y
I wonder what Benig’s picture sources are. The only other guy I know who shows me these pictures is this friend who is just as crazy and unorthodox as me. Such pics are so artful. :P Especially when combined with Benig’s posts. hehehehehe
Chino, they come from some of the forwarded emails I get. I collect them all in a folder for future use. :-)
I dunno, benigs.
Idiocracy is too strong a word. Truth is, the leaders have betrayed the people. I know your ilk will respond with “But who choose the leaders?” Fools are us, maybe.
It’s a vicious cycle actually with each ‘milestone’ event actually reinforcing the foolishness (what you call ocho-ocho politics) of our democratic space. Migrant Filipinos, with your overseas voting rights, are supposed to provide a positive feedback to try to change things. Very low overseas voter turnout to really matter.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulcowie/3843460058/
Give the OFWs a break, man. Pinoys already depend on them economically. Now you propose that we depend on them politically as well?
Dude, in the context that the 18 billion dollar remittances ‘economic lifeline’ is actually a strong political tool.
The idea that the ‘enlightened’ overseas Filipinos (not necessary just the migrant workers) could influence the voting patterns of their relatives back home who depend on them for monthly subsistence.
Well, if we will go by the number of OFWs who fell for the Chip Tsao rants – and the number of OFWs who are as starstruck with WOWOWEE – good luck.
Dear BongV,
There was a paper, better still, a treatise written on how we might influence the upbringing of children around the world because we were the “yayas” to the world. Such possibilities astound the mind. If it were possible.
But then again, you are right. We are still starstruck with Wow wow wee.
Regards,
Dean
It is with upside down pride that I see the Philippines leading the world into oblivion. Too many babies, dwindling human and natural resources, every man for himself.
Into the seas, bro, into the rising seas we go . . . the water is warm, the sharks hungry . . . into the darkening storm infested seas we go . . .
Joe
Don’t worry too much about us, Joe. We will suvive. For all you know, maybe longer than America.
Bert,
Not to worry. My typewriter occasionally gets away from me. Rather like a million monkeys typing, it comes up with stuff.
I like it here. I will be buried on a hillside on the isle of Biliran, from which my spirit will haunt alongside the white lady, a white dude spooking those who would in any way diss honorable Filipinos, or these beautiful islands.
Joe