Our vicious cycles

I am reminded by the succinct advice of the wiser ones who were mentoring us in our college years and young adulthood. It is too bad that great wisdom had been handed down when the fire and energy of the youth were focused on many other priorities and activities.

Consequently, we all grew up, grew older, encountered situations and circumstances that caught us many times with our pants down. By that, I mean that we had been given the necessary advice by those who had gone through similar experiences, were hurt badly, but ultimately learned from them. Because we did not listen then, we had to go through the same painful process.

A phrase comes to mind, the most popularly used to describe the above lack of intelligence – vicious cycle. Every so often, it is good to review what kept happening in our lives in the hope that we will never forget the lessons. Secondly, in an effort to spare the generations after us, we ought to tell them the stories that comprise the vicious cycle.

There are a few versions of the same meaning which might help us more clearly understand what a vicious cycle means.

1. A situation in which an attempt to resolve one problem creates new problems that lead back to the original situation. 2. A chain of events in which the response to one difficulty creates a new problem that aggravates the original difficulty. 3. A complex chain of events that reinforces itself through a backward loop with detrimental results.

It is more than worth it to keep repeating the meaning of this personal or social ailment we keep suffering. We must act towards a time when intelligence should have more sway than stupidity. A vicious cycle means that we look for answers and yet get fake news or conclusions instead, believe and apply these in our lives, only to find that our lives are worse off after the process.

I hope that this sounds familiar, especially to those like me who are now part of the senior population. By the looks of what the Philippines is going through today, the recent several decades had brought us from one vicious cycle to another. Listening to the news and the current conversations we are part of, there has been little learning, if at all. I say that because the many remarks from senior citizens have a common refrain – things are worse today than yesterday,

If many of those who read this article suspect or really believe that I am writing a partisan piece, then I know that the vicious cycle pattern is very much in control of their objectivity. It is merely incidental that after fifty years, there is another Ferdinand Marcos in Malacañang. We must all remember that the older Ferdinand did not create or discover the vicious cycle phenomenon, only domestic martial law and its disastrous consequences. Before, during, and after him, we allowed the vicious cycle to keep us within its deadly grip.

It may be hopelessly naïve for me to consider the possibility of enough collective learning at this time. However, I cannot stop trying to do my share, or more, to bringing awareness of our collective density or unintelligence. My memory is jarred by the constant repetition of the deadly sins of Philippine society and governance – poverty and corruption. I know fifty years has not been nearly enough, that poverty is just a little bit better by statistics but not by its continuing and painful experience, and that corruption is, perhaps, more alive than ever.

How, then, can I say that the vicious cycle is waning when the decades of responses to the original problems have created new problems that have worsened the original? I wonder how we can have a summary of the most talked about topics then and now with fifty years in between. Because, I strongly suspect, the same anomalies have become worse, not better – the hallmark of vicious cycles.

My fears have worsened because of two things. First is the advent of disinformation, misinformation, and fake news. All the good can be buried, or perverted by the bad posing as good, and a mindless population tired of trying to dig the truth from the lie can simply cave in and believe the strongest noise. Second, our 10-year-old children, which must necessarily include both the slightly younger and older in age, have been diagnosed with a learning poverty. In other words, they are more vulnerable to being manipulated.

If our children and people in general have difficulty in ferreting out the truth from the avalanche of disinformation, what will our future be like? I know that disinformation is not exclusive to the Philippines, that, in fact, it is afflicting many other countries as well. But I cannot help but be afraid for a people and culture whose well-being, including their economic fortunes, are so intertwined with communications. Those who are inside or intimately related to communications as their livelihood will suffer the most.

Remember that our OFWs and BPO industry are propping up the Philippines with agriculture already floundering and manufacturing mostly only a value-added business. Our OFWs are so popular because of their communication and interpersonal skills. Disinformation and the inability to discern truth from lie will throw away that advantage. What more the BPO industry where our services to many peoples and cultures also depend on communications and the way we relate to customers?

Since I do not hear much of national conversations regarding the above-mentioned topics, then I must be misreading the situation or simply having a pessimistic view of things. If people can just go from day to day with little care of what may be happening very soon, they must be seeing life in another way. How can I blame them when our own leaders in both the public and private sector also stay in relative silence? It might just be me.

I hope so. I pray so. But I worry still.