Mediocrity eating Filipinos alive
The problem with modern Filipino society is this: We are too happy, too simpleminded, too content (with how things are, about the status quo), thus we have become shallow. This is clearly demonstrated by the sort of entertainment we make for ourselves—I mean the shows and films we make for the masses.
It’s like we have been exposed to so much scarcity that we’ve learned to adapt to and be okay with it; like we’ve learned to survive in lack; like we’ve somehow found a way to just live with it and be happy and laugh despite how things are.
We’ve adapted, we’ve learned to be content, so we settle for anything. And we’ve been on this contentment for so long that we don’t even think about it anymore. It’s the norm. Filipinos smile. Filipinos are a happy people. Filipinos are simple people. Far too simple for greatness. We’ve forgotten that we’re a Third World country thought of as a joke and used as a punch line, and that we need to change some things around here.
Our political system is clearly very problematic. Our elections are more like popularity contests and whoever has the most catchy jingle wins. We don’t even hear about economic reform plans or about plans for national growth in most of the ads, because no one is actually interested in such things anyway.
And the TV and movie or entertainment industry is even more depressing. Movie after movie and show after show of very worn-out themes, poorly written plots and cheap endings that just squeeze out what life there is. And the moment we hear criticism, we get insulted, we demand an apology, we get enraged.
Honestly, I think the entertainment industry needs good, honest critics who would tell it exactly what it needs to hear. The industry needs a wake-up call; it has a ginormous privilege, and this it is using very poorly.
Nevertheless, we are content. No one is complaining. It’s as if society has been injected with a very strong dose of intellectual anesthesia—we can’t feel mediocrity eating us alive.
—MARIA GLORY GALLETO, [email protected]
