Religion of Blame: Doom or salvation? (Continued from last Tuesday)

PEOPLE POWER: This culture of blame, which has become as prevalent as it is pernicious, explains why Filipinos celebrate every time an NPA Sparrow Unit assassinates notoriously corrupt government officials, abusive “matons,” a tyrannical hacendero, or undisciplined military men.

The immorality of a government that cannot provide justice is replaced by the worse immorality of summary execution.

This also explains resort to “people power,” which is becoming a dangerous social habit. What the government cannot accomplish the majority will accomplish for them, the rationale being that democracy means majority rule.

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MOB RULE: Attila the Hun was very popular among the Huns. Majority rule? Yes. Democratic? No. Philip II’s Spanish Inquisition burned thousands of Moors, Jews, and heretics at the stake and dispersed ten times that number, but he was adored by his people. Majority rule? Certainly. Democratic? Certainly not. Hitler was an idol to the Germans, Lenin to the Russians, and Mao to the Chinese. Majority rule? Absolutely. Democratic? Absolutely not.

The problem with the Sin-Aquino-Arroyo argument — which, as we know, is also the vastly predominant view — is that it upholds majority rule at the expense of the rule of law. But one cannot be divorced from the other without debasing and ultimately destroying the very essence of democracy itself.

If “Edsa II” were both moral (as Sin and Aquino say) and legal as Arroyo claims, then huge crowds surrounding city halls and provincial capitols should be able to replace, whenever they see fit, any sitting mayor or governor whenever they are popularly perceived to be abusive, tyrannical, or corrupt… Where and how does it end?

Simply put, majority rule without the rule of law equates to mob rule. As for its results being near-universally popular, I respond with the adage that a noble end is not justified by ignoble means. Ousting Marcos was one thing: his regime, beyond a doubt, was illegitimate; ousting Estrada — though I despise his conduct — is another.

True, a majority can take the law into its own hands whenever it pleases. But it cannot pretend to be democratic. Thomas More, the “man for all seasons,” soon after becoming Chancellor of England, was prodded by his son-in-law to arrest the town thief. The dialogue, it is said, went this way:

“On whose charge?” More asked. “Everyone knows he’s a thief,” the young man said. “Bring me a victim, or witnesses, and I will prosecute him.” “But you don’t need them — you’re the Chancellor!” “If our laws were trees, my son, and the Devil hid behind them, and you had in your hand the Sword of Righteousness, would you chop them down?” “By God, I would — if it were indeed the Devil I were after.” “Then surely you would slay him. But what of the next time? Should the Devil, when you encounter him next, snatch your sword from you and seek you out, and you had by your own hand laid the law to waste by chopping down every tree that might have given you refuge and protection, what would you do? Tell me, where would you go? Where would you hide?”

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NEIGHBORS REBUILD: Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore suffered immensely more devastation than we did during World War II. And it isn’t true that Japan received more rehabilitative assistance from the US — on a per capita basis — than we did; this is a myth created by demonization/victimization.

Look at these countries today. I submit that one of the fundamental reasons they’ve prospered — unlike us — is that they refused altogether to wallow in the religion of blame. They had neither the inclination nor the time for demonization and victimization.

Closer to our times, if any nation has suffered even more severe devastation — physically, economically, and in terms of loss of human life — in Asia in the last quarter-century, it’s Vietnam. But go to Vietnam and you will be surprised to find less anti-Americanism in the entire country than you would on the UP campus. That’s not to say that they have forgotten the crimes committed by an arrogant and misguided world power on their poor and puny nation.

It’s to say, rather, that the Vietnamese have no time to waste on recrimination — they are much too busy rebuilding their culture, government, and economy. Which explains why they are exporting rice to us. And why their GNP is expected to overtake ours in less than five years.

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CRIPPLING CANCER: Estrada was ousted for allegedly profiting to the tune of hundreds of millions of pesos from illegal gambling. What this tells me is that millions of Filipinos must have purchased jueteng (masiao or bagdok elsewhere) tickets over an extended period of time for Estrada to earn this much in “commissions.”

Placing jueteng bets — according to Philippine law — is just as illegal as earning “commissions” from the game. Will this legion of gamblers ever be prosecuted? I doubt it. Because they’re the “victims,” and victims in the religion of blame are forever innocent.

Even when the run-of-the-mill criminal is caught red-handed, his spontaneous, instinctive response is not admission of personal responsibility, but total evasion. To the query, “Alam mong krimen ‘to — bakit ginawa mo pa?” he invariably says, “Sapagkat ako’y tao lamang.”

Finger-pointing, which has replaced cockfighting, mahjong, basketball, or gossip (take your pick) as our “national sport” will continue to delude, distract, and defraud the people while the economy staggers, peace and order deteriorate, the population burgeons, and the gap between rich and poor becomes an unbridgeable chasm.

Until we acknowledge this debilitating religion of blame, the width, depth, and breadth of this crippling cancer — honestly and fearlessly — there is no hope for our society. What hope is there for a fatal, undiagnosed disease? –Federico D. Pascual Jr. (The Philippine Star)