Disclaimer: Our topic may not apply to those individuals below poverty. Most (if not all) of them don’t have their “self” to help themselves. Therefore, they should get help without assuming they’ll accept the subsidies to help themselves. Remember, they don’t have their “self” to help themselves. However, this topic is mostly applicable to those who still have their “self” to help themselves or something left that could resemble themselves, but for whatever reason, they don’t know or just didn’t choose to help themselves.
“It’s not reasonable to just abandon life; rest whenever you need to. Remember, we’ll get a lot of it once we’re dead.”
Case example: Monching’s Psychological Landscape (Part 1).
A simple laborer named Monching, who doesn’t own television and a smartphone, fulfills his obligation working every day. During lunchtime, he goes to a nearby carinderia (a.k.a “turo-turo”: a local eatery selling, serving and viands with wooden benches. Wherein customers literally point what they want to eat from an array of cauldrons). While eating, he usually watches Philippine noontime TV shows where celebrities sing, dance, put up games or organize competitions, and handing out prizes maybe unintentionally providing false hopes that if someone does simple things (sometimes including stupid gestures), he/she gets to have money.
After a lunch break, he goes back to work, and as his day ends, he commutes on his way home via public transportation on his way home. Drivers of public transport would often play easy-to-listen music where in-between; DJs would make funny comments, share their views on social issues and pop-culture. Now it’s almost sunset, he rests for a while, maybe spare time with his family, or go outside to enjoy few bottles of liquor with his friends; if not, he’ll probably visit his neighbor to watch television.
Let’s say pass 7 PM is the start of teleseryes. Well, of course, visitors can’t be choosy, so he wouldn’t mind watching teleseryes (which often caters the general public – mostly the middle class and below). Everybody gets entertained, and at least they’re all happy.
(End of case example)
A lot of individuals may have the same or at least similar experience to Monching. Given the fact that the Philippine government hasn’t achieved alleviating most of the individuals affected by poverty YET. It’s also noteworthy that the shows that we watch also weighs a significant impact to those individuals affected by poverty. People who belong to this class just don’t have enough knowledge- base to validate or compare the message brought from what they watch versus the “reality” or to be more specific in regards to the fundamentals of living one’s life (e.g. Winston Churchill’s Top 6 Fundamentals for a Successful Life, Fundamentals of Living a Good Life, 30 Fundamentals of a Wonderful Life, or google it on your own – whatever works best for you).
Although education remains a simple solution towards social development; however, it still remains optional to most of us. And for those Filipinos who live abroad, it’s sad to say that given increased resources they earn, they are also guilty of this.
A simple laborer having close to zero resources, basically doesn’t have enough incentives to improve himself because of an underlying unrealized depression being affected by poverty. Poor man, he only wishes a better life, yet due to less encouraging results, he might as well focus on being happy instead.
Choosing happiness is not a bad option. But for those who don’t plan their actions well, one can go wrong with that. Happiness is a personal choice, and everyone is entitled to it. The problem though is how someone puts it in place. Initially, it should be weighed whether it is unhealthy or not (we’re not just referring to physical health, we also include social health, mental health, spiritual health, financial, emotional, etc.)
Going back to our case example; since our simple laborer choose to be happy, it should make sense to understand that he just wants to relieve all the stress of the day (which has something to do in order to forget the sad reality temporarily he’s in) and just like most of the movies we watch – get a happy ending. Stress relievers could be through drinking liquor, chat with friends (whom he can relate with), smoke cigarettes are also included to some and get entertained which could also include going to strip clubs. Yes, you’re reading it right – strip clubs. For some of them, it’s not an issue of working their way up to succeed anymore; it’s all about being happy while they still can.
For the sake of our topic, we will be specific with the drama series we watch – the Teleserye clichés: poor family vs. wealthy family, a love story between rich and poor, the struggles of an unfortunate individual, yes you name it, anything related to poor!
Like Monching and the rest of the individuals affected by poverty (including those who neglect to address they’re technically poor); with less information and education, they end up watching these kinds of movies as part of their daily routine because it’s easy to watch, easy to understand, and relates to Filipino society as well. Including this to their routine would instill a kind of mentality where generally, they would feel some insecurity towards the society. Thus, more likely for them to stay within their community. And as we put this into a dramatic context, poverty gets sensationalized!
A Teleserye to remember: “All rich people are bad, the middle class are judgmental, and we’re just poor of everything.”
Because in their community, they don’t feel judged. In their community, they share the same sentiments as well. Overall, in their community, they feel normal. Why would they chose education if a lot of college graduates can’t even find jobs? Feeling insecure towards the society loses their confidence too – they probably feel incapable of doing something, that’s why they choose to understand settling as poor. Why would they choose to stay informed if things aren’t reliable and would require them to step outside of their definition of happiness in the first place? What about affording healthcare? Well, there’s free healthcare anyway, they probably think the government should continue that in exchange for abandoning them. And the drama continues: “All rich people are greedy, cold, manipulative bastards, the middle class is judgmental, the government has abandoned us, and life just rubbed my face to the ground (nyam, nyam, nyam the soil). I’m so, so tired of this, why is it always like this? I’ve given everything, I worked so hard and choose to suffer to… … (na, na-na, nah…)” And the melancholy continues… You add this to what they understand watching news highlighting poverty, and all they see is poor. The Philippines is poor, the government is not doing its job that’s why they’re still poor, or that’s why those people are still poor. They tend to feel insecure, self-pity, or being deprived of something whenever they see someone having “trendy stuff” like fashionable clothes, new-release smartphones, flashy cars, etc… and not to mention someone who has white, radiant-looking skin (probably another reason why Korean television dramas get a big hit as well). – Because what we often see from our favorite Teleseryes provide poor individuals to feel this way in the first place!
Another scenario is when a poor individual gets called for a particular violation, or when a disciplinary action was given, they tend to think they were “hand-picked” because they look poor, or because their livelihood is not something an individual with ample resources would do, or maybe because their spot doesn’t belong to one of the decent places such as malls and shopping centers – wherein the first place it’s all about following the rules and reasoning out. Due to lack of awareness, and given limited options to live, they would primarily feel that the society is being unjust to them. Again, it’s because they allowed our favorite Teleseryes influence their views of life leading to such kind of mentality. Sensationalizing poverty is not something that these Teleseryes are guilty of, it is how we let ourselves be influenced based on our interpretation or someone else’s interpretation.
Teleseryes exist to entertain, and these are apparently legal. Just like junk foods, they’re unhealthy yet still exist.
In terms of receiving disciplinary actions, other classes just so happen to respond differently. As we may observe, middle class often react by bragging their social status (maybe through what they do for a living or let’s say bragging they know someone with higher authority) as their defense mechanism and wealthy individuals would try to express that “it’s not necessarily applicable to them.” Logically, they only proved how idiot they are. – Remember the popular quote: “Many people are educated, but only a few are learned”.
How we let ourselves influenced by what we see and hear is our responsibility. We can’t just assume things will help or won’t negatively affect us because it is legal (or no one is complaining something about it), as we see it in a bigger picture, someone’s loss could be someone else’s gain. Not to imply that we should not trust everything we see or hear, but to have enough skills to choose what’s going to work or help us overall – It starts by establishing a knowledge-base to one’s self.
J. Letre