Back to the grind

Cong Corrales

EVERYTHING is back to normal. The only one true god and savior is back in the hearts of the fanatics. The infallible and incorrigible is back to thriving in the country as he is encouraged and nourished by the very society which he abhors.

Every disciple of the regime is back to calling for blood in the name of their savior’s war on illegal drugs. Each fanatic is back to mocking priests and bishops of the Roman Catholic Church. Human rights advocates are not safe again and, as declared by their one true god, it’s an open season against the press.

Yes, folks, Lent is over. The mass hypocrisy and delusion is over.

Last week, I conducted a social experiment on my Facebook wall. I posted outrageous, ridiculous, and for the believers, sacrilegious ideas on my wall. The posts were meant to draw out reactions from my friends and relatives.

As was expected, some friends parried my posts by posting on their own walls about respecting their beliefs and religion. I say it was an expected response because most religious people feel the need to defend their belief system especially when it is questioned during the most serious and religious week of the church calendar-year.

They say they respect the belief of others or the lack thereof. But the point is, I am not obliged in any way to respect something which I think is ridiculous.

A few others, those who really know me, just laughed off my posts and even offered their own brand of ridiculousness on the thread.

I will not, however, belabor on those kinds of reactions. My Lenten social media experiment was targeted at the insanely religious yet supports the wanton extrajudicial killings, the bashing of human rights advocates and civil libertarians.

At least five distant relatives and two acquaintances “unfriended” and “blocked” me from their Facebook accounts. Based on that kind of response, I believe my social experiment was spot on.

I find it funny and ridiculous that these people find my Lenten posts as “sacrilegious, blatant, irreverent, and disrespectful” (I used the quotation marks because these were the exact words sent to me via private messaging on Facebook) yet would willingly and consciously applaud and approve their one true god and savior every time he lambasts the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy, makes the most misogynistic pronouncements, and promotes purging of “lesser” human beings under the pretext of his war on drugs.

Yesterday, this regime’s disciples were back to their old selves– “sacrilegious, blatant, irreverent, and disrespectful.”

However, we, sane and rational people, have respite from all of these tirades. We’ll always have Lent next year when these disciples will again wear their religious masks.

For now, it is back to new normal–back to the grind, as it were. Pfft.