Filipinos as dangers to themselves

Batas Mauricio

FILIPINOS have become great dangers to themselves. At this point in our country’s history, many of us are now espousing the belief that an opinion of perception that differs with our own opinion and perception of what is going on around us is wrong and is unacceptable. Filipinos now think that only their opinion is right, and the opinion of others that do not agree with what they believe in is wrong.

This is dangerous because it leads not only to verbal disagreements. This kind of selfighteousness, or belief in the correctness of one’s opinion and the falsity of all others, can also lead to dark and evil thinking and conspiracies and, ultimately, to physically harmful or fatal consequences.

It creates in a person the thought and the feeling that he is justified to take action against those whose who hold contrary views. It convinces an individual to think that those whose opinions differ with his opinions are “mentally confused”, “insane”, or “outright lunatic”, enabling him to undertake actions to “remedy” the mental confusion or insanity which he thinks has permeated those who disagree with him.

One particular example of this dangerous kind of thinking was displayed by no less than President Aquino himself when, in the presence of local officials on April 14, 2016, he said that Filipinos are “confused about their choices for (the) May 9 (presidential elections).”

Why did Aquino say Filipinos are confused about their choices? Simply because surveys are showing that our countrymen are now bent on electing candidates other than those who are being pushed by him under the banner of his party, the Liberal Party. In other words, Aquino is saying that Filipinos are not right with their choices because those choices are not his choices.

What did Aquino want to do under this situation? Let us hear it from him, after he admitted that he was worried that “our doubts about our opponents would be proven true if they are elected.” Aquino said, “I am really nervous about that. All we have to do is to work harder.” Work harder? What, really, did Aquino have in mind as “harder work” to ensure the victory of his candidates who are lagging in surveys?

The same kind of dangerous selfighteous thinking is now being displayed by those who still support Aquino. Reacting to my column about what Davao Mayor Rodrigo Duterte meant when he talked about the rape of an Australian missionary in a campaign sortie, many Aquino followers (trolls in Facebook?) lambasted me, saying they lost their respect for me because of what I wrote.

Here was what I wrote in reaction to those reactions: “As those who are commenting here have shown, there are always two sides to a controversy. I respect everyone’s opinion here, even if many no longer respect the opinion of others, especially the opinions that do not dovetail with what they believe in. This is a free country, everybody has the right to say what’s on his or her mind. No one has the right to say that the opinion of others is wrong, and that only their opinion is right.

“No one, likewise, has the right to disrespect the opinion of others, for then, you are assuming that it is only you who has the right opinion. Do you really think your opinion is the only right opinion? Do you have the monopoly of what is right? Cheers, and thank God in the Name of Jesus. At least you are reading my posts, and that is what I am grateful for, really. Again, thank God in the Name of Jesus.”

E-mail: batasmauricio@yahoo.com