The chaotic now

By Munding Salao

We are living in such interesting times. And here we thought the world was going to be a better place now that both the big pandemic and the tokhang era are now far in the past. A past that left us with excruciatingly painful trauma. What did you say? Somebody wants to revive it? THEY … want to revive it? Oh. I guess they’re still zombies then?

I don’t know about them, but I was also a zombie. Proud to have been a zombie. It took me a long time to wake up. But eventually, I did. And when that happened, it was all just a simple process of recovery; it was basically … well … trying to tell myself: “Stop being stupid! Facts are facts. We all have common sense and simple logic … Don’t shut them down because you chose to be a zombie! Eating your fellow man is not nice. Just because they’re drug addicts, they don’t deserve to be killed and eaten. There is a God. He is not stupid. We can still fix our lives.” And just like that, I woke up as a better person. No fuss. I can now fix my life. As for the other zombies, I feel bad for them, and I’m still hoping and praying that they wake up.

But enough about my own struggle with cannibalistic delusions. Let’s go back on track with our topic and talk about what’s going on with society. Our society. What a mess. Yuck. It’s like suka (not Tagalog). You have bits of rice, fish sinigang, honey-cured bacon, puto lanson, Hawaiian pizza, corned beef, ginamos, and brazo de mercedes all mixed up in one big bowl. Like what I said. Suka (not Tagalog).

I’m talking about the royal rumble of factions that clash in incomprehensible intersections. Let’s start with what we usually consider bida because, syempre, common sense, we side with those fighting for social justice … so, syempre, activists who demand the crackdown against corruption. Many of them, not all, are very angry with the government. Okay, angry ka sa government. Pero si government has indeed been cracking down against large-scale corruption. Whether these efforts are impressive, commendable, dubious, or laughable would probably depend on the biases of your political leaning. Me, as far as my own humble observation goes, the government is earnestly fixing these problems properly.

So who else is angry at the government?

By “government,” they’d like to refer to it as “the Marcos administration” — that’s the friendlier version of how they call it; I’m sure they have more colorful terms for the administration — I’m talking about the Dutertes.

Which is head-scratching for those living under a rock because the Dutertes already won the government in the last election by successfully putting BBM in the presidency and Sara as VP. Yet now, it feels like there’s this big rebel faction versus this kingdom. The loud and toxic trolls have never been this loud and incoherent. Looking back at how all of this progressed into the “chaotic now” is fascinating.

What I do know is that there are those who are glad that BBM has made efforts to reaffirm our ties with the U.S. and other countries and strengthen the defenses in our territorial waters. On the other hand, the reactions from China have not been very pleasant. Even though China has been bullying us, it’s interesting to note that there are also Filipinos and factions of Filipinos — obviously sila naman — who are more inclined to support China. There are those who call them traitors, but there are those who believe they are on to something. From what I’ve heard from a number of analyses, Trump’s reckless warmongering may cause the fall of the U.S. as a world power. The balance of geopolitics has rapidly been shifting. So if we’re witnessing the decline of the U.S. as a superpower, is it still safe for us Filipinos to depend on the U.S. as an ally? Basically, now’s not the best time for itchy trigger fingers.

Speaking of itchy trigger fingers … that rebel encounter that’s been flashing in the news lately. Hayyy. Horrible. Tragic. I don’t know all the facts. I’m not here to talk about that. Pero if I personally know somebody who’s excited to hold an automatic rifle and go rebel against the government, I’d tell him/her: Hayyy, jusko, now’s not the right time to rebel. You go out there and be reckless and rebel, your efforts might just end up nowhere or, worse, get exploited by a more evil faction. It’s all blurry, messy, incoherent. And like I said, suka (not Tagalog).