…In 2019, for instance, the Otso Diretso senatorial line-up seemed to be the most qualified, but it got minimal votes. Recent surveys indicate that history is about to repeat itself. This is why competent public servants shy away from elections. They know they won’t win against the moneyed and the well-connected.
Are we to blame the masa then? A nun recently told me how aghast she was to find out that a house help was supporting a notorious candidate. She probed and found out that the maid was merely misinformed. Her information was passed on to her by kin who did not know any better. The nun told her she should widen her sources of information, like news agencies or reputable books. From this encounter, the nun learned one thing: It is not out of malice or ideology that the poor vote as they do. They are simply deprived of the right information.
Although fewer in number, the wealthy and educated may be equally misinformed.
…Nowadays, there is so much talk about social media’s influence. But apart from the fact that social media has been hijacked by enterprising politicians, many of the poor, especially in the countryside, have no access to it because of poor connectivity and the prohibitive cost of data. …TV and radio are still the most accessible to the poor. Jesuit from Mindanao recently visited and asked me why Vice President Leni Robredo was popular in Manila. Apparently, they were unaware of the heroic deeds of the VP these past two years. Their local media carried only government-curated news about the pandemic.
We pride ourselves on the country’s near-100 percent literacy rate and free basic education. But statistics say after grade school, many of the poor drop out. And historians are now ruing the fact that the K-to-12 program has gutted public education of its social studies and history classes, and that whatever is left has made the poor vulnerable to historical revisionism.
Finally…many NGO leaders joined the government from Cory Aquino’s time, weakening community organization and, with it, the valuable information and civic education and formation the poor were provided.
The futurist Alvin Toffler was among the first to speak about the information highway: Who controls it controls power. The poor have been marginalized from all this, to the country’s detriment. Raul Manglapus’ words aptly describe their situation: “You accuse me of ignorance, but I am ignorant because my master finds it profitable to keep me ignorant. Free me from bondage, and I shall prove you false.” …
* * *
Fr. Nono Alfonso, SJ, is the executive director of Jesuit Communications, Inc.
https://opinion.inquirer.net/147690/blame-not-the-poor-for-how-they-vote#ixzz7JciAha9t
—Fr. Emmanuel “Nono” L. Alfonso, “Blame not the poor for how they vote, Inquirer.net, December 19, 2021
The author heavily lays blame on the elite whom he says controls information in Philippine society for the voting behavior of the poor, who fail to elect the “most qualified” candidates. In saying so, he implies the converse, that is, it is the poor who elect the poorly qualified and incompetent, including those who represent the unending bane of Philippine politics, the dictatorial and corrupt.
It is the elite, he says, who control the mass media, the new media, and the public education system, and who have left the NGOs for employment in the government.
He quotes Raul Manglapus to drive home his point: “You accuse me of ignorance, but I am ignorant because my master finds it profitable to keep me ignorant. Free me from bondage, and I shall prove you false.”
Although at one point he grants that it is the poor themselves who are responsible for their low levels of education, the title of the article unmistakably declares his position, “Blame not the poor for how they vote”—in other words, it is the Philippine elite who are responsible.
No doubt the lower socioeconomic classes, who comprise up to 90% of the Philippine population, are by virtue of their numbers largely responsible for choosing our political leaders.
However, I believe that the author is mistaken when he lays the blame for the voting behavior of the poor on the elite, that is, on their abuse of their power over information.
We are confronted with a problematic set of circumstances in which the elite cater to the passions and tastes of the poor, while the poor are themselves responsible for their own consumption of information.
Doesn’t our experience show that the voting public’s appetite for information is significantly driven by a deeply rooted sensuality and tenacious superficiality?
Isn’t voter behavior motivated by alluring and seductive images, often untruthful and misleading, sometimes deceitful outright, and packaged together with entertainment for greater effect?
The elite who seek to acquire power and to hold on to it, and who control the information highway, are simply playing according to the rules of the game.
Do you honestly believe that the elite would be more successful in garnering votes from the poor if they sought to communicate content truthfully and accurately, and deeply imbued with civic spirit?
Maybe.
True, the self-serving control of information by the elite is responsible for the ignorance of the Philippine electorate and especially for the voting behavior of the poor.
However, the failure of the poor to access and profess quality information is also partly due to their own culpable refusal. After all, the information is out there. In many cases it can be obtained, although sometimes with a little trouble or more. I wouldn’t absolve the poor entirely.
The fact of the matter is that we are the prisoners of a vicious cycle, a systemic problem that requires a systemic solution. The elite must behave differently, and the electorate must do the same. The electorate must elect reformist leaders, while leaders must act to influence the population to believe, think, and act in a reformist direction.
It is a challenging process of major transformation. We all have to undertake an embracing effort to inculcate in our voting public the values and attitudes that characterize and define good governance and democracy.
Image courtesy of Marco Verch Professional Photographer
ReplyDeleteImage link:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/30478819@N08/47318188061
Gonzalinho
REALITY OR PERCEPTION? EXPLAINING MARCOS’ HIGH SURVEY RATINGS
ReplyDeleteMico Abarro, ABS-CBN News
Posted at Feb 13 2022 11:01 AM | Updated as of Feb 13 2022 06:20 PM
[Tony] La Viña also said the country's electoral politics is also too personality-oriented, with voters asking these questions when assessing who to vote for:
Do I like them?
Are they nice?
Kilala ko ba siya? (Do I know them?)
Ngumingiti ba siya? (Do they smile?)
Nakaka-aliw ba siya? (Are they entertaining?)
“Generally, it’s just too subjective,” La Viña said. “So if you ask me, the reason why we’re at this stage is because our politics is so personal. It is personality-based, it’s so family-based. It’s so subjective, it’s very difficult to use objective criteria to make a decision.”
He said voters should instead be asking questions such as: “Is this good for the country?” “Is their platform good?” “Do they have good ideas?”, all of which are not easy to answer.
“And so hanggang gano’n, ’yung politics natin, you will always have a Marcos, a Duterte,” La Viña said. “I mean even, you know, even for example President [Noynoy] Aquino, he won not because of himself, but because of his mother [Cory] who had just died.”
https://news.abs-cbn.com/spotlight/02/13/22/explaining-bongbong-marcos-high-survey-ratings
...the failure of the poor to access and profess quality information is also partly due to their own culpable refusal. After all, the information is out there. In many cases it can be obtained, although sometimes with a little trouble or more. I wouldn’t absolve the poor entirely.
The fact of the matter is that we are the prisoners of a vicious cycle, a systemic problem that requires a systemic solution. The elite must behave differently, and the electorate must do the same. The electorate must elect reformist leaders, while leaders must act to influence the population to believe, think, and act in a reformist direction.
It is a challenging process of major transformation. We all have to undertake an embracing effort to inculcate in our voting public the values and attitudes that characterize and define good governance and democracy.
Gonzalinho
THE EDUCATED ELECTORATE
ReplyDelete[Emphasis between asterisks]
Thomas Jefferson wrote, “An *educated citizenry* is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people.”
https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/opinion/columns/2020/11/30/thomas-jefferson-called-educated-citizenry-where-it/6455865002/
—Fredric Jarrett, “GUEST EDITORIAL: Education of our citizens is imperative for our survival as a free nation,” Herald-Tribune (November 30, 2020)
Quotation: “An educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people.”
Variations: None known.
Sources consulted:
Founders Online
Retirement Papers
Thomas Jefferson: Papers and Biographies Collections, Hathi Trust Digital Library
Earliest known appearance in print: 2013
Other attributions: None known.
Status: This exact quotation has not been found in any of the writings of Thomas Jefferson, although it is a *generally accurate paraphrase* of *Jefferson’s views on education.*
https://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/educated-citizenry-vital-requisite-our-survival-free-people-spurious
—Anna Berkes, “An educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people (Spurious Quotation),” Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, March 30, 2010, revised August 24, 2011, January 24, 2020
“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.” (as cited in Padover, 1939, p. 89) “. . . whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government; that, whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them right.” (as cited in Padover, 1939, p. 88)
The above quotes were the cornerstones of Jefferson’s interest in education and the franchise. He placed education as the foundation of democracy and a prerequisite to vote. Ignorance and sound self-government could not exist together: the one destroyed the other. *A despotic government could restrain its citizens and deprive the people of their liberties only while they were ignorant.* Jefferson could never completely separate education from government. With the fullest faith in the ability of man to govern himself, Jefferson nonetheless realized the responsibility of self-government could be assumed successfully only by an enlightened people.
https://www.varsitytutors.com/earlyamerica/jefferson-primer/jefferson-education-franchise
—Professor Thomas Jewett, “Jefferson, Education and The Franchise,” Varsity Tutors
To be continued
Gonzalinho
THE EDUCATED ELECTORATE
ReplyDeleteContinued
[Emphasis between asterisks]
Three uncontroversial points sum to a paradox: 1) Almost every democratic theorist or democratic political actor sees an informed electorate as essential to good democratic practice. *Citizens need to know who or what they are choosing and why – hence urgent calls for expansive and publicly funded education, and rights to free speech, assembly, press, and movement.* 2) In most if not all democratic polities, the proportion of the population granted the suffrage has consistently expanded, and seldom contracted, over the past two centuries. Most observers, and I, agree that expanding enfranchisement makes a state more democratic. 3) Most expansions of the suffrage bring in, on average, people who are less politically informed or less broadly educated than those already eligible to vote.
Putting these three uncontroversial points together leads to the conclusion that *as democracies become more democratic, their decision-making processes become of lower quality in terms of cognitive processing of issues and candidate choice.*
https://scholar.harvard.edu/jlhochschild/publications/if-democracies-need-informed-voters-how-can-they-thrive-while-expanding-en
—Jennifer L. Hochschild, “If Democracies Need Informed Voters, How Can They Thrive While Expanding Enfranchisement?” Election Law Journal: Rules, Politics, and Policy (June 2010) 9(2): 111-123
Without an understanding of the issues and being well-informed, it is easy to be fooled by messaging that seeks to manipulate voters. How do we equip students with the skills to be critical consumers of political ads? More importantly, how do we ensure they are ready to fulfill their civic roles and responsibilities as members of a democratic society?
...Thomas Jefferson is oft quoted as having said, *“An educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people.”* While there is no evidence he actually said or wrote this exactly as stated, there is widespread agreement it captures the spirit and intent of many of his writings. *He was right.*
https://edvisions.org/an-educated-and-engaged-citizenry/
—Dr. Nancy Allen-Mastro, “An Educated and Engaged Citizenry: The Foundation of a Democracy,” EdVisions
Thomas Jewett writes, “[Thomas Jefferson] placed education as the foundation of democracy and a prerequisite to vote. Ignorance and sound self-government could not exist together: the one destroyed the other. A despotic government could restrain its citizens and deprive the people of their liberties only while they were ignorant.”
The Philippines particularly illustrates that an educated and well-informed citizenry is absolutely essential to a healthy working democracy.
Past voting behavior indicates that the Philippine electorate is inadequately educated in democratic principles and values; or that they are at least badly informed, that is, ignorant, ostensibly kept that way by self-serving elite interests; or that some deficiency of character, possibly even moral rot, is at work—whatever may be the cause of our present political condition, it does not bode well for the state of Philippine democracy.
Something is rotten in the state, and it’s not Denmark.
Gonzalinho
“The problem with the Philippines are Filipinos: the Filipinos who laugh at rape jokes, who applaud the killings, who threaten, insult, and demonize the critical, who can't abide facts and are unteachable, and who elect the same monsters every three years.”
ReplyDelete—Luis V. Teodoro, Twitter, April 15, 2019
Gonzalinho
A good proportion of the Philippine electorate do not know how to make good electoral choices. They elect liars, thieves, and murderers into power, and in doing so impoverish the nation for generations and generations. The trolls contribute very substantially to this process. They do the work of Satan.
ReplyDeleteGonzalinho
ON LIBERTY THROUGH EDUCATION AND DEMOCRACY
ReplyDeleteBy Mia Seleccion
“Only the educated are free.” — Epictetus
…my country, the Philippines, is currently in a dire and frightful state. Misinformation and disinformation are widespread; good governance has been decisively trashed with the recent election of incompetent leaders, and defenders of free speech and factual information are being mocked and silenced. I cannot stop myself from feeling this impending doom about what the future holds. Or if the future still holds anything worthwhile in a nation that refuses to acknowledge its own history and value posterity. With that, I would like to extend a conversation on how education plays a pivotal role in protecting democracy and fostering freedom.
…For knowing the truth and having lost it despite standing up for it is grief unlike no other. Truth is not meant to be lost because it’s embedded in history and history is documented. But when history is undermined by propaganda, revisionism, and disinformation, the truth we seek to preserve becomes unfortunately and mercilessly warped.
Now, where does it go? Where does truth go when it is being reconstructed and shaped in the contemporary time to frame a bloody political history as a “golden era?”
The practice of truth becoming recasted in a different light is a sad reality but this is redeemed by people who do not simply refuse to believe in propaganda-driven lies but actively fight them—fueled and driven by both anger and empathy to stand in solidarity with those who have suffered and died because they fought for what’s fundamentally right—for their human rights.
We are collectively called humanity but there is nothing human about the justification of killings, corruption, and human rights violations. There is nothing human about using power to bring down others; power does not need to have an absolute implication—to be exhausted to its brim. Power, in whatever position or advantage, is aligned with humanity when it is utilized to empower and encourage, not deceive nor use others because when the latter is exercised that is no longer power, that’s manipulation—Machiavellianism.
To be continued
Gonzalinho
ON LIBERTY THROUGH EDUCATION AND DEMOCRACY
DeleteBy Mia Seleccion
Continued
…democracy is a double-edged sword.
When we make well-informed choices both guided by facts and human values, we make use of our freedom. I find that exercising freedom aligned with the common good is one of the best ways to demonstrate patriotism. I’ve always believed that part of what makes a healthy democracy is dissent, this is something that’s been reinforced in my beliefs as I learned this from Howard Zinn, one of my favorite authors and historians. Dissent can cut both ways, but if it intends to defend what’s right, equitable, and fair—if it means to safeguard the truth—then dissent becomes a great act of love for one’s country. As such is the nature of real love, it is corrective and protective, it does not enable but teaches and learns, like how history is meant to be understood despite all its flaws.
But the other side of this sword reflects a grim reality when people use their freedom mindlessly and recklessly, as freedom in making social and political choices is not merely a personal decision, but a collective one because politics permeate all aspects of life and society. What could either uplift us or bring us down can become a shared reality that will reverberate not just in the present but in the future too.
…We cannot have a successful democracy when the community that wields it is ignorant, unjust, and blind to the truth. Democracy and education are inherently and inextricably intertwined.
We are not short of factual resources, but many still choose to believe in falsehoods and information that merely confirms their biases. I guess people prefer to consume easy content than spend time learning and researching facts and reasoned insights. I also think this has something to do with our substandard education on media and information; it takes more than just functional knowledge in using media but also analytical and cross-checking skills.
…nobody really won here. There’s no victory when we just lost a promising future—when we’ve failed the victims of the Martial Law. This shows how we can be our greatest hope yet also our greatest downfall. It’s foolish to want change and progress yet choose the same kind of leaders who set us back.
…Truly, it’s just a matter of confronting the past, recognizing its horrors, and acknowledging its goodness. We must be guided by the past to prevent us from making the wrong choices and believing in the wrong people. When we fail to look back, we hold ourselves back from moving forward because there could never be progress if we make the same mistakes twice.
https://medium.com/@miaseleccion/on-liberty-through-education-and-democracy-d2f9d9d533cf
—Mia Seleccion, “On liberty through education and democracy,” Medium.com, May 18, 2022
“…We cannot have a successful democracy when the community that wields it is ignorant, unjust, and blind to the truth. Democracy and education are inherently and inextricably intertwined.
“We are not short of factual resources, but many still choose to believe in falsehoods and information that merely confirms their biases. I guess people prefer to consume easy content than spend time learning and researching facts and reasoned insights. I also think this has something to do with our substandard education on media and information; it takes more than just functional knowledge in using media but also analytical and cross-checking skills.”
Gonzalinho
There are moral aspects to the struggle between autocracy and democracy in the Philippines, indeed, worldwide. An awareness and understanding of this inescapably mortal conflict involves education in democracy vis-à-vis competing systems. Education entails promoting democracy as a preferential moral regime, however imperfect, in contrast to autocracy, while asking us to investigate hybrid alternatives.
ReplyDeleteGonzalinho