Not Just To You

 

Abtik mohanap nan lusot! People justify their actions. There are those who will find a way out even if the deeds they do are already wrong; they try to make it look right.

People justify their actions to avoid taking responsibility for them. There seems to be this ingrained belief in people that if they are able to explain what caused their actions that they are right and justified in doing so (Morina, 2020).

Yet, the moral truth must prevail. A statement is true when it corresponds with reality. In other words, a statement is true if it matches up with the way the world really is. This is the common definition of truth that we all know. It is only when we come to moral truth that people change the definition.

There are those who say that swearing and cursing can be good to extract negative feelings from them. They feel that this is aligned with what is true to them. Moral Relativism is the view that moral truths depend on the individual or group who hold them.

Moral relativism cheapens human life. When morality is reduced to personal tastes, people exchange the question, “What is good?” for the pleasure question, “What feels good?” Rather than basing decisions on “what is right,” decisions are based on self-interest. When self-interest rules, it has a profound impact on behavior, especially how we treat other human beings (allaboutphilosophy.org).

Yet, there is what we call as universal value. A universal value has the same value or worth for all, or almost all, people. Spheres of human value encompass morality, aesthetic preference, human traits, human endeavor, and social order.

So if you believe that smoking is OK, you need to respect the people who don’t and understand the consequences of your action. Passive smoking kills. You RESPECT those who are non-smokers. Respect is pervasive to all. It is a universal value.

In the end, everything boils back to being responsible, humane or being self-centered.

Profane

 

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Pinta mamalikas! Aside from being improper, cursing is considered as something done out of bad manners. But there is a deeper fear one must experience when these invocations of evil will come true.

According to the Tyndale’s Bible Dictionary, a curse refers to an “invocation of evil or injury against one’s enemies. As practiced in the Bible times, cursing was the opposite of blessing and should not be confused with profanity in the modern sense” (Comfort and Elwell, 2001).

Some people simply say that the swearing that they utter are just mere habits. Some even say they are just expressions. But profanity is not cute or cool. Others think that by swearing, it makes them sound tough.

Profanity can be a word, expression, gesture, or other social behavior which is socially constructed or interpreted as insulting, rude or vulgar, or desecrating or showing disrespect toward an object of religious veneration.

The apostle Paul wrote to the Christians in Colosse, “But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth” (Colossians 3:8). He also gave this instruction to the church in Rome, “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse” (Romans 12:14).

Whatever reason it may be uttered, profanity stems from upbringing. Children mimic their parents and this might be unprocessed by the adults thinking that it is OK to be rude and disrespectful.

Hamilton (1989) discovered that profanity creates the perception of vulgarity, which in turn leads to the impression of reduced competence, trustworthiness, sociability, pleasantness, and politeness.

So if people do not like you, it has been scientifically studied that it must have been the way you talk. YOU SWEAR, you see.

 

 

Empty

 

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Pa-simple da pero gusto na sa ija tanan an atensyon! These attention-seekers are everywhere. They would wear flashy clothes. Some talk loud. Others are emotional vampires. But there are also those who blend in the crowd and plot their next move to be the “star”.

There are many ways that attention-seeking behaviors can present themselves. Sometimes a behavior is overt, such as when someone makes a confrontational comment. Sometimes the behaviors are subtler, such as someone who seems to be constantly fishing for compliments (Wesner, 2022).

Good thing if the attention seeker has good personality that we can oftentimes shrug on the irritating persistence of the act. The downside is when the person is truly annoying and dislikeable.

What causes this?

Studies that have been done about severe attention-seeking and other personality disorders have identified several factors that may lead to the development of histrionic or other personality disorders:

Genetics: Histrionic personality disorder tends to run in families, so scientists think there may be a genetic (inherited) link. Childhood trauma: Children may cope with trauma, such as child abuse or the death of a family member. Parenting styles: Children who experience parenting styles that lack boundaries, are over-indulgent or inconsistent may be more likely to develop histrionic personality disorder.

The individual, especially if the person leading to become self-actualized, understands if his or her actions are edging towards attention-seeking. If one can sense that there is a need for everyone to notice, reflections must come in. Or, if feedback is given by friends, a good sense of acceptance is a welcome act. Then comes the “changing” process.

If the person persists, the impending judgment and criticisms are expected to recur.

Life will be better with self-knowledge.

The Flock

 

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Pila may imo nadawat? This is normal conversati you can hear anywhere. Rich or poor, professional or not… everybody is talking about the money they received from the politicians who ran for the local elections.

Article 22, Section 261 of the Omnibus Election Code considers vote buying and vote selling as election offenses.

Vote-buying seems thoroughly undemocratic. Moral arguments aside, vote-buying certainly shouldn’t happen when there is no way to enforce the transaction. Yet, vote-buying happens – and quite frequently in all parts of the country. This puzzling feature of many elections, particularly how it affects electoral behavior, is something we need to understand better.

The act of handing-in money for the votes has a positive effect on participation. People went out of their house even the elderly and those with disabilities to cast their votes. The discomfort is all taken the political leaders might see them NOT casting votes when in fact they received money from them.

However, it would obviously be a step too far to say that this factor implies vote-buying should be encouraged.

Normative evaluations of vote buying vary based on individuals' understanding of the transaction itself and abstract societal costs associated with the practice.

When society normalize the practice, what becomes of the law?

After the national and local elections, Tandag City estimated a cash movement of around 500,000,000 in the commercial and services sector. People are flocking to the different stores until ten in the evening. One can read between the lines where did the money come from.

What will happen to governance and can we expect better services from those who gave money? And what happens to our value system?

The Queue

 

                                              (photo: PIA Surigao del Sur)

    For two hours, I queued to cast my votes. Here are some of the things I observed while enduring the heat and the impatience mushrooming inside:

·        THE UNRULY YOUNGSTERS. There are some young people ahead of me who were tinkering on their phones. I really wonder who started the trend of going out in public with the clothes you wore during your sleep. The ill-dressed phone-toting persons failed to move forward allowing the line to be jammed, I raised my voice telling them to consider others not just themselves. They did not even say anything but a side glance.

·             THE SMOKERS. Isn’t it illegal to smoke inside school premises and other public areas? What about passive smoking among the senior citizens who were nearby?

·             THE PACK. In Psychology, there is an effect of feigned confidence when you will be with your group of friends that you forget that it is improper to shout and laugh so loud in social encounters. It made the teacher who acted as the chairperson of the voting proceedings on the area to scold them.

·             THE MARITES. There are those who will pull themselves out of the queue to meet others and have passive talks making the line to become broken and chaotic.

·               THE RESPECTFUL FAMILY MEMBERS. I encountered sons, daughters and grandchildren assisting the elderly in exercising their right of suffrage. It warms the heart seeing people who still value their lolos ,lolas and parents.

·               THE RESEARCHERS. I overheard two college students talking about their effort to make the researches they are doing be more meaningful. They mentioned that even if the subject is difficult, the learning is worth the while.

·              THE BEHAVED FLOCK. Contrary to the belief that there are unruly ones than the behaved, I was able to witness young and old people patiently waiting for their turns.

I could have brought a book with me to let the time pass productively. But I was really distracted with this thought: The polling precinct only accommodated ten persons to have physical distancing. Yet the crowd outside was like ants kissing each other.

So much for the queue. Let us move towards making our individual tasks become contributory to make our country prosper.

Are You Fake?

 

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Uman nauso man jaon tagalong na fake news? Filtering relevant information is a skill related to reading.

The Philippines shared a significant rate of low performers among all PISA-participating countries and economies. That is, 80% of the Filipino students did not reach the minimum level of proficiency in reading. Their poor scores in English, Mathematics, and Science are attributed to the students’ lack of ability in basic reading and comprehension.

On the latest research conducted by this writer, one factor on reading preference is the availability of reading materials at home. And, based on the themed qualitative data, the reading materials available at home is almost zero.

So how can we expect people to develop the skill of inference?

Making an inference involves using what you know to make a guess about what you don't know or reading between the lines. Readers who make inferences use the clues in the text along with their own experiences to help them figure out what is not directly said, making the text personal and memorable.

Proficient readers use their prior knowledge and textual information to draw conclusions, make critical judgments, and form unique interpretations from text. Inferences may occur in the form of conclusions, predictions, or new ideas (Anderson and Pearson, 1984).

Based on the presented discourses, we then can lead to a hypothesis that there is a correlation between reading proficiency to the proliferation of fake news. Those who look for a specific information will directly believe what is presented to them without inference and the critical filtering of what is true and fake.

Reading programs fail in schools when learners do not have support from their families. Most of the good readers in schools come from families who read.

The statistics of poor reading comprehension in schools will then create more people who cannot give an argument what is presented to them.

Isahay, an mga himasa pa noon an malupos nan mga panrason nan mga trolls.

 

Actualized

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Umay baja kuyang dimo? There are many instances that people need acceptance and affirmation. They are even doing things for other people’s approval. They try to copy the personalities of others to be famous.

Hunger for attention, affection and affirmation stems from childhood deprivation. Literature concerning previous experiences all over the world that may have some aspects in common with insecurity reported a high presence of psychological distress such as depression, stress, irritability, and inner conflicts (Hawryluck, 2004).

The inner turmoil will then affect the person’s ecology. There are people around the egocentric person who will then react on the attitude. You see, the culprits will always feel that they are right; that they have the monopoly of ideas. And when others intervene, they will then consider those who intervene as the ENEMY.

There is really a need for an individual to master the person inside. Scott Jeffrey theorized that self-mastery is often defined as self-control, the ability to exert a strong will against our impulses to steer our future to one of our choosing. But this is only one aspect of the term. Self-mastery requires having a vision for your future self and harnessing the will to realize that vision.

Yet, there are persons who cannot perform this aspect in themselves. They continue to mention the words: this is me. There is always a room for improvement. And this can stem from the realization that the SELF is developed to help and serve OTHERS.

Social perspective-taking is the ability to understand how a situation appears to another person and how that person is reacting cognitively and emotionally. The opposite of perspective-taking is egocentrism or being unaware that other perspectives exist and that one’s own view of the situation or issue is incomplete and limited (Johnson, 2019).

Let us see ourselves clearly so that we can consider the perspectives of others too.