Educating the blissfully ignorant in chatrooms

I was crazy to have done it. But then I wouldn't have seen for myself just how ostracized and apathetic Filipinos have become.

Confession number 1: I tried to facilitate an educational discussion online. Stupid, right?

Confession number 2: I never got to start it. Needless to say most people are too apathetic. What I have been claiming for most of my "enlightened" days with Kule, that social apathy, is true, after all.

Confession number 3: Then again, it might have been my fault for being negative and antagonistic. Same faults they've seen at me since forever. But you can't expect me to set aside my principles for some diplomacy bullshit, right? That's how I see it, that's how I will say it.

Then again, I could have been more subtle.

Picture this: I am not a chatting fan, but I visited sites now and then to observe people. Of late I stayed at all-filipino channels. I have not visited this IRC channel/network for months, and lo! Before it had been a rather nice sanctuary, even if it was only a bit of fluff to relax on.

But now, all that has changed. I think OFWs dominated the place, or else Filipinos who live anywhere but here. You know why I think so? Because they spoke in rampant English. I was shocked at my findings. They were throwing foreign brand names here and there, talking as if they were anything but Filipinos.

Using an alternate persona, I wanted to rant on their hypocrisies, about how they dare speak like they're not Filipinos. How pretentious they were. One chatter noted of it, but I don't think she got to the bottom of my angst.

I entered the chatroom with a different persona. It was on impulse, I thought it wouldn't work. But work it did. This persona isn't like the first one--angst-driven, english-raving, bourgeouis. This persona was everything that I became with the help of a lot of EDs and whatnot--activist, participant, social critic and commentator. The one who called for change.

I started talking. Then an impulse came over me: I wanted to ED these people.

I tried to ED in said IRC channel (which I shall not name), all right, using this second persona. I had scruples, but they said go ahead. So, fine. I tried.

I started by trying to see their disposition on certain issues. I asked about their stand on the ongoing protests to bring GMA down.

Then one of them (the only one I debated with, apparently) said it could be generalized since I was asking their opinion. So I clarified that I wanted to see how they see things in individual perspectives.

One of them, whom I believe is an OFW, said she did not know anything about the issue. I guess that did it, at some point. How can someone detach him or herself from what is happening in his/her country and call him/herself a citizen of this country?


Oh, well. Let me tell you this: These OFWs I've been seeing a lot of in this channel aren't heroes. Nope. They're individualistic, with more care as to how they can be Americanized further by their endeavors. I can hardly wait until the US Recession becomes a big depression, and we'll see who're going to be so depressed about it.

It will be bad for us, of course. I shouldn't be wishing ill of us, but I can't help it. Whatever will happen once this recession becomes full-blown depression is to blame on the Philippine government for not creating our own industry and relying heavily on outsourcing and OFW remittances.

In fact, if you ask me, this anticipated blow is exactly what our country needs to wake up. America isn't a hero. Yet most of us insist that it is. Well, that would be one rude wake-up call which hopefully will clear the addled minds of Filipinos and set them to proper motion. And if GMA is still around by then, then she won't be around any much longer after. I don't mean we are giving up the present struggle, for clearly, we are not.

Oh well. So much for that OFW thingy.

The chatter who debated with me turned out to be an ex-activist. Or maybe, she thought she was an activist. I'm not so sure if she was a UP graduate or not, but it does not matter, for presently she is blissfully unaware of goings-on. She claimed she's not an activist anymore, if she ever was, for now she spends her endeavors on "relevant" work to help herself and others. Herself, meaning these endeavors are individualistic.

I didn't trust myself to comment on her views. After all, I was gauging her openness to a full-blown ED which I would have delivered as well as I could possibly do. So I just asked her follow-ups. I asked her to give examples of these endeavors and she riled up. She said she didn't have to justify her work. I argued that I merely wanted an example. She went all philosophical-cum-logical on me, giving out hasty generalizations and saying I was defeating my own argument and all that bullcrap only a Philo major would have known. What I understood from what she said was this: either she cannot justify what she said, or she's afraid to justify what she said for fear that I would find gaping loopholes, or she was simply not prepared to give the answer for she knew it was an incorrect assumption.

She escaped the question by saying I either drop the subject or else she'll leave. Didn't scare me, but I said my piece anyway and said she's entitled to her opinion. She is, after all, her own person.

But, I said, it does not mean that I accept her opinion as it was, as mine.

And it didn't mean I will allow her opinion to be the majority's opinion while mine remains that of the silent "minority."

Bottom line is, if ever she was an activist (that remains in dispute), then she is a very ostracized one. Bottom line is, most Filipinos fear to tread on these unholy paths. The unspeakables.
Activism and whatnot.

I never got to ED. Not that I gave up, but they weren't prepared for what I had to say, fully.

God forbid whatever crazy ideas I may have. EDs aren't meant for this medium, nor is it for chatting. Computers add an impersonal touch to everything.

EDs are meant for those who are prepared to hear the worst, face to face.

I should have known that--a long time ago.