Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Commentary on Why are We Shallow

Reading or hearing something negative about us Filipinos makes us all react violently. We don't even process the criticism thrown at us because we do not want anyone to step on our ego or maybe because we are in denial that the criticism being told to us is true. We might end up getting into a fight because we Filipinos never liked to be seen as inferiors. We might also end up cursing the person telling the criticism and probably try to find any kind of flaw within that person so we could get even. This would probably our initial reaction if we read the article that Sionil Jose wrote about us Filipinos being so shallow. But if we read closely and try to absorb every detail without making any violent reactions, then maybe we can learn something from it. And certainly, we can have something to ponder on about ourselves.

He stated some of the reasons why he thinks that we Filipinos are shallow. He blamed it in our educational system in which the quality of excellence is now deteriorating through time. We no longer focus on humanities which could have made us think more deeply. The second thing he points out is that we Filipinos are naturally mayabang. We always think that we are better than others; that we know more and that we can do better than others. Hence, we drown ourselves in ignorance and arrogance that we fail to look at our own limitations as human beings. The third reason is also connected to the second one- we are shallow because we have failed to grasp the knowledge of knowing our own capacities and limitations. We tend to be too gullible with things happening around us that we end up letting those things change us. Fourth reason can be blamed in our shallow media which shows us nothing but pure shallowness. The author himself even said that there is so little to read in our newspapers and so little information to be gathered from our local TV channels which are filled with nonsense talkshows and telenovelas. We are shallow because we don't have the time to go to libraries or bookstores to read books. We do not think of the value of information that we can get from reading books. And lastly, the author pointed out that we are shallow because we have become prisoners of worldly materials. We are focused too much on grabbing those material goods because we think that it's the only way we can satisfy ourselves.

It always fascinates me that articles like this can make a person realize a lot of things (at least that's what happened to me). It opened my mind to a bigger perspective on being a Filipino. And I'd have to agree that we are indeed shallow. But what concerns me is that how did we even get so shallow in the first place? I couldn't think of any comprehensive answer to that but I think it lies in our history as Filipinos. I think that what made us who we are today lies in how we were brought up in this world. The events that happened with our ancestors in the past have molded us to be like this. It is like things fell into this place because some things in the past have made it fall into how it is now. Another possible reason could be seen in our culture. Since events in the past have become a big impact on who we are today, some of these traits were embedded in our culture too. Like we are shallow because it has become part of our culture. We have been raised in this kind of culture that is why our way of thinking and our way of acting are different. And we couldn't blame culture just because we ended up like this. We have to accept the fact that things turned out to be this way because history has allowed it to do so. And the only thing that we could ever do to fix it is to reflect deeply about ourselves and our actions so that we may not fall into the trap of being shallow forever. It is a big challenge for us especially that our culture will always affect our lives but we must prove to ourselves that we can always do better than settling for who we are now. Let us use those negative aspects and turn them into positive outlooks so that we may give ourselves the chance for improvement.

Reference:
Jose, S. (September 2011). Why we are shallow. Retrieved from http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=726155

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