Filipinos' lack of individualism

One of the most hilarious yet troubling statements I heard during the campaign was a statement from a friend on why he was rooting for Noynoy Aquino in the May elections. He told me that his reason had something to do with his whole family supporting the said candidate. He even tried to defend his views by inventing a correlation between the number of cars in his village that have those yellow ribbon stickers on them and the validity of his reason. And so, I asked him about his personal views, beliefs and principles and with great boldness, he attributed these to the kind of thinking his family has.

Many Filipinos—I’m not saying all, have this inclination to follow the norms of the society regardless of how flawed and shallow these norms are. If one would dare say anything that is conflicting to the views of the majority, he or she would be condemned or worse, regarded as someone who is a deviant. This Nazi-like attitude of the Filipinos has often pulled the whole nation down because honestly, what the majority in the Philippines believes in is most likely irrelevant, trivial, and downright stupid.

For me it was the Spanish colonizers who inculcated the belief that leaders should be always obeyed and followed. Hence, the thinking that whatever the leaders do are right and just. The Spanish are long gone from the country but our eagerness to follow the rule is still there making it look like as if we’ve never matured in spite of the centuries that have passed.

It is not rocket science that not everything a leader says and does is right. As children, we are told to obey everything, as in everything, our parents tell us to do. The proliferation of nursing students is one example that many Filipinos notwithstanding the youth just follow what people tell them to do. Can you believe that these millions of nursing students really dreamt of becoming nurses or was it because their parents told them so? They don’t trust their own instincts and they can’t lead or instruct themselves ergo, our difficulty in finding leaders of our nation. Unfortunately, not everyone or very few people in the Philippines have the ability to lead and make a difference.

If there’s one thing aside from the society that is responsible for the lack of individualism in Filipinos, it is the veryFilipino family. Many Filipino parents, again, I’m not saying all, expect their children to follow everything they instruct them to do and they leave little room for their children to decide on their own or pursue their own dreams. They influence their children on how to think, act, and behave like the rest of the populace thinking that that is how normal should be and not deciding for themselves. I believe it’s a sad situation for the children for they are deprived of their right to be able to quest and grow.

The thing about “going with the flow” is that it doesn’t foster growth for individuals for they are pressured to act like everybody. There is a pressure for people to think that not going along with the beliefs of the majority is tantamount to being a bad person when in fact, it is normal and right.

An effect of this going with the flow psyche can be proportional to how people pick their candidates. When they discover that there is a preponderance of people who supports a particular candidate, they would think that doing the same will do them good just so they can avoid conflict or being harassed by the majority. This is probably the reason why I have not reinforced the very idea of surveys being shown to the public. The voting population, contrary to what the “triumphalists” think, do not have the aptness to think for themselves. They would choose to be one of the majorities than go against them even if they have better ideas.

Another effect of the Filipinos’ lack of individualism is that it creates an atmosphere of dependence. People depend not on what they should reckon as accurate and appropriate. In fact, it is the other way around. What is appropriate is based on what others’ believe in not on what should be practised. The dependence on others for validation of ideas is dreadfully dangerous for the number of people supporting a particular idea is not identical to the idea being good and logical. Sometimes we have to take in to account that the more people believe in a belief, the more likely the belief is flawed and inconsequent.

The very question that should be raised here is why do people think that the majority is always right? I think the way people conduct themselves when dealing with others of opposing views is the answer to this. Many Filipinos feel bitter when other people do not back up their candidates of views. They don’t encourage individualism because they feel everybody should have the same principles when in fact, being different is just normal. Worse, they act violently and threaten other citizens when they hear of something that a person does not believe in what they think the person should believe. They do not cultivate healthy debates since in most cases, what the many believe in is inferior to that of the few.

Indeed, Alexis De Toqueville captured the reason for the very existence of individualism in this quote:

One of the most ordinary weaknesses of the human intellect is to seek to reconcile contrary principles and to purchase peace at the expense of logic.

Filipinos do not value the importance of logic or being logical since they prefer to keep quiet and go with the ideas of others thus, ignoring the importance of proper beliefs and individualism. Conflicting views shouldn’t be abhorred for it is in this way that we can learn from other people which develops the minds of the Filipinos.

In a country where people are not in to the idea of valuing individualism, it is hard to maintain personal views that oppose the idea of the many. The Philippines, despite being a democratic country fail to value the genuine essence of democracy. People should be free to pursue ideas other than those of the majority. Truth is, Philippine democracy is but a far cry from the democracy that was bestowed on the Americans. They value individualism when we don’t.

The absence or lack of individualism in Filipinos have caused so many problems that include voting for a candidate just because they think the majority supports him even if the candidate is incompetent in many aspects giving birth to a culture of “going with the flow”. Respect does not come in the form of confirming to the beliefs of many people. It is recognizing the differing views of other people.

In times like this, the last thing the country needs is people who are afraid to beg to differ to the "majority".

Ria "Iya" Justimbaste is the co-host of DWBL's Sentro ng Katotohanan which airs every Tuesday and Thursday at8:30-9:30 pm at 1242 KHz. She is a 21 year-old girl who believes that the Filipino Culture is what keeps on impeding the country's progress and that Filipino cultural values are resistant to development. She blogs athttp://iya-j.co.nr and writes for http://antipinoy.com.