(Image from http://www.h6.dion.ne.jp/~m.mirage/automaton.html)
Ever wonder why Pinoys keep electing the same types of people every election year?
The answer is simple, really™ and it is not a new idea.
Most Pinoys are conditioned to follow so called “experts”, “authorities”, “opinion leaders”, and now, in the age of web 2.0 or whatever, “thought leaders.”
As Ilda would say, “One reason why most people get tricked into believing lies and propaganda: they are credentialists and starstruck ignoramuses. They have to look at a person’s qualifications first before entertaining that person’s ideas.”
I suspect that the conditioning starts early in life and gets progressively reinforced through years of public education which I also suspect of heavily leaning on “rote learning”.
If you’ve ever had a chance to sit in through a typical public grade school class, you will notice that teachers emphasizing memorization more than drilling them on how to think. Kids are merely expected to memorize the meanings of words rather than being taught the right way of using a dictionary or figure out the meaning of these words through etymology or inferring the meaning through context.
But the fact that our public education system emphasizes “rote learning” more than “thinking” isn’t real culprit here.
The real problem is that kids going through public school are molded with a type of “entitlement” mentality where by if they merely do or say things in a manner expected of them, they will get a reward or attain some form of advancement. Even if they do reach a stage where in they receive some training in critical thinking, by then, the “entitlement mentality” will have been so deeply ingrained and they will reflexively follow orders on command or suppress their skepticism in favor of a “leader’s” view point.
Most of Pinoy Politicians as well as “social media influencers” know what buttons to push and they take full advantage of this.
Like almost all things, this can be used for good and sometimes, it can be harmful.
Take the case of that popular entertainment columnist who not only tweeted something confidential, but also tweeted something that was completely inaccurate. His followers on twitter re-tweeted and because no one was thinking, someone’s life was endangered.
But more dangerous is the Pinoy’s overdeveloped capacity to accept speculation as proof and that’s one big reason why it’s so easy to make them dance to whatever tune is played.
Sayaw-sayaw uto-utomatons!
Now that we’ve stated one problem, what is the solution? Come on kids, it’s simple.
Or do you need someone with credentials to figure this one out for you?
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