Art by: RAZ
Written by: aiglatson
In these trying times where we are at war with COVID-19, it is very convenient to say that we should all just help each other, hold hands, follow the government’s directive, puke a big deal of inspirational quotes, and call it “our way of helping”.
And since people are now working and studying from home, the internet is bombarded with tons of posts regarding the pandemic. At a glance, these posts can be described as “too much” but in reality, it is nothing but mere vain and meaningless “neutral” chat.
Being neutral is one mess of a privilege, especially being able to still be one amid a pandemic. Most people hush when they have all they need, even wants. People with eyesight don’t complain about being blind. People with enough savings don’t complain about being broke. People with enough food on their plate don’t complain about hunger.
Many say that we should not make the pandemic political. But isn’t it already political? Doesn’t it demand political discussions? Isn’t it handled by politicians rather than medical professionals? It is the crisis that exposes the people’s rights in which the 21.6% of the Filipinos, living below the poverty line, don’t experience. We are receiving the bare minimum, sometimes hardly nothing. No concrete plans and just vague blabber during presscons, and we choose to shut up and remain neutral? It must be the convenience that shuts us up and clogs our throats.
This neutrality, too, brings us the illusion that we are preventing the chaos of being critical, or as many people tag it, “complaining”. We tend to think that we are doing the “right thing” because of our silence. But man are we wrong. Not taking the side of the oppressed means taking the side of the oppressor, no matter how neutral we say we are. In Paul Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed, he emphasized the importance of fighting with the marginalized, alongside them, and not for them. Otherwise, we remain as oppressors.
“Happy thoughts” alone will not help us win this battle. Speaking out will.
So as much as it is beautiful to say that we should “remain calm and think positive” and “trust the process,” we should face the fact that false positivism is ugly. In fact, it is as ugly as this pandemic. It takes away the people’s freedom to fight for their rights. It hinders change. It stops the dialogue.
Viktor Frankl, a psychiatrist and a holocaust survivor writes that we don’t get to choose our struggles, but we get to choose how to respond to them. And as we are at war with something we cannot see, we should at least demand for the rights we are born with. We are not “staying positive” in the midst of chaos. We should not be settling for less. No more sanay na. Enough with ganyan na talaga eh. We are called to criticize.
Because when we shut up, we give up.
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