Embracing Chaos

Looking back at the riots and rumbles that I have “participated” in way back high school, I admit that I still do not understand man’s quest for chaos. While majority of the social norms and morals would teach us to seek peace and spread love for each other, it seems that the animal in each human species kick in like a recessive gene hiding within an individual’s blood streams.

We seem to like inflicting pain to ourselves (sometimes to other people too) with the way we make choices and decisions.

It’s true that leaving something behind is very difficult to do. This may be the case since from Scouting to Citizen’s Army Training (C.A.T.), to Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (R.O.T.C.), we have been implanted with the negative impressions that “quitting” creates. “Quitters never win” is what we normally hear from our militaristic leaders.

While in some cases this saying may be acceptable, it is NOT applicable to all situations. In some cases, quitting is actually an act of courage because it is something difficult to do and in some cases, being frowned upon. Some of the many examples are the following:

Smokers who quit smoking

Alcoholics who quit drinking

Drug dependents who quit taking illegal drugs

People who quit relying on themselves (and instead surrendering everything to God)

I cannot help but compare the way Filipinos take the concept of “quitting” with the Japanese culture known as “giri”.  Of course, they are not synonymous, but the results that giri could create may lead towards “honourable” quitting. I have limited understanding about this, but roughly speaking, giri may be translated as “duty” or “obligation”. From what I understand, the highest type of giri is the giri to the world (which includes the emperor, i.e. the government, family, and other non-related benefactors)

Just this year, we witnessed how Prime Minister Naoto Kan expressed his giri when he resigned from his post as the highest political figure of Japan after his approval ratings had a nose-dive following the tsunami and nuclear crisis of Japan early this year.

You might argue: “Well, we had the same acts of resignations. Remember former Ombudsman Merciditas Gutierrez and former senator Juan Miguel Zubiri?” Yeah, well they resigned from their post as Ombudsman and Senator respectively, but only after too much pressure and imminent danger (i.e. being on the brink of imprisonment) loomed. Their decision could have been more laudable if they did it out of respect and honor instead of pressure and dolor.

At present, we don’t see a tinge of the ex-ombudsman and ex-sentaor’s decisions with the way Congresswoman Gloria Macapagal Arroyo takes her situation. Instead, we could observe the same resilience (or temerity?) that GMA has shown in her nine-year reign with the way she continues to “fight for her right” and delay things regarding her hospital arrest. For Gloria, “quitters never win”. But her camp has probably missed a probability on the other side of her battle cry: that not quitting doesn’t necessarily lead to winning.

In modern Philippine culture that is greatly influenced by Western thought, I still cannot comprehend why we seem to have disposed the equivalent of giri in our nation: the concept of hiya, and how we happily embrace chaos.