The wealth equation and what side of it our loser mentality puts us

Written on Wednesday, August 27th, 2008 at 9:04 am | by benign0

If I am to pick one ominous message in the din of chatter about MOAs, cheating presidents, and rising commodity prices that fill the Pinoy blogosophere, I’d pick this bit of insight from the esteemed Cocoy:

[…] our constitution is filled with references to social justice […]

[NB: This, by the way, was part of his response to another one of cvj’s little contributions to humanity’s collective intellect.]

It highlights the reality that we as a people have all but hardwired mediocrity into the very DNA of our society.

Proponents of “social justice” are basically people who pander to populist loser mentalities. “Social justice” essentially turns what is REALLY all about a simple failure to be personally accountable into one that insiduously pins the blame on “the more fortunate” — cajoling these “more fortunates” to channel a bit of the vast resources at their disposal to the noble effort of getting some of the less fortunate of the lot into the wealth loop. The use of the word fortunate itself reveals the flawed nature of the thinking of those who pander to those who choose to live in the comfy world of loser mentalities. The use of the term less fortunate to sugarcoat the more real concept of the hopelessly poor implies that the distribution of wealth is a function of luck. It isn’t. The distribution of wealth is an outcome of differences in approaches to securing livelihood amongst people and societies. These differences in approach to securing livelihood exist over a continuum of societies and individuals; and the following are the extremes of this continuum:

(1) people and some entire societies who/that take the approach of finding sustainable solutions;

- and -

(2) people and some entire societies who/that take the approach of finding pwede-na-yan solutions.

Those who know me too well would by now have guessed where this is going: The Question with the No-Brainer Answer:

On what side of the wealth equation do fans of pwede-na-yan solutions most often find their bums planted on?

The answer to this question by some stroke of fortune also happens to be the answer to what to some is the big head-scratcher of a question of why the Philippines remains so pitifully ensnared in The Poverty Trap. When we open our minds to the kind of perspective I recommend we take when answering this question, a lot of other simple realities become self-evident to us.

To be fair, even the smartest of beasts on occassion fall into traps. But what separates the beasts from the tapeworms is the ability to THINK their way out of most traps.

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About The Author: benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.COM and has once been described as "one of the most enthusiastic hecklers of the politically-passionate" by a respected journalist.

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11 Responses to “The wealth equation and what side of it our loser mentality puts us”

  1. Ding G. Gagelonia on August 27th, 2008 10:04 am

    That grabs me, benign00, your reference to “LOSER MENTALITY”. I I may add to you point, the pair of that may perhaps be the tendency or the of-the-cuff attitude of some to immediately think how one task, challenging as it may be, can’t be done: “hindi kaya,mahirap kasi ang buhay.”

    It is such thought-boxes that many imprison themselves in, and then curse the heavens for their lot.

  2. cvj on August 27th, 2008 10:06 am

    This is one more demonstration of the Elitist Mindset as i described here.

  3. Solid Pinoy on August 27th, 2008 10:31 am

    benign0,

    I should point out the Philippines continues to be a victim of a global US-IMF-World Bank-Illuminati conspiracy that continues to hold us back from being a first world power like Japan.

  4. cvj on August 27th, 2008 10:54 am

    Solid Pinoy is probably being sarcastic above (if not, my apologies), but as i described before, the mindset of blaming the poor for their misery is an integral part of the ideology of globalization. It is compatible with many in the Upper and Middle Class’ guilt-free lifestyle.

  5. Ding G. Gagelonia on August 27th, 2008 11:08 am

    cvj,

    From where I sit,this is not about blaming the poor but about opening our eyes to the need Filipino to become the change they want to be. This is not to say corrupt leaders shouldn’t be lined up against the wall and . Same with those who betray the nation.

  6. Turning Social Justice into a Four-letter Word | Filipino Voices on August 27th, 2008 12:31 pm

    […] here in FV to turn Social Justice into a four letter word and paint it as being part of a so-called ‘loser mentality’. I have no disagreement with encouraging a can do attitude or (in the words of Ding Gagelonia) […]

  7. chuck on August 27th, 2008 12:33 pm

    Ding, i turned my response to you into a post.

  8. Filipinos deserve each other | Filipino Voices on August 28th, 2008 10:13 am

    […] baga, we get treated like losers because of the simple fact that we act like losers, think like losers, and allow people to treat us like […]

  9. The elegant beauty of corruption | Filipino Voices on October 14th, 2008 2:35 pm

    […] enough, I once implied an analogy between Pinoys and tapeworms in a previous article, I might downgrade that comparison a bit further by likening Pinoys more to a lower form of life […]

  10. pumpy on October 27th, 2008 6:40 am

    “Our” loser mentality? ;-)

    No social justice then; perhaps you prefer social injustice?

  11. A hobby of the impoverished mind | Filipino Voices on October 28th, 2008 9:08 am

    […] and intellect that is woven into the very fabric of Pinoy society and is the root of the bigger loser mentality that afflicts it, it fails to see the sort of poverty that Ding highlights for what it is — a […]

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