P l a n e t C h a i r
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let me at the television
Once again, I have regressed to continued viewing of the idiot box (Hey, I'm running out of reading material here, okay?) and this time I caught ABS-CBN's special Letters from a Revolution, which collects diary entries, letters and first-person accounts to chronicle and compare the events of both People Power revolutions. (If you don't know what I'm getting at, People Power is the term used to refer to the populist forces behind mass uprisings against the government, first in 1986 to oust dictator President Ferdinand Edralin Marcos and last January to oust incompetent President Joseph "Erap" Ejercito Estrada.) The whole thing just bloody ticked me off and only made my head hurt. Not just from the problematic statements and ideas that came up every five seconds, but the sheer trouble I had trying to follow all disparate thought threads that ran across my mind. It was even more trouble when you consider that I had some thoughts on the damn commercials as well. I don't feel compelled to give a linear breakdown on the whole show, but I am however, in the state of mind to complain on some of it. The whole thing was very maudlin and all, and I have a lot of doubts as to the truthfulness of the diary entries and letters that were quoted. At least one too many was a dramatic monologue that went on and on about the power of the moment, or how they wish x was in their arms right now, or I did this for your future, etcetera. It seems as if every person was just so perfectly noble. I'm not saying these people are evil liars, but there's had to be a certain amount of dramatization, editing and rewriting for those writings to be so... perfect. One of the people interviewed was a woman named Sawi Puyat, who was about 13 at the time of the first People Power event and like every other loopy person, qualified her presence at EDSA as a fight for democracy. I don't really need to see this to say this, but why in the bloody blazes does one's mere presence at EDSA automatically qualify as patriotism? Another person named something Mijares stated that it was important to have taken part in People Power because there will come a time "na tatanongin ka yo ng anak niyo kung anong ginawa niyo.". Silly us, we're supposed to take part in People Power so that we won't feel shame when our children ask us about it and say, "Wala. Nag-Playstation." (in the words of the son, E.J. Mijares, who was spun by the show as (sarcasm) following his father's revolutionary footsteps) That's the kind of reasoning that justifies attendance at concerts, galal events and proms. You suck because you weren't there. If everybody in the world took part of political activism so that they have "something to tell their children", then every politically active bastard on the planet would be a bunch of pretentious dunderheads. Oh wait, we already are. Gee, now I'm pissed. I think I'll go beat up my teddy bear now. CORNER OF CULTURE CONSUMPTION
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