Social Apocalypse

A little heads up! This post somewhat contains satirical content. If you don't know what satirical or satire means, look it up. Ask the good old dictionary or even the ever so reliable Google for help.

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December 21, 2012 - it is the prophesied date by the Mayans that deals with the end of the world. But what do they mean with the "end of the world"? Will it be about tsunamis, asteroids, tornadoes, and volcanoes? Probably. And that's what almost all the people think when they hear that phrase. But in my opinion, I think it's a different apocalypse.

Yeah. I may be in denial or maybe I don't believe in prophecies and shit but I am starting to come up with a plausible and possible scenario of an apocalypse that the Mayans (and almost all of us) have feared of. What am I talking about?

Well, I'm referring to the earth's social apocalypse or to make things simple, the downfall of society. No, there won't be any manifestation of the undead... yet. There will be no wastelands and ruins of cities in this particular scenario I'm thinking of. But I'm talking about people being too simple-minded and people being consumed by consumerism, capitalism, materialism, and all other negative "-isms" you can think of. I'm also talking about art and culture being ignored and set aside because people nowadays prefer to see, hear, and experience garbage and shit in the form of popular culture.

Another point is about how most people's minds shrink down until the shrinking kills their maximum thinking capacity. People may not think critically anymore and they will just obey whatever the mainstream media dictates to them. Hence, they become social zombies.

Once people lay their eyes on too much shallowness and stupidity in the media, they become infected with the mind-shrinking parasites they have acquired from the idiot box or most stations and sites on the radio and the internet, and slowly but surely, the parasites consume their minds and they will become apathetic to the things they should be prioritizing about like education, health, art and culture, and maybe politics.

Is there a possible cure and prevention? There is a possibility for a cure and for ways of prevention. The ways of prevention are: first, switch off your damn televisions if you're watching too much stupidity. Second, don't believe everything and anything you see, hear, and read online or on television or on the radio and even from persons YET. Give yourself the benefit of the doubt before you believe in certain things. The third way is to have an open mind and not absorb everything. Learn how to filter thoughts, beliefs, and opinions. Eat, digest, and swallow if you think it's nice and sensible but spit if it's stupid, disgusting, shallow, and just plain shitty. For the cure, well, smack the bejesus out of the infected individual or kick his or her ass.

If all else fails, stay away from them and keep your sanity and reality in place. Don't let the zombies infect you or else, you'll lose yourself along the hoards of no-brainers. Keep thinking and live your life the way you want it to be. If you heed my advice, you'll be fine. And finally, about those infected, keep them quarantined and keep them away from the uninfected global population.

Innocence Lost?

First of all, forgive me for writing another nostalgic post but don't worry. This is not purely about nostalgia, okay? On to the business...

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When I look back in my childhood, I usually see kids running around in the streets as they play tag, play with their toys, and even just laugh about their jokes or one of their friends' contagious laughs. I mean, we all have or had that friend who has a very contagious laugh. I also used to see kids riding in their bikes and just, you know, being themselves and acting in their age.

Now, when I look at kids today, I can't help but compare my times to theirs and I think that my childhood might not be what I wanted but at least, I got to experience the great outdoors and running around unlike kids today who are inside the comforts of their homes with gadgets in their hands. Most of the kids I see are not very active anymore and they don't get the chance to explore the world outside themselves. I can still see some kids running around the streets but I think I can count them with the fingers of my hands and feet.

Comparing the kids before and now, I realized that the kids today don't possess this particular innocence that kids before have. They don't actually act like children I used to know before. Before, we whine and cry to our parents because they won't let us out and play with our playmates. Kids these days now wallow because they don't have their PSPs or their cell phones or they're not allowed to play on the computer.

I know that parents are just keeping their children inside their houses to keep an eye on them but seriously... it's better to let them out in the open so that they'll have their chance to explore and experience the things they will never experience once they step into adulthood. Trust me. They might not realize it now but they will realize it when they grow up and it'll be hard for them in adjusting with their lives especially those who are sheltered too much.

One thing that I also noticed that is missing today is the sense of appreciating small things. Kids today beg for their parents to buy them their very own handheld gadget or even cell phone unlike in my childhood or in most adults today's childhood where when our parents allow us to go outside and play after finishing our school assignments and chores, it's like we claimed our victory and freedom in our hands as we ran outside and meet up with our friends.

You might think that I can't move on with my childhood or whatever but from the looks of things, I say that we might be going down because the innocence of the children today are being extinguished by superficial and materialistic things. We might be killing the children's initiative to learn and explore because of too much sheltering.

When I hear the word "youth" before, innocence usually comes into my mind but now... I don't know anymore. I just hope that in some ways, the innocence will be restored in the next generation of children despite the advances in technology and in the environment and in the necessities.

If I ever become a parent, I'll let my children explore and I will not kill their innocence. Of course, I'll protect them with all my might but I won't shelter them too much because for me, it'll be nice to open my children's mind as early as their childhood to prepare them for the things they'll encounter when they finally reach the stage of adulthood.

Do Something

A little heads up: if this blog post offends anyone, it means you're guilty. Thank you and happy reading. :)

When disaster strikes, we all suffer. But why does it feel so inevitable to blame someone or some group or something for what happened? Is it so hard to put down your pointing fingers and start to incorporate ourselves in this mess that we are also responsible for?

I keep hearing the same statements when calamities happen like "blame the government", "blame the president", and this particular statement is the newest and I consider the most absurd, "blame the RH Bill supporters! It's their fault God is mad at us and unleashed His wrath on us."

Before you assume that I'm something I'm not, let me first clarify  this: I believe in God but I don't believe in most of the people because they are too ignorant and close-minded. I mean, come on. Blame those who support a bill? That is a bunch of crap. The last thing I need is people demanding a virgin to be sacrificed to God to stop the disasters from striking and that takes us back to being ancient which is actually inappropriate for the time being.

Going back, everyone has a share of his or her responsibility in this mess. Let it be the government, let it be Catholics, let it be simple people. What happened is our fault. It's our responsibility. Even I have my share in this mess just like everyone else. And guess what have we failed to do that led us to this predicament? What is it, you may ask? Well, my dear readers, followers, and friends, we have failed to do something.

By the way, for my international readers (if there are), I'm talking about what recently happened to my place this past three days. You may have a clue where it is because of the RH Bill but if you still don't have a clue, it's the country that just got flooded because of the torrential rain that has poured down on its soil.

About my previous point, yeah, we all failed to do something that must have been done to lessen the devastation in our place. It's our nation and what happened is a reflection on how we handled and took care of our place. This is the consequence we get from doing nothing, smiling, and saying that we'll get through this. Okay. Time for a reality check. Simply smiling and saying that we'll get through this is not enough to get past this predicament or other predicaments we are currently facing and we will encounter in the future.

We have to do something, people! If you think that doing something might give you an instant effect in the surroundings, it's not. Things don't work that way. We must start small and patient because once we do something, we will notice the effects or the fruits of our labor slowly but surely. Everything in this world takes time especially if it concerns reconstruction, improvement, and development. No one can rebuild a burnt down house within a fraction of a second or even a day. You have to be supernaturally powerful to do it but since this is not fiction, no one has that kind of power.

Anyway, the road to a better life has always been a little rough but we must learn how to be patient and take baby steps in this road because sometimes, once we take a huge step, we will never know what we will lose. So it's better to help our country slowly but surely especially with the help from a lot of pairs of hands.

Instead of just whining and blaming and rallying, why don't we all just do something better than those? Instead of worsening the problem and contributing to the chaos that our country is already known for, why don't we become a small part of a big paradise that will be unlock by a chain reaction of solutions and reactions?

So before I end this post, let me leave you all with a message that goes something like this:

DO SOMETHING.