‘QC BAGO SARILI’: WHO BELIEVES THIS CRAP?

Some things, people just take for granted without thinking them through. One such thing is certain platitudes that are total nonsense, but sound noble, in particular the altruistic kind, e.g. “country above self” or, more close to home, “QC bago sarili.”

In the first place, no one actually believes this shit they hear or say. Even a child, especially a child, would then ask: if all our ‘sarilis’ are doing it for others, what then are these served ‘sarilis’ doing it for? If all our ‘sarilis’ are so insignificant to some whole, then why should we bother serving this collective ‘other,’ which is composed of such ‘sarilis’?

BAKA NAMAN HINDI LITERAL

We could give the benefit of the doubt to the espousers of such ‘altruism,’ by assuming that they don’t mean anything degrading towards the self. That what they really mean to say is: it is to the interest of each ‘sarili’ to maintain peaceful relations, since good will in a community allows individuals to achieve what they couldn’t achieve on their own. In that sense, a slogan like ‘QC bago sarili’ isn’t as abhorrent.

The remaining problem has to do with the means envisioned by the politicians who spew this crap in the first place. What they have in mind is for them to design the plans that will make for a prosperous Quezon City, not realizing that you must leave the millions of ‘sarilis’ to go about their affairs as they see best (including the desire to leave QC). It is only then that one can see for themselves the ‘big picture’ as an after-the-fact phenomenon not deliberately arrived at.

FINAL HIRIT

It’s quite apparent that such anti-self rhetorical nonsense goes hand in hand with the quest for corruptive power as found in City Hall and its provincial and national counterparts, whether or not this is intended by the politicians themselves.