WHY THE HELL DON’T FILIPINOS GET IT?
- Jan Writer
- Oct 7, 2024
- 3 min read
Let’s start with an embarrassing truth. Not just embarrassing—infuriating. The kind that makes you want to flip a table and scream into the void.
“The Philippines is a nation allergic to logic and rationality.”
We are a country where feelings reign supreme, where the heart sings louder than the brain thinks, where we revere our emotions like sacred cows while treating reason and mathematics like some unholy plague.
And there it is: the sickness of sentimentality.
I’m not talking about the cute, heartwarming kind of sentimentality—the one that brings families together on Sundays with chicken adobo and beer. No, I mean the suffocating kind. The kind that grabs you by the balls and tells you that logic has no place here.
Rationality? Boring.
Mathematics? Satan himself crafted it.
In this country, decisions are made based on how we feel at the moment, not how we think. Which is why we still have barong-clad politicians who can’t balance a budget, yet excel at lining their pockets with stolen funds while dazzling the crowd with empty promises. Put on a good show, you’ll get votes. That’s the calculus we understand.
Does that mean we’re stupid? No. We’re sentimental. And sentimentality can make you stupid if you’re not careful. It’s like a drug. You pop a little emotion here, sprinkle a little drama there, and suddenly you're hallucinating that this is fine.
This isn’t fine. Look at our traffic and transportation system—it’s a metaphor for everything wrong with us. No, wait. Look at the entire economy. Yeah, that too.
Why do we avoid rationality, math, and anything that requires thinking past “I love you, beh”? It’s simple. Math is too cold. Rationality is too harsh. Sentimentality feels better. We’re a nation high on our own feelings. We cling to our tears like they're a mother’s warm embrace, unwilling to let go even when they drown us.
Why?
Because numbers don’t give a damn about how much we cried over the skyrocketing prices of commodities or airport parking fee hikes. Emotions, however, can be milked, can be manipulated, can be sold.
If you're a Filipino politician, what’s easier? To explain how inflation works and why rice is unaffordable? Or to cry with the farmers who continue to get screwed over by our ineffective land reform policies? Exactly. Tears and drama are currency. Logic? An inconvenience.
We could’ve been a nation of engineers, scientists, or hell, decent economists. Instead, we’re a nation of poets, balladeers, and rappers. A nation that writes odes to its poverty and sings ballads about its broken promises.
Here’s the truth nobody wants to hear: we love being sentimental. We worship it. It’s our way of life. Look at our history. We’re in love with suffering. It’s as if we’re romanticizing our own downfall. We bathe in martyrdom. We’re masochists. Economic masochists, to be exact. Why make the hard decisions when we can just cry about how hard it is?
We’ve got this aversion to thinking long-term. Thinking logically requires confronting uncomfortable truths, and who the hell likes that? It’s like being in a bad relationship. You know it’s not going to work out, but the feels—oh, the feels—they keep you there. Who wants to admit they’re dating a narcissist when you can just cry on a friend’s shoulder and say “maybe it’ll get better?” Same logic applies to why the Philippines stays poor. Maybe we’ll feel better tomorrow. Maybe someone will come along and hug us out of poverty.
We treat logic like an abusive ex-boyfriend. One bad experience and we swear it off forever. Never again! We scream, burying ourselves deeper in emotional decisions. So, no, we don’t think through economic policies. We feel our way through them. No plan, no math, no logic. Just vibes. And how’s that working out for us? Pretty fucking bad.
Listen. At the end of the day, we need to stop treating our hearts like our brains. We’re sentimental, and that’s not necessarily evil, but we’ve got to cut the cord somewhere. We have to start thinking. Start adding, start counting. We’ve got to confront the fact that being sentimental doesn’t build bridges or run economies. It just makes you feel good while the world burns around you.
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