The malignancy of our present culture

The malignancy of our present culture

I once listened to a homily of a priest-friend who said that it is the declining Filipino culture which is the culprit in our present difficulties. I concur. There is malignancy in our current culture that causes all our troubles in our country.

We are no longer scandalized by the many scams in the government. We are not outraged anymore by the numerous graft and corruption practices and immorality of some of our public officials. Our sensibilities are by now numbed to the countless heinous crimes committed by devious individuals. We are no longer incensed by the arrogance of the powers-that-be. We do not cringe on the brazen dishonesty, blatant lying and rowdiness of the bigheaded people. Indeed, we seem to admit that all these ghastly social evils are already integrated in our culture. We have grown used to these iniquities in our society. We know the horror of these peccadilloes yet we genially consent to them. It looks like we already shaped our consciousness and accept that this is now our contemporary culture.

These are diametrically opposed to the culture of the past. We do not seem to feel good about ourselves when we practice the social values of bayanihan, pakikisama, pakikipagkapwa –tao, paggalang, and many others. It appears that we feel uncomfortable or embarrassed when we practice these values. It is delusional to believe that we are a Christian country yet we do unchristian ways.

The government, among others, plays a vital role in the formation of this culture. Though debatable, it imposes this culture to us. It is no longer us, I opine, who are the agents of change of our culture. The government, many say, takes the center stage and rams down our throat the social values it insists on. We, as ever, are silently subservient of this. Along the process, we assimilate the culture of dishonesty, cheating, corruption, disloyalty and disrespect to life and property.

This is no different when we were under the rule of our colonizers. Because of their strong influence, our forebears for some time developed the attitude of passiveness, low esteem, and the willingness to be exploited and abused. We display this outlook in similar fashion nowadays.

Let us deconstruct our culture. Let us be the agents of cultural change and not as obedient recipients of disvalues. Let us not fall victims of the purveyors of social evils. We can preserve our traditional Filipino values by practicing them, now. It is only then that we can bring back our country to its old