The Philippine Online Chronicles

in times and climates of anguish,

a lie.

We were there when they swore her in, and it sure felt like democracy.

Or rather, our irrepressible urge to be amazed will drive us to the ground.

Or rather, our irrepressible urge to believe will drive us to the ground.

Or rather, we’ve been down so long, it looks like up to us.

Or rather, we have been fooled before, and we will still be fooled again.

Or rather, we voted for a symbol.

Or rather, I’m still mulling over my own line of reasoning for voting for President-elect Benigno Aquino III over my first and still most ideal choice candidate: after a decade of constant and aggressive state-sponsored and state-accredited demolition of Idealism both as a virtue and a philosophy, I felt that we have become largely cynical, or if not cynical, we have become tired and retired to the situation, a situation of our own making only as far as we are made complicit to the state of affairs, and we have been – and we still are being – made complicit; I felt that the only logical option left for everyone was to crawl past the clunky steaming epistemic wreckages left rusting and crumbling empty and desiccated in the streets towards the shining white-tiled halls of the reclamation of the meaning of Idea purely as and by itself as exercises in the etymological – what is it? – the practical – how is it used? – and the political – where is it used and what are its effects?; I felt that the solution to the situation was a revolution, or rather, a revolutionary idea, and I felt that that revolutionary idea was of a revolution not of closed fists raised to the sky – the past decade has shown this to be inexplicably largely ineffective as a tool for any lasting worthwhile change outside of scorched earth – but of open hands reaching out to others’; I felt that that revolutionary idea was this: voting for myself – voting for my own individual political interests – was selfish and narcissistic and counter-productive, and we hardly need more of that in our decisions, let alone in our lives; I felt that that revolutionary idea was this: that I had to vote not just for me but also for everyone else; I felt that that revolutionary idea was this: that what we needed was someone everyone could – someone everyone will – believe in: not just me or my girlfriend or my mother or my next-door neighbour – everyone.

Or rather, I voted for a symbol.

Or rather, I have been fooled before, and I will still be fooled again.

Or rather, I’ve been down so long, it looks like up to me.

Or rather, my irrepressible urge to believe will drive me to the ground.

Or rather, my irrepressible urge to be amazed will drive me to the ground.

I am here as they swear him in, and it sure feels like hope.