21 MAR

Why I Think Filipinos are Immature

So, it has come to this. Sadly, while I am pleased to know that more and more people are waking up intellectually because of the Aquino administration’s repetitive mishaps, a lot more remain delusional regarding the true state of the country. To this day, I still meet a lot of people who are in vehement denial of the problems that our country faces in light of recent events. Of course, no country is without problems after all, but most Filipinos take it to a whole new level by being either being in complete denial of the situation or throwing a tantrum and accusing their critics of being bitter or a killjoy.

Well, I hate to break it to those who behaved negatively towards my articles accusing the common Pinoy of being childish and immature, but I will stand by what I said because I can back what I’m saying with some observations I’ve made over the years.

So here they are in case you’re still not convinced:

We are Easily Distracted

One thing that can easily separate a mature mind from a childish one is that a mature mind can focus on a task at hand longer than a child can. That’s why, if you’ll notice, school hours in grade school is a bit different from those in college because children can only maintain their attention span on something for so long. Of course, as we grow older, our mind should also expand, allowing us to put our efforts on a given task until it is completed.

Unfortunately, as I have come to note, Filipinos aren’t exactly the most attentive people in the world. We are all too easily distracted from what we should do by delusions presented to us by the media. Take note that issues that should’ve been resolved years ago such as the financial scams many of our politicians are involved in and the turmoil that our brothers and sisters in Mindanao suffer on a daily basis are often easily covered up by celebrity news such as two celebrities who have little to do with us getting married in extravagant weddings or are beaten up by a rival. While there’s nothing wrong with the occasional distraction from time to time (hey, I myself am an avid gamer and consumer of anime), we should still learn to focus on what needs to be done and not be side-tracked by issues that are unnecessary to our survival or are outright irrelevant. For instance, I find it very foolish to be swooning over Daniel Padilla and Katherine Bernardo while there is a masked gunman looking in through your window with an assault rifle with attached grenade launcher and mounted bayonet and the words “God is Great” written in Arabic over his head.

We are Focused on Fun and Not Efficiency

As I have said in a previous article, a lot of Filipinos tend to be too allergic to strictness. I have met people who openly berate even otherwise respectable authority figures all because they were punished or even given a stern talking-to because of breaking the rules. When being told the do’s and don’t’s, it’s safe for me to say that no one ever really pays much attention to the don’t’s or simply think of ways to circumvent them.

A lot of people say that: “It’s more fun in the Philippines!” But, as Barney’s dad in How I Met your Mother said, the fun can’t last forever. The party has to end somewhere late at night or right before dawn. The troubles of real life are never far behind even when we’re partying and no matter how much we drink or dance, our problems will be waiting for us when we wake the next morning. Sure, there’s nothing wrong with having fun but forgetting your priorities like your family, your job or the health of your community in favor of having more fun will ensure a bleak future for you.

I’m sorry, but by focusing on too much fun, we miss out on what the more important aspects of our country. Worse yet, if you confront people about their happy-go-lucky nature, they tend to fly into a rage and tell you that what they do is none of your business even if their current activities is a nuisance to the community or is endangering the lives and health of the people around them.

We are Incapable of Responsible Decisions

Okay, this is probably the most glaring fault of the Filipino people. If you’re butthurt about this, I’m sorry but it’s true. Take for example that during elections, we often select candidates out of popularity and not their capability. It doesn’t really matter if the man can’t tell the difference between a washing machine and a toilet, as long as he’s popular, Filipinos will still vote for him.

And not only that, notice that our politicians are barely capable of functioning as leaders. What intelligence they do have is used in hoodwinking the people into giving them more money and using that money to better themselves and no one else. When appointing officials to fill their offices, they often select next of kin or close friends even if the qualities of their chosen officials are at best questionable and at worst outright incompetent.

Like children, we make choices based on what we like, not based on what should be. A good metaphor of what I’m talking about is that, instead of buying a good survival knife when going on a hike which any survival guide is essential when you’re out in the wilderness, we instead buy an expensive gadget like an MP4 which is quite useless in the great outdoors asides from providing a good distraction.

We React Negatively When Criticized

Getting criticized can be kinda bad. It makes you realize your mistakes and, more often than not, it’s very hard to swallow. But then again, by accepting criticism, we take the first step in correcting our mistakes. But by continuing to deny where we went wrong, we only set ourselves up to make the same mistakes over and over again.

By refusing to accept criticism, even when it’s positive, we never learn from the countless bad experiences and continue to plunge the country into greater degrees of misery. That many of our so-called leaders are criminals and the fact that many of our people continue to vote for them is evidence enough of our unwillingness to accept criticism.

We Have Difficulty Accepting the Consequences of Our Actions

This can often be seen in the people who like to complain about being treated unfairly when it was they who broke the rules first. They shout “biased” or “discrimination” without ever realizing that they either started or encouraged the idea in the first place.

When caught doing something inappropriate, immoral or illegal, many of us are quick to blame others instead of focusing on what can be done to save the situation. When things finally come apart, instead of owning up to the mishaps that occurred, we try to deny any responsibility in what happened. There are even those who will make even the lamest of excuses such as “I was fooled” even though you are probably partially guilty as well for allowing yourself to be fooled.

Any counter-arguments with sound reasoning will be accepted in the comments section below. And no, if you’re going to criticize me with being a hypocrite for enjoying anime and video games and that I too am childish or immature, well I got news for you: I watch shows like Haibane Renmei and play games like Civilizations V: Brave New World, media whose messages, concepts and lessons will easily fly over the minds of many Filipinos.