Big Leap: Braindead
“Edi ikaw na matalino!”- a disturbing trend in the modern culture in today's generation where people tend to criticize people who thinks outside the box and have intellectual thoughts.
Yet, you wouldn’t know that it’s smart shaming until we realized that we tend to celebrate ignorance by lowering ourselves and sarcastically giving shame to the other person who is sharing his thoughts by giving them the crown saying ‘edi ikaw na’
Moreover, one example that tends to portray the popular culture is the, The Philippine politics.
Remember the elections starting at the later end of the 20th century? During that election time “intellectual” started to be seen as an insult or a negative trait rather than a quality that should be possessed by public officials. The Filipinos are witnesses to the downplaying of the candidates in their academic and career achievements to appeal to the masses.
Furthermore, back in the 1992 elections, when Senator Miriam Santiago was running against Fidel V Ramos, the rumor mills often implied that there was a direct correlation between her unstable behavior and her high intelligence.
Last election, Gibo Teodoro was often criticized as being "too intellectual" and in Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's political career, one of the most common criticisms of her as a President was "matalino pero corrupt".
On the other end of the spectrum, former President Erap Estrada arrogantly celebrated the fact that he was kicked out of school, Senator Lito Lapid regularly cites his ignorance and has basically built a political career around it, even on campaigns of Tito Sotto.
Even outside of political arena, the trend seems to be in the Filipino people too. And just look at how we passive aggressively insult and make fun each other. We playfully shame people when they’re ‘too smart’ for our common tastes.
“Ikaw na! Ikaw na ang magaling”
“Dami mong alam, teh. Bigyan ng jacket!”
“Nosebleed ako. Sorry ah bobo lang kasi ako”
Familiar to you? These are replies that you would usually hear when someone shares a brainteaser or an unsolicited advice or trivia. What seemed to be an exchange of intellectual thoughts resulted to sarcasm or insult to the person who shared. The offended party becomes ashamed for stating the facts. The ideas that he/she knows and her ideas were regarded as an understatement.
“Ako na, ako na ang bobo” –becomes an even worse respond that is often received.
But why is smart shaming happening?
Anti-intellectualism
Anti-intellectualism as defined according to a post from rappler is the hostility and mistrust of intellectual pursuits. Those who present a typical way of thinking are othered (perceived as different), deemed a danger to normality, and are considered outsiders with little empathy for the rest of the population. This is the origin of the idea that those who have alternative opinions or are part of a counterculture are elitist, arrogant, matapobre (anti-poor) and aloof.
With that, the trend that seemed to be happening on anti-intellectualism portrays that intelligence is perceived as a negative trait. People think of it as a ‘nagmamagaling’ trait where in fact it’s just making a meaningful and interactive conversation.
Kapwa Tao
In a book by Dr. Enriquez entitled Sikolohiyang Filipino he wrote that togetherness or "kapwa" is the core construct of Filipino psychology. That we Filipinos tend to value conformism, empathy and social relationships, a common trait among Asian countries. But our experience under Spanish and American colonial rule has embedded in our psyche to mistrust constructs that are associated with Western culture like individualism or elitism.
And let’s face the fact that, Even though a lot of the heroes in Philippine history are intellectuals, the social structures in some places in our country at that time had only few Filipinos had access to proper education. This created a gap between the Filipino communities which breaks the construct of togetherness. Intellectuals or persons who were given the privileged to study eventually became associated with Filipino communities elitists, a stereotype that continues up to this day.
So, with that how does it apply to modern Filipinos? The sense of togetherness remains strong within us despite the years of colonization and globalization. It's that sense of togetherness that makes us cheer for Pacquaio’s battles. We Filipinos strengthen the sense of togetherness by ‘pakikipagtao’ with the common Filipino. We associate ourselves to our common blood.
But since we are a country where only 42% finish high school and more than 25% live below the poverty line, we tend to see things in a distorted way especially to the marginalized people and by that most of us don't have a culture of anti-intellectualism because we value ignorance; what we value is our camaraderie with the common Filipino.
And sadly, the common Filipino is uneducated and in poverty and contributes to smart-shaming.
Perhaps, seeing the problem and the advantage of ‘pakikipag kapwa tao’ based from the sikolohiyang Filipino. It’s about time that our country should join other Asian countries who value the culture of intelligence.
To the Government, they should provide and access education to remote areas. To people who have access in the internet, follow pages or sites that would provide you information not sites that are purely for fun and decimation. We as millennial should have it as a trend or even a culture of exchanging meaningful conversation and neglect cyber bullying and non-sense post and meme’s.
As a matter of fact, we have a wide range source of information such as television, newspapers, radio and the internet. Currently, we have one of the highest digital populations in the world with 47.13 million users and 43% growth growth rate in the Philippines. Why don’t we spent more time surfing quality information and indulge on meaningful conversations.
Thus, this is a call for us Filipino’s to be inquisitive and be fully informed with what is happening. We are a country, we are not going to let our brain’s be dead and dysfunctional. Go make some meaningful conversations.
