Mr. Duterte’s mind games
PRESIDENT Duterte likes to play mind games. In an earlier column I wrote that Duterte intentionally makes the people think, worry and get scared with his throw-away lines.
His favorite threat, “I will kill you,” is the prime example of the President’s psychological games. It’s his catch-all throw away, putting people off-balance and wondering if he’s serious or not. His own people are often caught off-stride, too, and they later explain his remarks as hyperbole or as jokes.
It’s a game he likes to play. Mind games, they’re called, and which Wikipedia defines as psychological oneupmanship.
One-upmanship is a game people play everyday, especially in office politics. The ambitious like to do it against their colleagues, trying to put one over their office mates, especially their rivals on the ladder to higher positions. Oneupmanship, or gamesmanship, is a common practice in everyday life.
Mr. Duterte’s kind is more sinister. It’s meant to bully people, to mislead people, and to confuse people in order to either gain their allegiance or cause fear in them.
“I will kill you,” “Don’t f.ck with me,” “You’re SOBs,” “Go f.ck yourself.” These are some of Duterte’s verbal missiles. If you’re an ordinary person, wouldn’t you feel scared hearing such coarse language and threats? That’s the reason many people are as silent as lambs in the current atmosphere of fear.
It’s the kind of crude tactics that unsophisticated political or village chieftains use to cow those under them. I’ve written before that it’s so feudal. It’s something a politician in the backwaters typically use to bully his constituents.
People in confined areas like a village or provincial city are captives of that kind of politician or leader. They have nowhere to go. In such a situation where a bully runs the place, people take the path of least resistance and go along. They play along with the mind games.
But in more sophisticated and politically astute areas like a more advanced region as Metro Manila, people are more advanced in their thinking. They don’t easily get snared by the bully’s or the mind-game player’s antics or maneuverings.
That’s why in Manila Duterte hasn’t gotten a free pass with his power games. Although many cowardly and opportunistic politicians have gone over to Duterte’s side, there is a small minority of politicians who are toughing it out against Duterte. There’s also a lot of anger and discontent on social media.
Even on the international scene, Mr. Duterte has been playing mind games. He has tried it with the United States and even with his chosen prospective allies, China and Russia.
But he has to be wary about the efficacy of his mind games against the big boys. There are potential consequences to playing rough and deceitful against a powerful nation like the United States. Already we can see consequences from Mr. Duterte’s impolitic utterances against US President Barack Obama: the recent withholding of aid to the Philippines.
And he should think twice about plunging into a quickie marriage with either China or Russia. Those two big nations didn’t become world powers by being naive or soft in the belly. If Mr. Duterte thinks he can play with the big boys and even play them against each other, he needs a major rethink of his plans.
Mr. Duterte has thrived in his hillbilly tactic of playing mind games, employing jokes and threats interchangeably to bully or persuade people to his side of things. It worked in Davao City. But will it work on the national scene? Will it work among real city slickers who are themselves used to playing mind games?
In all of these mind games, the President has used objectionable language that works with many Filipinos who are themselves not polished in the social graces. But the recent SWS survey had a large majority of Filipinos saying his vulgar rhetoric is or may be problematic for the country’s international relations in the long run.
Mr. Duterte is good at playing mind games. You can see on his face his amusement and self-satisfaction when people applaud his crude jokes and bullying tactics. For how long will his verbal games work? ***