Silent lessons

NOBODY wants to say it aloud. Not even Davao City Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte. But yesterday’s “Gikan sa Masa Para sa Masa” was full of the unspoken. Having said that, let us discuss accountability.

The past weeks have been a parody of what accountability in office is all about, as well as personal accountability. We only have to review how Senator Bong Revilla stood up and used the privilege speech to defend himself, but turning this into a badly-written drama instead.

No one wants to take the blame. Not one. Everyone is to blame, that is what they have been saying all along.

“Bakit kami lang?” is a question often asked by the three accused. Not one, whether accused or implicated, had ever stood up to say, I did wrong. Not one is offering to resign. In fact, Revilla intends to clear his name by running for the presidency.

All these actions is just as full of the unspoken, the hubris.

Hubris is witnessed by all but not realized by the one afflicted with it, like the senator, and this is sad, because those who know Greek classical literature know that this is bad.

Hubris, defined as excessive pride and ego in a “hero’s” character is repeatedly the cause of the “hero’s” downfall in Greek tragedy. In these Greek tragedies, the hubristic actions of a “hero” in a powerful position, causes his shame and humiliation.

That was in classic text. It has long been lost, even unknown, to many of our chosen leaders who ran on the platform of looks, songs, and dance moves.

The prevailing feeling that we are being told they deserve everything they got in office, is hubris in its most nauseating manifestation. But for as long as the word itself is absent in our consciousness, then the clueless majority will be easy to be led into feelings of compassion and patronage for people who can claim that they deserve to remain in office no matter what ill acts are attributed to them and no matter how they got their office, in the first place.

The messages being sent to us as Senator Revilla announces he has been inspired to run for president because of the corruption charges against him is that: he deserves our continued loyalty because we put him there in the first place. Arrogance, pride, hubris. It’s all there. Now we wait for the downfall, if he doesn’t learn the lesson himself as quick as possible.