Illude

Having scoured the local websites for an idea of who to vote for, I've come across multiple polls or 'mini-elections' that seem to point to Duterte as the clear winner of the polls. The methodology was imprecise and unscientific, yet it does tell a story.

People are afraid.

Fear is among the greatest motivators of humankind. Create a boogeyman, a monster, a threat so abstract and paint pictures and you jolt people into believing that the painter is correct. And if the painter knew how to paint the fear, then he must know how to undo it. But what really instills the greatest fear among people is the uncertainty, that lingering Heidegerrian dread.

That fear of nothing.

Criminality is a multifaceted mirror.

It is the outcome of a series of complex failures thrown unto the precipice of yet more of those multiple failures. It is the failure to address the most basic of human motivations. It is a failure of a group of people to discern what is going on around them. It is a failure of empathy. It is a failure of economics. It is a failure of justice. It is a failure of the state. It is a failure of the community. It is our failure.

It exists because of the complexities of modern civilized life. Because modern civilized life has imparted rules on what is legal and what is not. What is right and what is wrong. What is permissible and what is not permissible.

Yes there are universals, those cannot be denied. Therein lies the complexity of the problem. We intermingled the absolutes with the complex webs that we ourselves wove into the very fabric of civilized existence.

Sometimes, it takes a painter to make us see that lingering fear that has existed all along. Once it has been shown to us. We choke on our own helplessness and our own inability to grasp control of the situation. With wild eyes flitting about left and right, we grab on to the nearest strong hand that we can touch. We then forget about the law and its spirit. Damn the law. They want vengeance and the illusion of stability. Damn justice, they want revenge.

To the point, that everybody would look away and feign ignorance when the reality of the macabre mistake has been made. By then, it would be too late.

Go ahead and bask in the illusion.

Illude.