Toxic Positivity: Shielding Our ECONOMICALLY OUTDATED Constitution

ABS-CBN News

I thought about what life was like in the late 1990s. It was a boomer vs. millennial clash. I remember how often I kept complaining about high school during the K+10 era. Even worse, the real problem why I hated school was that school cared more about grades for the sake of grades, instead of teaching students how to get good grades based on learning first. What may have compounded it is that we've had boomer parents who thought that fatigue is a badge of honor. 

What I realized is the common problem of toxic positivity. We have the "good vibes only" or "everything will turn out right in the end". Sadly, life doesn't always turn out that way. You can tell a terminally ill cancer patient that, and the cancer patient would die anyway. No amount of toxic positivity ever fixes the problem. This time, I'd like to rant once more about how toxic positivity has been used to defend the outdated 1987 Constitutio of the Philippines. 

The classic rains/floods child comparison meme as an illustration

Pawang Katotohanan Lamang

Above is a meme thats shows1980s-1990s children are potentially becoming like the typical boomer parents. We often talk about how "times have changed". Some people tend to think that times always change for the better. Some think that times change for the worse. As I look at this meme, this isn't productive hardship but performative hardship. If we think about it, the heavy rains can already cause fever and other sorts of problems. Now, with flooding, we must look into the consequences of the flooding as well.

I got this chart from the DOST-PCHRD website. Above are the health risks of flooding. Just think of what you could get between symptoms and incubation. Before one thinks of being part of the next generation, one needs to ask about the cost of treatment that may even require the intensive care unit. 

Sure, everyone could go to school. However, by the time the students and the teacher enter the classroom, the body may be at an elevated level of anxiety. Let's think about the next set of challenges that happen when schools are flooded, using common sense. Below are just some real dangers and setbacks when going to school because of the flood:

1. When the schools are terribly flooded, can they be a place of learning? The chances of dangerous animals in the water (ex. snakes, rats) are high, causing a risk to both teachers and students. 
   
2. Both students and teachers can lose important documents along the way. The teacher could lose her lesson plans and other documents. The students can also lose their homework. If anybody values their life, a teacher or student would choose to lose their important documents rather than their lives. This is all about several work hours for both students and teachers. 
3. All the school employees will have a hard time going home as much as they were arriving at school.

Please tell me why we are romanticizing such stupidity? I'm using this as an example to show how toxic positivity is. If we think about it, the mentality of the sack raincoats and rain creates this environment. People with a toxic positivity mindset may end up thinking like these, as a few examples that anybody can observe so easily with people who brag about "enduring through the rain":

1. We survived the floods, no need to do anything about flood control, because we are so used to walking in the floods during the rainy season. 
2. We survived walking to school long distances daily, so why even bother providing proper transportation or securing proper transportation?
   
3. We're so used to the school breaking down, so why bother improving its facilities? 
4. If you got those symptoms during the flood, you're probably not just strong enough or fit enough!
5. The last generation survived with having school during heavy rains so why should there be a city ordinance in suspending classes during orange or red rainfalls? If better, why not have school even when there's a supertyphoon? 

Has toxic positivity been the usual excuse not to amend the defective 1987 Constitution of the Philippines?  

The same kind of toxic positivity mistaken for resilience is used to defend the 1987 Constitution

Unfortunately, the toxic resilience mentality isn't just limited to those who recall their childhood. In fact, some may have carried their toxic resilience into adulthood. One might think the dumbest stuff to justify the lack of proper equipment, like:

1. "Back in my day, we didn't have a computer. We wrote such excellent reports using a typewriter! The computers make your job too easy! We are proud to have spent hours crumpling papers! It's more productive than your lazy scanning!" (Note: They are probably too lazy to learn to use a PC because it makes their "job too easy", and they are proud of the hours they don't realize, were wasted.)
   
2. "We never complained that school was so hard back then. We have honors. Why are you always complaining and not maintaining the scholarly legacy of this family?" (Note: This might be true because the first Marcos administration was pretty much operating under an information void.)
3. "We never complained about the difficult lessons. We burned our midnight candle back to back just to get our work done. Sleep is for losers! The lack of sleep scientific study is just a conspiracy to sell more mattresses!" (Note: However, whether you like it or not, a lack of sleep is really bad for you.)

In short, the arguments I wrote above are rooted in suffering for suffering's sake. If we think about it's too much resilience that causes people to become oblivious to reality. This is basically the problem of what's called in Filipino, "Diyan na tayo nasanay!" or "We're already used to it!" fallacy. It's like what if the Filipinos didn't revolt against Imperial Spanish rule because Filipinos during the 1800s had already been too used to centuries of Spanish rule. If you're having performative hardship, then it's not productive hardship. Let me give you the difficulty of making an essay:

1. The one uses a typewriter because the PC is "too easy". However, the task becomes artificially harder because:
• Time that could've been spent brainstorming was wasted on re-typing and re-typing.
• Time that could've been spent quoting from books and academic websites is again wasted on retyping and retyping.
• One might even find the typewriter's keyboard is so hard to punch. The typewriter is good for typing checks, blank form documents, and the like. However, for essay writing? Not as much!
2. The PC may seem easier. However, the task's difficulty isn't artificial because these difficult tasks are still at hand:
• The PC can never truly write a quality essay for you, even with AI. Teachers are trained to detect AI-done homework. AI is supposed to help you simplify your thoughts. I tend to use AI in writing to generate new ideas. 
• You still need to go to the library when you need to. The Internet is a supplement for the library, not a replacement. 
• Googling to find good sources has never been easy. Some academic websites require payment or even a subscription. You might need to search across multiple search results and bookmark them, write them in the draft, etc. 
• As you write your essay, you may not be crumpling paper over and over, but there's the principle of "review and review before you print". This means that if you don't review before you print, you end up having a mountain of crumpled paper, like the typewriter. 

All these, in turn, can actually end up with "good vibes matter more" than good services. It's a real headache, especially since Filipinos have the common foolishness that says in Cebuano, "Kung pait ang imong kinabuhi, butangi lang ug asukar, ug matam-is na imong kinabuhi!" In English that means, "If life is bitter, just add sugar so your life will be sweet." 

CoRRECT Movement

This has also become a problem when defending the outdated 1987 Constitution of the Philippines. We can think of the things we're we are "too comfortable with it" that we somehow are "proud of it" because we "survived back in the day":

1. We are so used to the OFW phenomenon or the "Mag-abroad ka na lang!" ("Just go abroad!") phenomenon. For us, it has become so normal to rely on the OFW phenomenon that people are prone to thinking stuff like:
• The OFW phenomenon isn't exploitation but an "act of conquest". This might've been the mindset that caused Ed Mudsel Ello to be deported from Singapore.
• Over time, we have developed a destructive obsession with OFW remittances.
• We are so focused on the pride of OFWs or having a relative abroad, that the thought of them working in the Philippines under a foreigner may seem counterintuitive. It's because they might think that working abroad equals success, working abroad equals conquering, and working for an MNC in the Philippines with better pay equals a golden chain or golden cage.
2. We get too used to the bad services provided by the Filipino First Policy. For example, we have become too comfortable with the constantly rising costs. I believe it's caused by how Pinoy Pride Economics is driven by Pinoy Pride. It creates a situation of absurdity and irony, such as:
• Complaining that public utilities are expensive and bad, but mixed with Filipino pride, you' rather keep complaining about the bad utilities than accept the need for Filipinos to accept FDI, out of pride. 
• I can ask a person how the speed of the Internet is. I say, "What if there will be a foreign telco that will arrive?" The person obsessed with Pinoy Pride Economics will flip-flop and say, "Suffering is a virtue. I'd rather have slow Internet than allow foreigners to provide us with Internet.
• The recent rise of gasoline prices also shows toxic positivity at work. Some people are still so used to the idea that "government controls all prices", saying that supply and demand is just myths created by the greedy elite. They are so used to the concept of "miracle economics" that certain people want to apply it to the prices of gasoline as well.
• We are so used to economic protectionism and complaining about low salaries, bad quality,l services, etc. that the alternative, open FDI, becomes disgusting. It's because their Pinoy Pride Economics feeds on their pride that it creates the mental bug that says, "If you accept FDI, then you're crashing your supply of Pinoy Pride!" 
3. We are so used to the Philippines being under the "infallible" 1987 Constitution of the Philippines. We are so used to seeing stupid people and stupid voters. However, we tend to think that:
• Nothing is wrong with the 1987 Constitution of the Philippines. The people are just the problem, especially Duterte, Bongbong, etc. The reality is that it takes a lot of actual reality, not toxic positivity to admit that the current Constitution is already crumbling because of too many mistakes within it (ex. Article XII). 
• We are so used to singing and dancing for people to "vote wisely" that it's become a weird activity, no matter how hard it fails every election. It only seems to work when your preferred candidate actually wins!
• Thinking that because the nation is "healing," it's just a matter of good vibes instead of improving the law of the land. Is the nation only "healing" when your favorite politicians win while mixing it with other real issues like Alice Leal Guo's arrest?

In the end, toxic positivity has done nothing but hold Filipinos back. Toxic positivity will only tell you, "The 1987 Constitution is perfect the way it is! Magkaisa!" "Magkaisa" is the theme song of EDSA 1985, which literally means "Let's Unite". However, the butthurt reality is that no amount of toxic positivity will change the facts that the 1987 Constitution is a huge stumbling block.