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Wednesday, July 13, 2005
Speak out: Greater good
By Rosendo T. Brillantes
“The greater good for the greatest in number,” so asserts the English philosopher John Stuart Mill.
That is the point that could best counter the persistent attention given to petty politics.
Looking at the governance of so numerous distant islands, the screams, the street turmoil going on in Manila could not and cannot be used as representative of the sentiments of most people in the archipelago.
For it has been under the Arroyo administration that 35 million jobs have been created, that the millions of pesos of millionaires have come about, that the penchant for the whims, caprices, and fancies of the lower class and the middle class continue to be fed upon.
From Mindanao, the small Visayan islands to the largest island of Luzon, trade, commerce, industry and infrastructure works can be seen. Job-generating activities have been spreading like a good fire in the numerous islands.
The drawback to such “greater good to the greatest in number” comment is that it does not make a good sale. The bad things are the ones that sell well. In the market of ideas, the media is in command.
Good works cannot attract interest; they are mainly ignored. To most people they are not saleable.
Minor mistakes of judgment have to be glorified; they have to be amplified to sustain their marketability. Ill-feeling, anger, vengefulness have to be built up so good things happening in distant, small but numerous islands can be eclipsed.
The boisterous noise, the disturbance in imperialist Metro Manila, are made to appear as the overall view of the inhabitants of the island-colonies. Well, it is not.
The government of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo should be allowed to pursue its work for “the greater good for the greatest in number.”
(July 13, 2005 issue)
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