ENDLESS™ Legend 2 - Panopticon

Conspicuous Consumption

The Philippines was never an egalitarian society. Even before the Spanish arrived and doomed us all to their Christian hell, Philippine society was based on class. In time, nobles, freedmen, and slaves gave way to rich, not-so-rich, and poor. No matter the age, disparity will always exist.

The Philippines is hardly unique in this case. Disparity is the bane of all societies and in my opinion, managing inequality is the reason government exists. Ah, the "allocation of scant resources" - one of my favorite definitions of politics.

The smart people once tried to do away with  social classes altogether and it was a disaster. After the deaths of a few billions, mankind decided it would abide by a polite fiction instead. History was pronounced dead and from then on, people would simply believe that they were all equal. Any inequality was just a "work in progress" - a minor blip to be solved once we put the right systems in place and elect the right leaders. Eventually. Maybe. (Not really)

But in all seriousness, managing inequality should be the chief concern of any sane government interested in its own preservation. Inequality may be unsolvable, but the gap between the haves and have-nots should be kept as narrow as possible. If the gap is too wide, unrest and revolution follow. 

I don't think the Philippine government is doing well in narrowing the gap between rich and poor. The people are already taxed heavily and all that ayuda will eventually run out. 

If you can't solve a problem, all you can do is manage perceptions and make it look like the problem doesn't exist or isn't as bad as people think. Sadly, the government is failing to do even that. To be fair, it's hard to hide the problem of corruption when the capital gets flooded despite supposedly spending trillions in flood control projects. It's hard to hide inequality when the scions of the rich and powerful post selfies with luxury cars and handbags worth more than what the average Filipino makes in ten years.

This is what's funny to me. The government fears social media. Politicians are absolutely terrified by it. They're scared because they can't control it. What trends and what becomes viral is not in their control. That explains all the efforts to control it and to clamp down on vloggers and content creators in the guise of preventing misinformation. Yet, for all their fear of social media, these politicians and their larvae post all kinds of elitist nonsense and bullshit showing how rich and powerful they are. They can't help but play with fire and how can they resist? They crave attention and where else can you get it?

So what we have now is a growing name-and-shame campaign against the politicians and the wealthy. Their social media accounts are now targets for people's anger and scorn. Will anything come of this campaign? I don't know. Regardless, I am truly amazed at the lack of shame many of these spoiled assholes exhibit. In the good old days, flagrant displays of wealth would get you beaten and robbed if you were lucky or kidnapped if you were not. But I suppose since it's all online now, people feel free to show us their worst. Sadly, the technology to punch people through the computer monitor hasn't been invented yet.

All these displays of conspicuous consumption are dangerous in these times of public difficulty from the floods. Such displays during times of hardship are the kind that lead to unrest. Inequality was a serious matter regarded by serious people. The wiser rulers of the past knew this. There was a time when you donned the purple and a time when you donned the sackcloth. Perhaps it's time to bring back the old sumptuary laws, eh? No Chanel handbags and Gucci shit on Sundays or is even that too much to ask?