System of The Down

BARE NECESSITIES Hoping to expose something 

Ex Libres Arvin Tampus, Circa 2002, Davao City

“There is no evil in the atom; only in men's souls.” ---Adlai Stevenson 

SOME OF US WOULD LIKE to believe that in order to transform the existing state of things, its political unrest, social disparities and economic uncertainties, it is imperative that we change ultimately, and, if possible, forcibly, the system. The advent of the new age seems to have been ripping apart every individual as it brought about a sizable stupor of spirit way beyond what we may have expected.

There is this insatiable perception that our system or any other system for that matter is intrinsically evil and has always been in conflict with the development of a society. And so the intricate labor of turning a system upside down took a firm and delicate hold on us, even unto the politically critical and the religiously bigoted. Changing the system has become the raison d'etre of practically every society who has gone nuts about their own problematic lot.

This singular concept of change may well be of some exceptional interests and profound ideals, but any willing individual who readily succumbs to the idea of changing the strata will likely be let loose in a maze of conflicting and controversial reasoning, and would probably be found in much trouble as his conviction sometimes runs counter to that of his hypothetical system. The need to change the system places us all the more in a conspicuous spot, for an assessment of its process pressures us to sacrifice some of our ideals for the benefit of the many, which incidentally represents the system.

For many years we have accumulated and extracted so much as to the changing of the established order, yet we always fall short, not because there is something wrong with us, we reason, but because there is something wrong with the system. This, I gather, is the system of the down. A corresponding thorough evaluation of its down rules should be included in its agenda. We need to change the system and eventually change lives, or words to that effect.

While it is true that there is so much dissension and corruption and maltreatment around, the fact remains that these problems never truly had any solutions at all. The desperation of curing these problems has escalated into a heap of unresolved dilemmas only too fit for an unstable democracy such as ours. We never learned our lessons. Nonetheless, there really is nothing wrong with the system, as such. These are just a bunch of engagements merely for our guidance and direction, and offering only specifics as far as our roles are concerned.

This system, being fundamentally abstract, simply presents a general point of view, representations that are considered indifferent towards what is right and what is wrong, what is evil and what is good. Accusing the system is much like accusing what was being formed and founded. It is an indirect attack on those responsible for the rules, not the rules themselves. As such we are not only accusing the process, but condemning the entity behind the process as well. We might as well change all those involved in the system if that is the case. And this probably might come close to changing lives.

But change is a relative issue, depending on which side you would like to be. Looking in to the system intently, any sane person slowly and surely sees not an abstract thing, but one that is in itself concrete, and probably responsible for the system he has some problems with. I’m sure even seasoned politicians would most likely applaud the idea of laying one's self just for the sake of changing the system, and that the concept of changing the individual would be too bigoted, too aloof, too friar for dear country to recognize. Again, there really is (and I would definitely believe) nothing wrong with changing the system. It is just that we have focused ourselves on the process so much that we have failed, repeatedly, to perceive the end-product of this change-the-system attitude. We are in constant denial and disbelief as to the problems our system is facing merely because at the end of the day there really is nothing to blame but ourselves.

Deep inside us is the desire to live, at least, a peaceful life. And I have reasons to suspect that this idealistic and oftentimes “noble thing” in our heads is the only motivating factor of changing, if possible, in a drastic way, the system. Besides, who doesn't want a peaceful society anyway? Everybody does. But eventually the system has its own way of pulling you out, and eventually pulling you down. It is quite a noble thing to change the system, yet how very practical it is to change an individual, where you have the chance to deal with the personality of the problem, instead of dawdling on the picture of the problem.

A discreet look at changing the strata is indispensable. It is just a matter of naming the real culprit and one of judicious blaming. We need to change the system preceding all systems--- ourselves.

(photo: corbisbrazil.com)