1984 and how we are being enslaved by Populist Promises

His voice thundered. He cursed the Oligarchs while keeping some unto himself as friends. I am not referring to a living personality. I am talking about Adolf Hitler.

I just finished reading Mein Kampf, Hitler's popular autobiography, and if I remember correctly, this is my fifth time. Hitler lived a very interesting life. From relative obscurity to global popularity to eventually, killing himself out of his self-demagoguery.

Hitler's no buffoon mind you. He was a son of a government official. He was an educated man, yet due to some unfortunate circumstances, Hitler suffered. For five years, Hitler lived in the streets of Austria as a struggling artist. He went into the military and from there, discovered his profession.

Hitler associated himself with German intellectuals and in no time at all, found himself leading a movement of change. Yes, Hitler was a change agent. Back then, those Germans who found Hitler as their champion, wanted nothing more than change their country for the better. They meant well. Who, in his right mind, would ever think of destroying one's country?

When Hitler got arrested and thrown into prison for staging a failed putsch, he got himself a writer and wrote his thoughts into a book. If you read the Mein Kampf, it was not as intellectually stimulating as, say reading Marx, Hegels, Kant or as highly entertaining as Marquez, etal but for the Germans, that book became their bible because it bared truths about their existence. It explains in very simplistic terms the dynamics of German politics, how the country was under the capitalist control of the Jews and how foreign powers were keeping German's greatness in check. Hitler painted Germany as a country enslaved by the faults of its past Leaders, yet, still possesses the right qualities to even conquer the world.

That book paved the way for Hitler to ascend the highest position of Power. His eventual ascension as Chancellor and eventually, Head of the third Reich was to some, the end result of a systematic manipulation of German nationalism. Others however, blame the geopolitics of the time. Back then, leaders of the Free World only thought of Hitler as an ordinary chap, a politician like other German politicos. Six years later, with almost five million dead and billions of dollars worth of damage to the global community, did these leaders realized how wrong they were when they underestimated a Hitler.

Is it correct to say that Hitler was the German people's curse? Not exactly. Hitler might have been perceived correctly by his own people back at the time as their savior. Honestly, we can't blame the Germans for believing Hitler. Back at the time, Hitler exactly wrote and precisely told the Germans the truth about their existence. The fault of Hitler was he led his country to the extreme, a path which only idiots and psychotics dare to tread. Had Hitler concentrated on just making Germany a prosperous country and stayed his hand against Germany's traditional enemies, history would have been kinder. That is simply the genetic fault of many Dictators-- they die by their own hand. When you give immense powers to just one man, that man will eventually consider himself as God, and his subsequent actions eventually lead him to perdition. Hitler was simply not the first of these kinds of men. Napoleon, Nero and even King Solomon suffered from the same disease of megalomania. And these men will simply not stop increasing. Expect to see these kinds of men in every generation. It is simply up to that generation if they have the collective will enough to disengage themselves from the spell and spiel of these megalomaniacs.

It's 2017 and we are facing a phenomenal shift towards populism. Many countries, not just in the Philippines, are seeing their democracies crumble under the weight of populist strong man ideas. With surveys showing how high people's frustrations are against their governments and their duty constituted authorities, politicians are pandering on popular sentiments. And the people show their appreciation thru the ballots without even thinking if that's the right thing or not. People are like consumers--they simply care for themselves.

Blame the global financial crisis for this. It created a world-wide environment of uncertainty. People react by expressing anxieties. Worse, adherents of populism tried to rationalize their actions by discrediting democratic pillars like the media, obviously promoting more confusion and more obfuscation of reality.

As people scratch their way out of the economic rut, they become susceptible to first aid talk. Most people became gullible and exploitable by sweet talking demagogues who assume the people's language while hiding their true agendum. By the time these people wake up, they are already under the spell of devious Enchanters who are themselves, oppressors, but now, people's champions.

Read 1984 by George Orwell and that book remains relevant up to this day because it exactly describes what peoples around the world are suffering from--they suffer from false belief aided by mass consumption of fantastic promises of salvation against almost any conceivable problem.

Our world right now is how the producers of Matrix envisioned the future world. Populism enabled the peoples of the world to think everything is secure and normal when the Truth is, they are being sucked dry by aliens who rely on humans for their sustenance and as energy sources.

This is our world. This is our Now. It is up to us if we decide to struggle and wake ourselves up and fight the scourge of philistinism which is slowly affecting our world.

Lapdogs and New Patriots in Philippine Congress

I congratulate my friend and colleague, Raymund Palatino of Ang Kabataan partylist. Raymund is now a Congressman, after being sworn in yesterday by COMELEC officials.

Raymund is a fine addition to the growing bevy of revolutionaries and reform-minded individuals now manning Congress in behalf of the Filipino People. Like Satur and all the rest of the Patriots of the New Generation, Palatino is a breath of fresh air in the rancid halls of Congress. The only reason why Hope is still being talked about by the people is simply there are Patriots like Raymund who'll risk life and limb just to advance the Cause of the Filipino People.

If we expect Raymund to do the right thing, how about former General Jovito Palparan? Palparan claims to have a constituency. He claims to represent those alleged victims of what he claims to be "Communist" terrorists. Is Palparan fit to become Congressman?

If we are to follow COMELEC's fitness test, yes, he is. But, what about the fitness test of the Filipino People?

I remember Germany in the 1930's, when a middle-aged Adolf Hitler entered the halls of Reichstag, Germany's parliament. He represented the National Socialist Party or NAZI which promoted anti-Semitism and German race supremacy.

After a few years, he became Germany's Chancellor.

Like Hitler before him, Palparan became an active part of the military's anti-insurgency campaign. He's anti-revolution, anti-reform and anti-Communist. He subscribes to the belief that force begets force and he does this in brutal fashion.

And there are similarities between Hitler and Palparan. Aside from being anti-Communist, Palparan is also anti-Chinese. He blames the Chinese for the Filipinos' woes. When he was chief of the Infantry division, he did'nt lift a finger when Chinese businessmen were abducted and killed in his jurisdiction despite pleas of help from the victims' families. He was even heard saying "buti nga sa kanila!" when one of the victims got killed.

Instead of running after armed revolutionaries, Palparan takes delicious fancy arresting and killing unarmed reform-minded individuals. He salivates every time an activist gets nabbed, raped (if female), killed and buried in shallow graves. The Melo Commission found this out. Yet instead of castigating him, this administration tolerated and even cuddled him. It's a known fact that Malacanang poured millions of pesos in Palparan's partylist group, Bantay during the elections. And the palace seems to like the idea of having Palparan as its enforcer poster boy. Or imagine Palparan as Speaker of the House? That would surely bring the country down.

Will History repeat itself and see the emergence of a New Hitler in the person of "the Butcher" General Jovito S. Palparan? Will Palparan do a Hitler and go after the Chinese and the Communists when in Congress?

The partylist concept was originally made to empower sectors in Philippine society. It's supposed to be an experiment in democracy. It's supposed to expand horizontally the people's participation in legislation.

Yet, throughout these years, this concept has been mangled and torn to pieces by rapacious and profit-hungry forces out to make a fast buck from the People's sagging resources. Look at the number of partylist groups right now. Examine and study them and you'll find that only a fraction are legitimate groups advancing the People's Cause.

This administration is to be blamed for having smeared the very noble concept of partylist groups. Using government resources, the Arroyo government supported pseudo people's organizations and pseudo cause oriented groups.

Look at the new partylist groups sworn as Congressmen yesterday. We have an Arroyo Watchdog (Bantay) who'll surely promote and legitimize the record of human rights violations of this regime. We have the sipsip group, the Kasangga, who'll surely advance bills that will seek to advance the fiduciary interests of the landlord class. Do you believe what new Cong. Arroyo of Kasangga told the media yesterday, that they'll help the balut vendors improve their lot? Are balut vendors so substantially huge a sector that they can be classified as disenfranchised? Maybe Cong. Arroyo would help balut producers, instead of the vendors? How would they even help them? By asking the MMDA to legitimize their street vending activities which, under the law, is illegal? Will they then pass legislation legitimizing street vending? Or probably, they'll pass laws that would TAX the underground economic sectors to again fatten and line the pockets of greedy government officials?

Since Kasangga is now in Congress, expect the price of balut to go up.

It's interesting that, in the next Congress, two reform-minded individuals from the ranks of the AFP will be gunning for a Congressional seats. Inspired by their idol, Senator Antonio Trillianes, former Navy Lt. James Layug and former Air Force First Lt. Francisco Acedillo will be running as Congressmen in Taguig and Cebu City.

Should they win and Bantay's infamous posterboy, the butcher General also wins, Congress would be a very interesting place to watch. A murderous lapdog going against the New Patriots---that's a classic match even better than a Pacquiao-Hatton fight.

Again, I toss my lambanog filled glass to Raymund Palatino of Ang Kabataan partylist. May God give you strength to battle it out against lapdogs and Arroyo's sipsip brigades. Make the Filipino People proud.