For Filipinos, collective amnesia seems the key to happiness

For Filipinos, collective amnesia seems the key to happiness

The world is confronted with an “escalation of evil,” Pope Francis said while meeting with delegates of a Jewish service organization called B’nai B’rith International on May 30. The Hebrew words B’nai B’rith mean “Children of the Covenant.”

The “escalation of evil,” according to the pope, builds up an “even greater contempt for human dignity and rights … The antidote to this escalation of evil is remembrance: remembrance of the past, remembrance of its wars, remembrance of the Shoah and of countless other atrocities.”

Shoah is the Hebrew word for “catastrophe” that specifically applies to the killing of nearly six million Jews in Europe by Nazi Germany.

In the 1930s, Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime became Germany’s unstoppable monster and its victims were countless defenseless Jews.

Animated by the ideology of Aryan supremacy, Hitler became a merciless dictator who dared to judge other people as “subhuman.” That was the basis for the murder of all Jews, defective children in the womb, the comatose, inutile grandparents in homes for the aged, and prisoners on death row — everything in open defiance of the 5th Commandment: “Thou shalt not kill.”

Fast forward to September 2016, three months after taking power, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte dared to liken his bloody war on drugs to Hitler’s Holocaust. “Hitler massacred three million Jews [incorrect statistics]. Now, there are three million drug addicts,” he boasted, “I’d be happy to slaughter them.”

Towards the end of the Duterte regime, the culture of impunity, murder, and plunder reached an alarming level that bothered the Catholic leadership

So strategic was Hitler’s method that the persecution, experimentation and genocide of six million Jews were carried out in stages, culminating in the “final solution to the Jewish question.” Similarly, to achieve his goal, Duterte mobilized all government agencies.

The International Criminal Court prosecutor counted 12,000 to 30,000 dead bodies of civilians killed between 2016 and 2019 in connection with Duterte’s war on drugs.

Towards the end of the Duterte regime, the culture of impunity, murder, and plunder reached an alarming level that bothered the Catholic leadership. In a joint pastoral message dated Sept. 12, 2021, the Filipino archbishops — Marlo Peralta of Nueva Segovia, Socrates Villegas of Lingayen Dagupan, and Ricardo Baccay of Tuguegarao — expressed their alarm.

“Bullets kill. Viruses kill. Governance without direction kills. Corruption kills. Trolls kill with fake news. Hunger kills. When will the killings stop? The poor pay for the corruption of the powerful. The nation is sinking in debt,” their statement said.

In September 2018, Amnesty International reminded the Filipino leader “to restore respect for human rights on the 46th anniversary of martial law.”

Moreover, the rights group reminded the gullible and forgetful Filipinos that in playing the game of brinkmanship, Ferdinand Marcos Sr. declared martial law in 1972 and ruled as a merciless dictator, leaving a legacy of more than 100,000 victims: 3,000 were killed, 34,000 tortured and 70,000 arrested, as history has documented.

German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche is credited for theorizing that “the power to forget, not the power to remember, is the key to happiness.”

This seems to be the way to happiness for 31-plus million Filipinos. It appears they suffer from collective amnesia as they conveniently and subjectively forget the mistakes of history.

“History never forgets. It may repeat itself to teach its citizens about ignorance, empowerment and authentic leadership. But history should never be forgotten. You can never run away from who you are”

To the young Filipinos who are getting gullible and the “young once” who are becoming forgetful, as proved by the results of last month’s presidential election, what Pope Francis told B’nai B’rith International delegates — that remembrance is an antidote to the escalation of evil — applies almost perfectly.

In the same vein, because remembrance is the antidote to the escalation of evil, the University of the Philippines is set to open the Freedom Memorial Museum in September to remind the forgetful “young once” of the horrors of martial law (1972-86).

To be spread over 1.4 hectares, the museum will house an engraved list of sacred names of the victims of President Marcos Sr., the dictator, together with “relevant memorabilia, artifacts, educational materials and audio-visual content.”

“History never forgets. It may repeat itself to teach its citizens about ignorance, empowerment and authentic leadership. But history should never be forgotten. You can never run away from who you are,” Father Flavie Villanueva told Marcos Jr. on Facebook.

Before the May 9 presidential election, Filipino artist Rick Rocamora put up an art exhibit in Quezon City displaying photos of journalists, activists and educators who were imprisoned and tortured for fighting the Marcos tyranny.

With 31-plus million Filipinos giving Marcos Jr. a very strong electoral mandate, “the urgency to share the project with the public became necessary,” said Rocamora, and “hopefully, no amount of denial can erase the sacrifices of the victims and survivors.”

On the same day when Pope Francis told the Jewish group that remembrance is an antidote to the escalation of evil, Manila’s archbishop, Cardinal Jose Advincula, told Filipinos that they must defend the truth.

Speaking at the Thanksgiving Mass for the canonization of St. Titus Brandsma, a Dutch priest and journalist who was imprisoned, tortured and executed for speaking out against Nazi propaganda, the cardinal said: “When we seem to be experiencing a crisis of truth … defend the truth!”

* Jose Mario Bautista Maximiano is the author of ‘Human Life is Beautiful’ (St. Paul’s, 1993) and ‘Spiritual Man: Christian Anthropology’ (St. Paul’s, 1995). The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official editorial position of UCA News.