The Myth

*Recently I was tasked to write something about this topic in 30 minutes. Not a good thing, especially if you factor in my usual proclivity to become overly verbose when I'm emotionally attached to a topic. Which is why, I am going to write about this again here.*

Perhaps one of the reasons as to why Asia has been regarded as an exotic place is the continent's natural tendency to delicately intertwine fact and fiction or, to put it in more poetic terms, reality and myth. For instance in Japan, people still regard the Japanese goddess Amaterasu as their progenitor whereas in South Korea, our tour guide told us that Koreans claim that their great ancestor was a she-bear who was turned into a human being by a prince of heaven. While channel surfing, I came across a film docu on Cambodia which said that in the past, a dragon of some sort was thought of to dwell in the innards of the famed Angkor Wat and the king was even aware of its presence. My several rewatches of "Anna and the King" have rendered me all-too-familiar with Thailand's famed white elephant. The Philippines itself, despite intense Christianization by foreign occupants, is not devoid of such intricate interweaving. For instance, I still unconsciously mutter "Puera buyag" or "Puera usog" when I see a cute baby and a recent unexplained illness I had this year was attributed by someone I know to a person who supposedly had a higher "dungan" than me.

It is a cultural norm for us to do such things, to somehow still explain reality in terms which are of mythological nature or origin. I am not saying it is right or wrong although I usualy tend to draw the line since I believe science and reason can usually explain most phenomena. But what exactly is myth and what exactly is reality? Some say myth is imagined and reality is, well, what we see around us. Thus reality is more concrete and more tangible. I would like to add something though. In some aspects, a myth is an ideal, a standard not yet achieved by reality. And it is in this light that the conjugal union between myth and reality should not be broken that doing such would be tantamount to sacrilege.

For instance, as a child, a boy is taught by his mother to never do bad things such as to steal from the tiangge down the street or not to lie. They are taught to always adhere to good and never to evil. They do such things simply because it is what is taught to them, it is what is right. Thus you hear the occasional reply from a child when asked why, for instance, he did not cheat in a school examination: "Kasi, masama yun." That is inculcated in the child's mind, as an ideal, a standard which he always has to live up to. As he grows older, he gets to encounter more standards, more ideals, more things which he should do.

One of the things we are taught at an early age is the concept of punishment. Of course, forgiveness comes along but as children, we obeyed our parents because we were dead scared of getting punished. The rules are pretty simple: do as we say obey us because if you do something else, you'll get something you don't want in the first place. All children, no matter if they're the ate, kuya or bunso will always get whacked in the butt, sit in the corner for about half an hour or, for the more...er...traditional, kneel on mongo beans for a period of time if they do something wrong. The rules apply to everybody and no one is exempted. That's what I was taught for starters and I am sure other Filipino kids are all too familiar with that too.

As they say, everything always starts in the home. The concepts we learn at home are no different from what we see outside. The concept of crime and punishment is very much present and all are supposedly equal in the eyes of the law despite ethnic origin, socio-economic background, educational attainment, etc. As a matter of fact, our honorable congressman even proudly declare in their hallowed halls the words - "Dura lex, sed lex." The law, no matter how hard, is still the law. One congressman, apparently all too excited to display among his many extraordindary talents, his proficiency in Philippine linguistics, even spoke those words over and over again in different local dialects (which, I have to add, left me teary-eyed....with laughter).

That is where it all ends, the conjugal union between myth and fact, between an ideal and reality. Perhaps the superfluousity of words is all too outstanding it completely smothers the ideal to an almost silent death. Equality before the law remains to be a myth, an ideal which lives within the pages of books, within the walls of a classroom, within the mind of a person. The moment it steps out of its enclosure, it instantly vaporizes, spontaneously combusts into nothingness. We hear it time and again, it is made to ring in and out of our already banged up heads like a bell - "The law recognizes no one. Justice is blind." You look at a figure of lady of justice and she sure seems like it. The local neighborhood voyeur/nymphomaniac languishes in jail for charges of rape and molestation and eventually lands in the lethal injection table. The gaunt-looking guy who stands in dark alleys and grabs carelessly slung purses get thrown into prison. The flashy woman from down the street is sent behind bars after her checks bounce. But the song is different in other cases. The sentence of a rich scion of an influential family can never be served. A jailed ex-government official who has an unexplained bank account fatter than his already bursting belly is enjoying the comforts of his resthouse and even has the effrontery to request that he be allowed to party. A tax evasion complaint against an extremely wealthy businessman never succeeds. Do I even need to mention a chief executive stealing the only right held dear by an already impoverished nation? No, justice is not blind, it's just blindfolded. And a blindfold is pretty easy to pull off.

The great sin which society (I'm not doing a Pilate here, just so you know) commits is that it always tries to justify the glaring scum which clings to it by saying that reality is always different from theories or, in this case, ideals. To put them together would be synonymous to Don Quixote chasing his windmills. And, sad to say, like Don Quixote, waging war with the evils of society would render one completely mad. And what is worse is that this great lie are being sugarcoated and made to appear as real. If we refuse to accept them, they are still rammed down our throats. Anna and I were discussing this sometime over the phone. A few days ago, I had practically a similar conversation with Em too. It is primarily difficult to cure the ills of society when the 1)environment and the existing setup is completely improper for that and 2)everybody seems to think there is no cure. What then is the purpose of learning and studying? What then is the purpose of words when all meaning and relevance is lost? What then happens to the concept of justice when it is not being practiced? They become like myths - words passed on from one generation next but passing on is never enough. Eventually they will drift away from us like dust carelessly swept away by the wind, never to be seen again.