The recent spate of critiques against activism brought about by the violence at the SONA rally – one by the way, that could’ve been avoided had PNoy himself told Bistek to allow the rally as it has been allowed all these years – is not just a bandwagon bias against street protests per se (because you know, it gets so traffic right?), or activism in general (there are other ways of helping nation, you know). Neither is it just unconscious redbaiting (jail the communists!) or love for our policemen (because, yeah right!).

At the heart of this discussion made larger and gone longer than most, one that has revealed how superficial Pinoy discourse – within and beyond social media – can be, is happiness and contentment. At the heart of this discussion is the notion of positivity, if not the need for it. Being critical is a negative by default. (more…)