Bedtime story

In a land not so far, far away, there lived an Ogre. This Ogre lives beyond the mountains that borders the city. Nobody has seen the Ogre, nobody knows what he looks like, the people of the city just knows that it is there. And for generations the residents fear this Ogre, and try to pacify it by offering at the foot of the mountain their harvests, their golds and treasures, their virgins, money, and food. Until today, they fear that if they do not make these offerings, the Ogre will come around and over the mountain and into their city, destroy their farms and houses, and eat their children.

These offerings have left the city impoverished, and its people miserable. So every year or so, a member of the community would have the courage to bring his weapons and try to end the city’s misery by going over the mountain and attempting to kill the Ogre. And through all these years, after all the attempts, men after men, nobody has ever returned.

One night, a father sat his son down and said, “My son, tomorrow before dawn, I will leave you and your Mom, go to the mountains and I will kill the Ogre. But I will be back, and when I do, the city will make me a hero.” But he never did come back. Just like all the other Ogre slayers. And so the son trained, practiced his skills, and built up, and a year after, decided to avenge his father. “It is my turn, and I will come back,” said the boy.

And so the day came, and the son went over the mountain to confront and kill the monster that killed his father, and the other Slayers. But when he got there, he didn’t see the Ogre. He saw the remains and the bones of the other who attempted, but he didn’t see the Ogre. What he saw was his own father(!), sitting on top of the gold and the treasures, bloated and eating the harvests and food.

I will leave you to your own conclusions as to how it ended. But the point is, there was no Ogre, or at least not the type of Ogre everybody imagined it to be. The other Slayers saw who was there, killed it for what it has done, and decided to stay and not return! They were blinded by the gold and treasures, and tempted with the power, and decided they wanted it for themselves.

I believe most elected officials had good intentions why they wanted the positions they were running for. I even believe Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had every good intentions and aspirations for the country when she stepped into the Presidency. But power has a way of corrupting people, and good intentions are laid to ruins to acquire and perpetuate this power.

In an article from The Economist called “The Psychology of Power” (Jan 2010), it maintains that power only corrupts those who think they deserve it.

“… people with power that they think is justified break rules not only because they can get away with it, but also because they feel at some intuitive level that they are entitled to take what they want. This sense of entitlement is crucial to understanding why people misbehave in high office. In its absence, abuses will be less likely. The word “privilege” translates as “private law” … the sense which some powerful people seem to have that different rules apply to them is not just a convenient smoke screen. They genuinely believe it.”

And that is why I will vote for Noynoy Aquino for President, because I believe that among the candidates, he is the only one who does not feel we owe him something. In fact, i genuinely think he believes HE owes US something. And because I believe that among the candidates, he is the least likely to be tempted by power. He doesn’t even want to run in the first place.

The article further said:

“Perhaps the lesson, then, is that corruption and hypocrisy are the price that societies pay for being led by alpha males (and, in some cases, alpha females).

The alternative, though cleaner, is leadership by wimps.”

I believe Noynoy has been called that, too. Between an Ogre and a wimp, the choice is easy.