Author’s Note/Paalala: Ang artikulong ito ay gumagamit ng tinatawag ng polite society na “vulgar words.” It’s a think piece. Or pretends to be.

Let’s face it, writing on blogs with an international audience is so post-colonial. Mahirap tuloy i-deny na middle-class nga ako. And even though hindi ako anak ng kung sinong tisoy o singkit na may-ari ng uber-large malls and high-rise buildings somewhere in the Metro, I don’t eat dilis, tuyo and itlog on a daily basis. I can fund my pathetic vice of buying useless guitar gear (useless kasi hindi naman ako Vai o Petrucci) with the money I earn.

Naka-ilang post na din ako highlighting the kulturang jologs and how bloggers like Mike “F*cking” Villar and Ade Magnaye bashes them na parang kung sino silang anak ng Diyos (o siya, sabihin na nating satire writers sila). Freedom of speech nga naman. That’s where our great Republic was built on. So f*ck us violent reactors who are up in arms dahil naba-bash na naman ang aming mga kapatid na jologs.

Sino ang mas pretentious, ako o sila? While I post my own critiques to their posts, I don’t admit that I’m one of them. I’m undoubtedly middle class. And I’d probably bust someone’s nose too if someone calls me jologs. Sige, sabihin niyo na, “‘Eh di umamin ka din. ‘Tang ina, impokrito ka!” What a class act.

Anyway, what’s up with being jologs or un-jologs anyway. Praise (the) Lourd na lang tayo sa pamagat ng album ng Radioactive Sago Project, ’cause its for each and everyone of us, “TANGINAMO ANDAMING NAGUGUTOM SA MUNDO FASHIONISTA KA PA RIN.” Bawal na mabuking na galing ukay or tiangge ang damit kasi jologs.

And no! It’s not exclusive to our middle-class asses anyway. Sa tingin niyo, magkano ang damit sa Fubu at Dickies? How much yung kung anu-anong aparato ang nakakabit sa mga katawan at mukha ng mga hip-hop at emong pangkistang raker na mga yan? Those don’t come cheap. And 60% of our population is starving yet even the “destitute” can afford Php100 a month on cellphone load. Yeah, they can definitely afford ill-fitting clothes from Fubu too. Pwedeng kupit sa pitaka ni tatay, di bale, ipang-iinom lang naman niya ng GSM Blue ‘yun mamaya. Or was that for bunso’s pampabakuna?

One reason I hate malls is that when you come in from the main entrances, security guards frisk you. But when you come in from the covered parking lot entrance, they don’t. Bawal ang sando at tsinelas but tank tops and Havaianas are cool. What the f*ck? F*ck fashion. F*ck pride. F*ck social segmentation.

We are in our domain called the Web feeling all high and mighty. We try to deny that that’s the world around us – we are surrounded by jologs and one day, we’ll realize that we’re just the same species. But we refuse to. Some of us enjoy the comforts of flipping open MacBook Pros in Starbs while sipping on ‘ccinos surfing the Web via Wi-fi. Habanag ang mga jologs, ayun, nagsisiksikang magkasya sa webcam ng kung saang Web-cafe-by-day, webcam-strip-club-by-night diyan sa may kanto na nagpaparenta ng kinse petot isang oras para sa Web surfing.

The discourse of Pinoy Web 2.0 is the discourse of the middle-class. Yes, it’s true. Pick out all “celebrities,” “stars,” and “figures” in the Pinoy blogosphere at makikita natin na lahat yan, nakapag-aral/nag-aaral at may mga sariling kompyuter. Ang iba’y propesyunal (or formerly) o mga estudyante. And some even belong to the dominant bloc of the AA and A echelons of society. Very petty-bourgeois if you ask me. Burgis!

The Web is our drug and we’re all crackheads. It’s because the Web’s our so-called fortress of the freedom of speech. But isn’t it our crackhouse to feel all high and mighty too?

So who’s to blame here? MTV? Maybe, most of us knew Incubus from S.C.I.E.N.C.E and we all hated when the jologs finally got to Morning View. Brandon Boyd was hot hanggang ginaya na ng mga jologs yung laki ng butas ng tainga niya. I wonder what happens if all of a sudden the jologs took a liking to the Arctic Monkeys instead of the Pussycat Dolls. Or better yet, Wowowee uses Hed Kandi instead of Boom Tarat Tarat or whatever they call that insipid chant.

Hindi naman talaga magkakasundo ang mga mundo natin eh. Tandaan natin ang sinabi ni Marx, “The history of man is the history of class struggle.”

Check out these other posts:

1. Beware of what you wear: more on “jologs”
2. “Jologs” and Pinoy rock
3. The Web 2.0 versus authority
4. Yes, and we have more “jologs” discussions on blogs
5. I’m not “jologs,” Aym a sertipayd MaK Dadi!