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:
Hi, to those who’d want to troll this post, please read this. I know this is up for discussion in the Man Blog forums.
I would never want to be a Mike Villar or an Ade Magnaye. If you find that my posts take on a similar voice, then that’s that. Pure coincidence. My personal acquaintances will swear I generally speak the way I write.
This post is a mere think piece not to demean what Mike or Ade does or says. We’re all entitled to our own opinions and I respect Mike and Ade’s rights to do just that. I’ve even been in correspondence with Ade to comment on his post.
The “jologs” discourse on the web is just an interest of mine and this post is an attempt to stretch it a bit. I’m not trying to be smart or funny nor am I trying to make a name for myself around here. If anyone of you guys feel offended by this post (especially those whose names I explicitly referred to – Ade and Mr. Mike Villar), please e-mail me and we could probably discuss this with open minds.
You’re just making sakay the trend kaya eh in truth you’re no better than all these katutubo orcs you’re making defend eh! Dude pare, you kaya making yourself a bleeding heart orc defender is so jologs
oh by the way pare jologs mo you’re a katutubo orc din pero you have a nice suit maybe I can hire you in my company and pay you peanuts noh?
ALEX MAXIMO: Hi, I’m Alex Maximo. When I grow up, I want to be like Adrian Magnaye or Mike Villar.
Although I don’t admit it openly, my writing betrays me that they really are my idols and I want to be like them when I grow up. Thanks you
HOST: Thanks Maximo, let’s call on our next contestant…
You are not clever.
You have cofibean to thank. Had I not passed by his shitty blog before I read this article, and
if not for his stupid remark here, I wouldn’t have found it bearable to finish reading your
trying-hard article.
Keep trying. Cofibean’s job offer should not be seen as your last resort.
Hello! I am a language student and my area of interest is discourse analysis. I just want to say that I find your posts entertaining. I may not agree with some, but I have to admit that they are indeed as you say, “think pieces.”
Funny that many are up-at-arms because of this post. Perhaps people are just reading it differently.
Mr. Maximo, I think I understand your post. It’s basically an analysis of discourse in the so-called “Pinoy Web 2.0″ with a couple of existing posts on “jologs” as your discourse samples.
I agree with your conclusion that Pinoy Web 2.0 is basically middle class Pinoy discourse, hence the perception of “jologs” by the writers of the posts/discourse samples.
I think your post is as simple as that. Unfortunately, many have misinterpreted it. Perhaps, it’s because your style (Wow, may stylistics na ring kasama. Please allow me to use what I’ve learned in class in a more practical sense. Nakakasawa na kasi sa term paper lang ginagamit)is quite “militant.” I know that your post is not an academic paper, hence the more personal tone and the freedom to use whatever style you want. However, it doesn’t change the fact that your article is still discourse analysis.
Please don’t mind the negative posts. Iba-iba lang kasi tayo ng poetics at literary theories na pinanggagalingan.
Wow, finally, someone got it!!! Wow! As in! Wow!
Saang school ka, J? You’re studying either media or literature, right? I need to correspond with you!
My counter-intuitive solution? Uunahan ko na sila sa pagfrisk at pagstrip sa’kin. A few weeks later, they don’t do me no more.
Nice piece!
“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.” – Friedrich Nietzsche