WHEN PHILOSOPHY IS MOST NEEDED

Media people are a resilient lot. We cannot really be put down by anything, disasters human-made or Mother Nature-made we survive them all. 

We are used to all kinds of harassments and intimidations, especially if we belong to the non-government side. Reediting our works, being censored by them, or even theft of  our ideas we get over them quickly. We don't,wallow in self-pity. 

So it is useless for the government to make any move that will try to cripple our ability to make a stand and write, call out, broadcast or even to withdraw from sticking to our profession.

What the government should do is employ information people who know philosophy, the tenets of communication and be able to respond to the brickbats that come their way, not underhandedly but frontally - ideas contra ideas.

The world is full of competition - whether in goods and brains or any other thing. The job of the media practitioners is to be able to sift through facts and opinions and create a new or improved perspective that will advance humanity's quest for peace, equality and justice.

To thwart our moves is to create more and more adherents. Why because, especially with the advance of feminism, students studying journalism and mass communication are already prepared by their professors, with an enlightened curriculum, to face and survive in the world of letters and images.

I think we should call it a Calling. To engage in media is to say that we have been born into it. Those who come for the money will be known by what they churn out. Those who come for principles will be listened to and read by the people. 

I think what is  lacking in government is the capacity to debate and discuss in a democratic way. Harassments and intimidations are a sign that some people have run out of words and ideas to respond peacefully and that is sad.

A strong philosophical bent is what the western world media can be proud of in its being able to keep the level of discourse going on and on even with the presence of some brainless leaders who would drive their countries to sick situations.

I am not saying that the situation of our media is deplorable compared to that of the west. But you see Folks, the leaders in the west and also here in Asia have been honed in philosophy before coming into power and living in a democratic place; they have imbibed the need to use democratic means to advance their aims and to maintain them when they come into power. And so media is vibrant there.

In the case of Myanmar, I think her female leader is an exception to what I have said above.

Anyway my discourse on media and society shall be a continuing act because our society is evolving. After having gone through 14 years of martial law that suppressed media and press freedom, we can pray and hope that there will still be torches of enlightenment in our midst that will never move back from what we have embraced as our only link to the world of ideas and humanity.

Touché to all our comrades in media, in or out of jails. To the departed, our sincere prayers for their violent or peaceful transition to the other life.

Katsushika Hokusai, The Great Wave at Kanagawa