gullible

sino ba naman ang hindi matatakot dito

My family back in Surigao have sought refuge to the highlands after the local government alerted its masses for the possible tsunami to hit the province. My mother immediately fetched my extremely cute brother from school, packed some stuff, and went to the provincial capitol. People were crowding there, she said. I couldn't tell her not to and they were simply overreacting or exaggerating the situation, simply because i felt her anxiety. And I thought that there's no harm in believing the text sent by the local government, although the waste of time, effort and social-psychological unrest was unnecessary and avoidable.

A day after I learned that PUP canceled its classes because of the text message about some acid cloud to hit the country, it was said to incinerate the skin upon contact. I generally felt that it was absurd for the PUP president to do so, let alone admin, faculty, and students to believe the urgent message. Or did they comply for the sake of having a rest day? haha that is not my concern anymore ;p

Yesterday I read this, and I thought wow, there is actually a study about the gullible state of our fellowmen and country, let alone myself.
I was thinking, to some extent, there is nothing wrong about being gullible in some situations. And that it was a manifestation of our collectivity, that we trust and depend upon each other. I was even enraged at how the article somewhat ridiculed the inability of the Filipino people to "question information" and that  "we prefer to believe what other persons tell us."

Four hours ago I was laughing my ass off (well, not really. I just wanted to think that I was actually laughing my ass off) when I read this. If the data she cited were true (which is, fortunately, not), then she is indeed a Filipino. Apir tayo jan teh. (On a lighter and feisty note, you are still a journalist. A kick-ass one pa. This may be epic, but nonetheless forgettable ;p)

Reflecting on the gullible actions we have committed in the past (and will do in the future, if ever we can reflect the future..), I think that we have been labeled as gullible not because we do not question information; we are gullible in the sense that we tend to place trust easily in times when we become vulnerable, and that we feel that crisis situations are less likely to produce dubious information. I don't know if its really applicable to most people, but that's how I think it is. And I think that there's nothing wrong with that, what's wrong is the other party taking advantage of our vulnerability. The intent to take advantage is what worries me; why would somebody do such things in times when everybody's depending on each other? I mean, bakit talaga may mga trippers sa mga panahon na ganito? what's the point?


But then again, I also see the process of being "gullible" as a "natural" process in times of mass hysteria. having limited information would entail such actions. Point is, we are entitled to be gullible, given some conditions, simply because nobody really knows what is going to happen-- everybody's relying on each other for answers despite the fact that nobody really has them. Its basically okay to be gullible, again, given some conditions. But if you don't fact check as soon as you have digested, reasoned, and made some sense on the information, that's another story.