Correcting One Stupid Person at a Time

When I arrived a bit too early in school yesterday morning, I decided to try to get some sleep in my car for a bit before heading off to prepare for class. It was around 7:00 AM so the parking lot was still mostly empty. To my right was one lone car, and to my left an expanse of empty space.

After a few minutes another car occupied the space to my left, crookedly and within a very inconsiderate distance from my own car; far enough to be safe but near enough to prevent another car from parking in the middle, meaning in effect it was taking space that normally should accommodate two vehicles.

Unlike in most developed societies, the carparks in Ateneo don't come with line markings on the ground (except in the grade school area, and the students there don't even drive!).^* Combine this with the spoiled coño brats that seem to make a significant portion of the Ateneo student body and parking lots become just another venue for lack of common sense and decency to take place.

Now, at this point some people who've bothered to read this blog from when I started it will notice that I've ranted so many times about the people in my school who can't park their cars properly; but this time I had the chance to go a step further and actually do something. As the vacant-looking driver (who was probably a freshman) emerged from the car in question, I could only wonder what on earth he was thinking. Whatever it was, it didn't seem to be anything about the great act of stupidity he had just committed, because he seemed a little taken aback to see me open my door and tell him to move his car -- which he did, after a moment of looking rather confused.

Upon reflection, it really was a very small action towards a wider social problem, but at least that's one less stupid, inconsiderate person to keep me from getting a parking space in the future.

What am I trying to say? Today so many people are hollering about the so-called apathy of the youth, about the need to engage society and politics, etc, etc. With the coming presidential elections, there is so much being said about rights, responsibilities, and the usual stuff like that. I am not against these. HOWEVER -- and I hate to simplify things like this, but -- don't all these things share a common 'prerequisite' with the smaller matters, such as having the common decency to park a car without taking two parking spaces?

There are other examples. For instance, very few people in school seem to bother with the CLAYGO (clean as you go) policy, despite the fact that so many signs saying "CLAYGO" are scattered all over the cafeteria. There are times when so many vacant tables are left unusable just because nobody among previous occupants bothered cleaning up after themselves. And I think to myself: WHAT THE HELL IS THE PROBLEM? Inability to read signs? Plain apathy?

Best university in the Philippines, my foot. There are a lot of smart students, sure. We can explain Kant's categorical imperative, or Levinas and his ramblings about ethical responsibility, or the theory of so-and-so; we've engaged the poor, tutored public school students, and worked as street sweepers and market vendors; we came in droves to volunteer for all those Ondoy relief operations to the point that we were overmanned, and posted all over Facebook how much fun we had, how much perspective we gained, etc., etc.

And still we can't do simple things like park our cars properly, or clean up after ourselves in the cafeteria, or turn out the lights when we're done with the classroom.

At this point I pause from writing, because what I originally intended to be just another sarcasatic, mocking post is fast turning into a heavy, angst-driven one. The truth is I am so disgusted with plenty of things that now seem to be commonplace and I've been trying to put these thoughts into words since forever. This post alone has already taken me most of the day to compose, and it isn't even half of all the things I want to say.

I guess the point I'm just trying to make is this: All the good things socially productive human beings are expected to do (vote, help the poor, etc.), as well as basic acts of personal responsibility, I think both come about from a certain degree of consciousness; I mean awareness, brought about by a certain amount of thinking, towards each person's responsibility towards other people. So much is being yelled about political engagement this, love of country that, and all I can say is WAIT! We haven't even conquered the very basic problem of irresponsibility (and being unaware of it) yet. I don't believe in the person who votes, yet leaves his plate on the table after he's eaten, expecting there'll be a manong to clean it up anyway. I think it makes logical sense to start small.

So what solution do I propose? I'm not sure really. I do know that humans are forgetful -- God knows I'm sometimes guilty of some things I hate as well (except the ones I've mentioned here; those are REALLY unforgivable for me at this point) -- so I guess it makes sense for everyone to keep reminding each other. I don't know! I'm too tired of writing this goddamn post to think about it now.

However, I think I can set one general goal for myself: Whenever possible, whenever some inconsiderate bozo takes two parking spaces, or tries to leave me with a table full of used plates and utensils, I will take concrete action do what I can to curb these acts of stupidity, hopefully preventing them from happening again. I invite whoever cares to do the same.

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* Granted, most of the school's parking lots aren't even paved. Incidentally, the only significant "improvement" to the college area parking lots was when Ateneo had paved half a very wide stretch of carpark meant for students... then they gave all of it to the faculty. That's right, an entire fucking half of our carpark went to the faculty, very few of whom even park there, rendering it a monumental waste of space and resources. Meanwhile, the other half of the carpark left for innocent students to fight over is in shit condition, full of giant pot holes, and the admin doesn't even seem to care. An evil, evil act by the higher-ups of Ateneo, but that's another story.