[Note: The Jenius ranks high on searches for a small handful of topics related to Puerto Rico, but He ranks #1 on Google searches for bat snot. There's a joke in there somewhere, but you're welcome to make it.]
Last Sunday, El Nuevo Día, Puerto Rico's "largest" newspaper, ran an article titled "Ingobernables" (Ungovernable), ostensibly referring to Us. It extensively quoted a sociology professor and two economists--those purveyors of the dismal science--about a variety of problems Puerto Rico faces.
The basic thrust of the article may have been that We have a government that stinks because We have been shanghaied by Our own indifference and attitudes into allowing The Fools room for their monkeyshines. That We have a "zero sum mentality" (fuel for a future Jenius post) leading to attitudes of despair, violence, "short-cut" thinking (crass opportunism, in the case of The Fools) and an underground economy that mirrors or even exceeds the "legal" one.
In that sense, the article did strike a responsive chord. But in the middle of the article, an economist whose name The Jenius refuses to honor with any mention, stated in a comparison between Nordic countries and Puerto Rico that they (those countries) were "more highly evolved" than Us.
Poppy. Cock.
Idiot.
The economist's implication was that Nordic countries are "more highly evolved" because they showed a greater degree of organization. Oh Dismal Scientist of the Bat Snot Brain, bee hives and ant colonies are highly organized, but that doesn't make them "more evolved" than Us. Organization is not necessarily a function of intelligence, talent or evolutionary maturity: it is simply a function of rule-sets and conditions. To imply that a "more organized" society is somehow more "highly evolved" is to think the rotten fish in the moonlight is yummy because it's shiny.
Now before any of you go off on Me, The Jenius is NOT--repeat, not--criticizing Nordic countries, their societies or people. The point here is that a so-called "educated" person makes a sweeping generalization that is fundamentally flawed and is less conclusion than it is a revelation of the inferiority complex Puerto Ricans tend to express as "They and their things are better than Us and Our things."
Yes, some things suck in Puerto Rico. But rather than focus on the positive things We have, We choose to focus on the negative. And rather than focus on the negative in other folks/countries (just to be consistent...dismal, even...) We look at their positives or cast Our perceptions of them on the positive side. That is, if We even bother to look at other countries because thanks to Our inferior "educational system", We only have eyes for Puerto Rico and the U.S. (a marketing genius when it comes to whitewashing its many flaws.)
We are so ignorant of who We are (again, "educational system") that We seek Our self-image through comparison to others, an awful symptom in an individual's mental and emotional health and--by extension--an awful symptom in Our collective mental and emotional health. As in an individual, seeking Our self-image outside of Ourselves leaves Us vulnerable to emotiomal buffeting, leading to frustration, violence, dismay, despair... many of the same things the article mentions that make Us "ungovernable."
We are not "ungovernable." We are a loving, caring people who would rather have a better life, but We have been denied the tools to make it so. And the denial has come from The Fools, from Our predilection to elect those Fools, because they represent the favorite color We support come hell or high water, no matter how big a crook, whore, pederast, rapist, drug addict or thief the Fool is.
We are bright people who love to laugh. We are hard-working people who want a better future for Ourselves and Our children. We are empathetic and creative. We are so much more than We know that the gap is painful to live with...if you see it. Some of Us do. More of Us need to do so.
No, Dismal Scientist with the inferiority complex We need to get rid of: you are wrong. We are not "less evolved." You are, but the rest of Us aren't. But We do need to take a deep breath and cast off the mental and emotional shackles of years to understand that We are Our future. Not The Fools, not the idiots who cater to The Fools, but Us. And the sooner We push you Fools and idiots off the stage, the better.
The Jenius Has Spoken.
3 comments:
Amen! Beautiful brother, beautiful. This post brought a tear to my eye.
I google inferiority complex and got here, 4 years later
By denouncing this inferiority complex you're falling into it yourself. The unnamed economist was referring to society as an evolving being, clearly you felt attacked personally by it, without realizing that what moves a country/island/group of beings living together is this "society" organism. Yes, ants are more evolved than humans when it comes to living in society, as so are bees. Each member does his/her part for the well being of the colony. Survival and prosperity of the colony is primary. Their organization is light years ahead as to what PR currently has.
You see, the basis of society is looking out for each other, these nordic countries (and many other countries) do this pretty well compared to us, where, (example) Jenius is looking out for himself and what this unnamed economist says about him, instead of thinking why he said that?
Organization is a function of maturity, as a society, PR is still shitting its diapers. "The fools that elect the fools": if the fools doing the electing opened their eyes and realized that voting for a fool is actually bad, cause it's what he is supporting and representing, they'd stop voting for worse than bad governors. But, they're too busy worrying about who's gonna win the coming elections and what previous party governors did over the opposing party, they're still in the "my wee wee is bigger than yours" phase, there is no maturity whatsoever, applied to a society the result is this our dear island.
I don't deny that there are caring, loving, smart, hard working people, cause there are, I've met many surprising people in PR, they just know the majority is sheep herded into voting for what their parents voted, making a vicious circle that is hardly going to change, because the one governor that tries to do something for PR's society is going to get bashed into oblivion. Kinda like our current situation.
-Disclaimer- I don't support any political party in PR, they're all shit -Disclaimer-.
But I do support Fortuño's action regarding the firings, he might have not done it the best way, but they had to be done. Years of bad administration and a bankrupt government (not done by him but by everyone before him), left him no choice but to actually have to do something about it. All I can say about him is that at least he had the balls to it, much unlike anyone before him that was too worried about doing such thing at a cost of votes for his party in the next election.
yours truly, anon
As for arriving years 4 years later, better late than never...
I did not feel personally attacked and I believe My post makes clear that I was trashing faulty thinking. I do acknowledge that We in Puerto Rico suck at certain things, but We excel at many others. As for Nordic countries being more organized, I could quote Orson Welles about how 500 years of peace in Switzerland had only produced the cuckoo clock.
But I won't.
I agree with you on political parties and how The Larva absolutely had to cut jobs in government. But it galls Me to see how patently incompetent he is at even the most basic of strategies and how awful he is at picking people to work with him and/or "represent" him. He would make a great case study on weakness undermining leadership and of course, We pay the price.
Drop by again in under 4 years: it's not all said yet.
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