Learning vs reviewing

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

If you have the energy and the mental desire to read the opinion section on the first day of the New Year, it only means you were smart enough to stay sober and rest early. The fact that you’re reading the newspaper is also an indication that you value information in relation to your character, lifestyle, or profession. That already puts you ahead of the staggering pack of hung over, exhausted and financially-depleted people who now have to start the year at a disadvantage.

Since you’re now up and about, chances are you’re entertaining yourself as well, looking at “The year in photos” or reading “The recap of 2009”. For many years, I found it quite entertaining to go through articles and programs about past years in review.

This year has taken a somewhat different direction for me when I realized that “reviews” is nothing more than remembering what we already know, what we are unlikely to forget, or an unpleasant reminder of what we personally experienced. For those of you who are old enough, you will realize that “News recaps” are very much like it’s motoring equivalent: placing a new face to an old tire.

The fact that “reviews or recaps” still sell or entertain us, is an indication that we have not really learned and therefore fail to mature both at the national and personal levels. We spend so much time and effort remembering the past, but do we really learn from them?

Learning, like riding a bike or swimming, becomes natural to us. You don’t need a refresher course and in terms of problems, you don’t expect to repeat the same mistakes or see the same problems, because after learning from them, you make sure they never come back.

Last year started with the global financial crisis. It became one of the most watched developing stories of the year. Yet in hindsight, hardly anything was ever said about what really caused it. Everybody had an eco-political analysis or some grown-up excuse for what happened.

Yet, at the very end you could see the unmistakable figure of one of the seven deadly sins: GREED. Even when they could no longer deny it, many victims still blamed others instead of themselves.

Yes some people were greedier than others but it was still greed all around. If you spend serious time analyzing the collapse, you will ultimately discover that:

After the dust settled, Greed was not alone in causing and eventually spreading the global financial collapse. Like pistoleros in an old cowboy movie, you could recognize Greed, Envy, Gluttony, Sloth (laziness), lust, pride and wrath (anger).

People took pride in their “personal” abilities to produce wealth. That sense of pride led to a lust for power, wealth and a sense of entitlement. So as they worked harder and harsher, they rewarded themselves physically and materially. Unfortunately the Bible warns us: Pride comes before the fall.

Should it be any wonder that even in the Philippines, obesity and cardiac illness have become major health threats? Obesity they say is the undeniable proof of a glutton, a person whose eating habits has become an offense even to God.

People always wondered why so many luxury cars, watches and property were being sold even in a third world country. More than 50 percent of purchases for luxury items in the world are created by Envy.

What else could have triggered spending sprees on facial reconstruction, liposuction and the constant parade of Prada and Louis Vuitton bags even as companies started to shut down: Pride and Lust.

Instead of investing in the Philippines and working things out in the country, many rich Filipinos invested in houses abroad and placed their money in foreign economies because it was the “smart thing to do”. They did not believe in working for the money, they believed in letting the money work for them; “Sloth” is what they called it in the old times.

If you were not one of the angry victims of the global financial collapse, chances are you were one of the guilty parties committing the sin of “Anger”. Being angry by itself can be harmless as long as the emotion is not aimed at someone or causes hurt, injury, damage, or destruction.

But how many of us realize the extent of social, spiritual and political damage that was brought on by our collective wrath or anger at one another? 

We in Media, politicians and several priests, pastors and elders of different churches and denominations are guilty. Major leaders in business, NGOs, even rebel organizations have publicly expressed their wrath.

Just think of all the wasted time and effort used up in Congressional and Senate investigations? All the air-time and print space wasted on allegations and accusations. Think of all the money wasted by people trying to discredit, ruin, or destroy political enemies.

We have 57 dead people because of a “localized” expression of political wrath. We have almost the same number of “journalists” who have been killed as an expression of political or criminal wrath. We have an even greater number of missing victims of “extra-judicial” wrath. Every year hundreds of soldiers, policemen, MILF, and NPA members die because of wrath.

Unfortunately no one wants to talk about sins. No one likes to hear about the Seven Deadly Sins. They just want to “review” the consequences not the causes.

It took several decades to create the global financial crisis. It happened when people decided not to teach people and when people decided they did not need to learn about the seven deadly sins.

It does not take a lifetime to go from “Catechism” to Catastrophe.