Glory of the By-Line

It was a couple of years ago when I first passed an article for a local newspaper. As a college student back then, it has brought a different feeling of joy - greater than being a contributor of an article or poetry for our campus paper. The feeling that my ideas will reach hundreds or thousands of people is, in a way, fulfilling, and yet, scary – I’m fully aware that by writing something “against call-centers”, I have barred myself on working in one, that by writing on the evils of “capitalism”; of criticizing the “culture industry” that it promotes, the marketing strategies which dehumanizes our population, and of writing about existential thoughts, I have boldly burned some of the bridges to having a decent career. Even with all of these costs however, I have already decided that if I ever write, it should contain ideas and critiques that will seek to educate or enlighten.

It was startling though, that after passing more articles, I found myself being tempted to write something about myself. I suspect that there is something about finding your name in the “by line” that gives you an illusion of brilliance, almost to the point of arrogance. But alas, this sickening tendency has become more common to veteran writers and columnists. Every newspaper issue, we find our columnists writing more and more about themselves rather than discussing issues that are much significant to our society, or even to our community. Every Sunday, we are being fed with articles about their social lives; how they spent their weekends, about their eating habits, about their aging self, and almost every mundane thing which they recognize as significant. Sometimes, some of them write critiques which are evidently encouraged by mere bursts of emotions and not out of logical and fair analysis - they emphasize that we have a lot of problems; garbage problems, dirty politics, decline of moral values, violence on streets, etc., but never suggested any proposals on “how” to solve them.

A writer once told me that much of these dispositions  of turning a column into a personal diary and a personal rant section, are usually supported by their status in their society; having a good name, being a lawyer, or a veteran journalist. Maybe it is these qualities that give one the license and authority to write about almost anything, and anything, whether it be sensible or not. Maybe, I and many of the writers of the next generation, have yet to learn a lot of things before we are given that ‘right’ (marami pang kakaining bigas).  Nevertheless, how I wish that we have more public intellectuals like Randy David, or Conrado Dequiros, how I wish that our columnists would write more about philosophy, political analysis, or even social studies for this new generation – of facebook and youtube and its social dilemma, of the Indigenous communities’ response to the global changes, of culture industry and its environmental effects, of ethnocentrism and discrimination, and those other topics which are needed by the readers in this society.

Our changing world is constantly given the challenge of coping. Somehow, I think that those who hold the pen and paper should serve the public in educating and enlightening them on issues that will really matter.