The Death of Honor
Analysis and Opinion
By JoeAm
Honor is a quality of character that attaches to moral guideposts such as patriotism, truth, or courage. It is appreciation attached to people who act well. The problem is that honor can be relative. For example, it’s possible to be honorable by supporting insurrection, if you are a rebel . . . or a Trump fanatic. You are honorable to your cause, which is, by other standards, extraordinarily dishonorable.
Well, if that is confusing, good. Because that’s the point. If we don’t have a common moral framework, we can’t have anything but situational loyalty, and situational honor. If lies supplant truth, in favor of loyalty, then honor goes away, because we can’t find it. If capitalist greed supplants democracy or the idea that every citizen should be cherished, then where do we find our honor? In making big bucks like Bezos and Zukerberg while consigning laborers to slave-like conditions or family members to trolls and propagandists? In overthrowing democracy?
A nation is a collection of people led by a chosen few who define what honor means. Democracies are loyal to a process of inclusion and the ideals of equality, fairness, and caretaking. Authoritarian states are loyal to people. Honor flows from loyalty to specific men or women.
In the US, Trump Republicans are autocrats. They are out to take down democracy. Their honor is out of touch with that of the Constitution. What has happened is that the moral guideposts are no longer consistent from one American to another. The division is serious and personal.
The Philippines is the same. Autocrats Duterte and Marcos seek to undermine the typical norms of honor: loyalty to the Constitution and truth.
If we are conflicted about honor, we will surely fight one another.
Social media make fighting easier and democratic togetherness harder. Facebook and other media bring hostility and lies directly into our lives. When we dealt face to face and could look one another in the eyes, deceit was not so easy.
Now it is.
So the outlook is grim. Honor is dead, or at least consistent, truth-based constitutional honor is dead. A strange dark honor, a form of emotionalized worship, is rising.
I find it ugly.
If we stay on this course, honor in the future will be whatever some dishonorable lying manipulator says it should be.
We need to re-dedicate ourselves to truth and honor based on the Constitution. And have no patience for liars and manipulators loyal only to persons.
_______________
Photo from Rappler article on proposed Constitutional amendments to bring federalism to the Philippines. The bottle of white-out is old technology, I suppose. But clever. Article at: https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/iq/iatf-proposed-amendments-1987-philippine-constitution
The Society of Honor by Joe America 
Bill Kristol seems to be a decent honorable Republican.
Thanks. That is encouraging. Trump is clearly a destructive personality who throws people under the bus on a whim. Lots of luck to Republicans who want to profess loyalty to that.
Yes indeed. There is honor even among thieves — not to inform against each other, not to steal from each other. Not to give back what is clearly stolen from the country’s coffers and lie about it. A family, a den of thieves and liars. How does one live with it?
Truth-based Constitutional honor, I like.
How are we to be guided in morality save by the example of our leaders?
It seems to me that the two are inextricably intertwined, and that each without the other courts tyranny. But, with the exception of Jesus, what human being ever embodied all the virtues to which societies aspire?The task of leadership is precisely to exhibit skills and virtues beyond the ordinary. Trust, loyalty and honor are the indivisible trinity of social cohesion, but the greatest of these is honor, because, as you say, from our leaders flow the rules that bind us, and, I would add, the inspiration to follow them.
“Do as I say, not as I do” is no excuse for a leader, any more than “I was just following orders” is for a follower,if either failed to act according to the moral code to which both are pledged. Honor only becomes ‘relative’ when not applied consistently to its own community. Bernie Madoff immediately comes to mind. And just now we were treated to the cognitively dissonant spectacle of the leader of the locked down, free world
demanding we all avoid travel, while himself flying 6000 miles in the age of Zoom to attend a conference touching on climate change, and arriving in a cavalcade of 84 cars.
To die in defence of your shared beliefs – whether those of a tribe, or of a larger nation – is I think universally accepted as honorable. Only by enlarging the community do you enlarge the scope of honor, from leader of warring tribe to leader of warring nation… Do we then need an alien invasion, as recommended by Ronald Reagan, to finally bring us all together under one moral umbrella?Might that not usher in an age of complete tyranny?
Honor is the virtue the powerful volunteer to their followers. When the powerful cease to benefit from the relationship, their honor quietly evaporates. Our problem today is that we the people are numerically surplus to requirements. The social contract, in which Honour and Loyalty support each other through constantly renewed Trust, has all but broken down. We are become mere supplicants, and don’t yet know it. Viz – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIVeiiPhoW4
Interesting read. Our collective lack of intelligence is quite stunning.
Fascinating position, Joe.
Honour is in the eye of the beholder?
It depends…..??
Probably not.
Thousands of years ago, something happened in the desert somewhere in the Middle east.
I am not religious (anymore), but in primary school, I was taught about the 10 commandments.
It seems the Moses’ crowd lost their (moral) way and Moses came back from 40 days in the desert with 2 tablets. With only 10 rules engraved on there. ONLY 10 RULES.
And it looks like this should have been the guide line for all Christians (and Muslims, but that is another story).
We got the bible afterwards. Thousands of pages. Extremely confusing, everybody got trained in selective reading and justified everything based on some chapters in that thick book. People claimed God was with them while committing mass murder….. Fascinating.
But what about the basis, those 10 commandments?
Should there not have been thunder preaches from EVERY pulpit?
Every Sunday! Every day when the 3 o’clock preach comes on the radio! Every prayer when the municipality meets!
?????
Thou shall not kill: Exit Duterte, a self confessed killer.
Thou shall not commit adultery, thou shall not steal; Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour: Exit Trump, the womanizer, the liar.
So, what’s wrong here? Is The Philippines not supposed to have a very religious, christian majority? Can the (religious) leaders not implement what they claim is the main guideline in life?
Or: How can we get the religious leaders to do their self-confessed religious primary task?
That is probably the main fascinating question. As our people seem to have lost the plot, just like those people in the desert, thousands of years ago.
It should not be in the eye of the beholder. The Constitution is based on Christian values, but welcomes all denominations. Problems occur when the Trumps and Dutertes, who recited false oaths, wander far from those values. If the religious leaders started holding their congregations to account, there would be fewer problems, for sure.
many religious leaders supported duterte, the son of god is one: quiboloy, lend his private jet for duterte to use during election campaign in 2016. as well, iglesia ni kristo give their block votes to duterte, who was then thought as breath of fresh air. though the catholic church was seemingly nonchalant, its bishops laid low by the scandalous arroyo’s gifts of pajeros.
there was move to impeach duterte early in his reign, the move was unsuccessful though as duterte’s party has majority of both congress and senate. as well, duterte appointed many to govt positions, their best qualification is because they come from dabaw hence loyal to duterte and can be trusted not to betray him. duterte coddled the armed personnel as well, and was ultra generous with their pay, benefits, etc.
It’s amazing what you can buy if you have enough money.
money! few yrs ago, quiboloy’s private jet was impounded by customs in hawaii with apparently undeclared 300 thousand dollars found on board. if proceeds of illegal activity, the money is forfeit. a woman in quiboloy’s entourage claimed the money, said the money was gotten by quiboloy’s charity workers begging in the streets of new york! hence legally gotten.
Love those cults. I’m sure Trump will become a messiah any day now.
Lighten up Sir JoeAm.
Haha! Brilliant, isk. Thanks.
In Japan people commit harakiri or sepoku once caught. Is that honor or just unbearable shame.
Is it a sign of weakness or strength?
At least they have shame. Here impunity is literal some do not care if seen in a cctv footage, their instant defense would be it must be a deep fake.
Military officers are trained not to lie,cheat and steal and not get caught. When they are officers and be assigned in procurement and logistics, they must pray that they would not be led to temptation.
karl,
I read awhile back that when committing sepuku, their seconds usually end up cutting their master’s heads off before they can even gut themselves, so sepuku in practice is actually just euthanasia.
Thus just cut thru the chase and go the Marie Antoinette route, and cut their heads off. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brioche by the way is more like bread than cake, thus is actually more nutritious , so maybe Marie Antoinette was just misunderstood?
What about Harakiri, same difference?
Harakiri is just suicide but by way of gutting oneself— hard way IMHO; drowning i read was the easiest and less violent, especially if done in the sea, also clean no one has to clean up after you.
Sepuku is the ritualization of said act, with another guy (usually your trusted friend or colleague) to cut your head off while you pull your guts out– where your soul lives , letting it free.
I guess you can encourage Harakiri , but that’s kinda mean. But then again politicians and the corrupt are hard skinned. Sepuku is sacred. Right up there with Jainist sallekhana. Should be encouraged, and done more, especially
amongst the old. or sick.
samurai class women dont commit sepuku, no harakiri for them too.
Trillanes was kind of blamed for the suicide of Gen. Angelo Reyes in 2011, I do wonder if LCPL_X is familiar with what happened then:
https://news.abs-cbn.com/nation/02/14/11/trillanes-lesson-learned-still-no-regrets-about-reyes
Manila Times does see General Reyes as dying like a samurai, shooting himself at his mother’s grave after Trillanes told him he had “no reputation left to protect”, though it sees Trillanes’ coup attempts as “dishonorable”, which many will see very differently.
https://www.manilatimes.net/2015/11/07/opinion/columnists/topanalysis/general-angelo-angie-reyes-patriot-with-the-bushido-code-2/227738
The suicide of General Erwin Rommel in 1944 – to avoid facing a military tribunal for his possible involvement in the July 14 coup attempt against Hitler – is also an example of something like seppuku/harakiri and the way it can be seen differently by people.
On Sunday, July 13, 2014, following digital exchanges with Michelle Carter while interacting with his family, Roy died by suicide by poisoning himself with carbon monoxide fumes in his truck in a Kmart parking lot in Fairhaven, Massachusetts.
Roy’s funeral was held on Saturday, July 19, 2014, at St. Anthony’s Church in Mattapoisett. The Captain Conrad H. Roy III Scholarship Fund at the Northeast Maritime Institute in Fairhaven, Massachusetts, was established in his memory.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manslaughter_of_Conrad_Roy#Commonwealth_v._Michelle_Carter
Ireneo,
This incident is similar to the above case, where a gf talked her ex-bf to commit suicide. We all wish we have this power, also called the Voice, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bene_Gesserit#The_Voice which George Lucas copied and re-branded into the Jedi Mind-Trick. Villeneuve ‘s version on film of the Voice is best, very convincing.
Alas, we don’t and Trillanes should not be blamed.
But I do agree that people who suck should seriously consider suicide as a rule, alas a big part of being sucky is exactly the very lack of introspection that would lead one to committing suicide. Thus legalize euthanasia is the answer, here I’m imagining a Samurai who get s cold feet last second and his second is the one to decapitate, LOL! 😉
“drowning i read was the easiest and less violent”
————
The struggle to gasp for air means to stay afloat… that’s quite a struggle , not easy.
isk,
I’m talking about suicide by drowning, not drowning per se. So consciously you are gonna surrender to the water, when you go unconscious yes your body will gasp for air, instinct and all… but by that time it should be too late— unless theres a change of heart, at that point if only been unconscious under 3 minutes, then there should be no lasting effects.
Thanks.
karlG, the military is obedient to their commander in chief and will do almost all what the commander in chief tells them to; jump when told to jump and will probly eat bullets when asked, lol! their reward? medals and promotion, their higher pension rate assured.
Allow me to share kb.
Also this one.
try again
last attempt
https://www.facebook.com/notes/10221934120276280/
salamat kaayo, karlG. the military under duterte is a different animal now, mostly fist pumpers and retirees are occupying civilian public offices, de bale na if there is job mismatch, basta na lang appointed.
It’s very difficult to abide by honor or integrity when everything around you is without these concepts (or very minimal at best). It’s like swimming in Manila Bay, you’re gonna feel icky and for sure will need lots of antibiotics. You’re not gonna come out as clean as baby Jesus’ butt.
So abitrary, relative and context dependent.
Thus only fairness is measurable, objectively. I don’t know how to measure honor or integrity or even courage (like Joe said in the previous thread, courage looks very similar to stupidity,and i tend to agree, it does).
But fairness I think you can measure, like D5 being imprisoned for so long without any case levied on her, let her go home if she poses a flight risk take away her passport. Not just D5 but everyone else stuck in the limbo that is the Philippine criminal justice system. Let people go home, return when there’s a court date.
Limbo is punishment enough. Time served.
This is what VP Leni should be demanding. Fairness in action.
Why Filipinos end up doing criminal things big and small, like smuggling Durian goods in the plane, and when USDA inspectors ask: Is this yours? they answer , No sir I don’t know how that got there. Its in their carry-on or luggage! Dried fish and other exotic foods too. Becomes habit, when exposed to it long enough. Manila bay.
Dr. Martin Luther King jr. in his “Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?” , he said,
“We must create full employment or we must create incomes. People must be made consumers by one method or the other. Once they are placed in this position, we need to be concerned that the potential of the individual is not wasted. New forms of work that enhance the social good will have to be devised for those for whom traditional jobs are not available.”
(w/ robots and AI, full employment is now a pipe dream; MLK jr. also hadn’t heard of De-Growth economics and/or MMT)
I am sure Filipinos will continue to sneak unauthorized items into US airports, and deny its theirs when questioned; I’m sure the Filipino criminal justice system will continue to be used as means to victimize the poor and cut the powerless. But my thinking here is if UBI is done in the Philippines,
you’ll have more people thinking about high faultin’ words, because they can, because the money given them will alleviate some other issues which cause them to be dishonorable, or w/out integrity and or courage.
UBI will give a sense of fairness which can be easily measured. Fairness then will lead to dignity, which will fix everything else. But Fairness and dignity first. Diginity is one of those hard to define words as well, but we know its a product of Fairness.
We start with Fairness, Joe. UBI will have the added benefit of tracking where money given to citizens goes, which will make policies more precise, ie. where to tax. For example, South Korea’s Gyeonggi Province when giving their UBI mandates its use only within the province and to patronize mom and pop establishments, no McDonald’s or Jollibee.
Fairness first.
Excellent positioning. Fairness. Letting those in limbo out of jail is an excellent application of this moral framework. UBI as a goal is, as well.
OMG! The caldero anomaly mastermind wants sone sort of UBI to be implemented.
Cayetano wants P10-K ‘ayuda’ for every family
https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1140269
He must follow LCX!!!
LOL! now for my population reduction and nutrition plan, Joe!
“Extraordinary times need extraordinary measures. Hindi po limos ang kailangan ng mga Pilipino sa ngayon (The Filipinos do not need mere alms now),” he said.
This sounds like an entry point to the scenario: ‘teach a man how to fish …, etc.’ Were there any takers to this challenge? Or is it a mere ‘pakulo’ that goes to the trash bin of ‘ningas cogon’?
uy, it’s not just pinoys that bring illegal items to america, all others nationalities do that too: the south americans with their smuggled drugs, and people are trafficked too. as well, terrorists both homegrown and overseas, see america as good place to start their cell.
America is fairly free with lots of space, so easy to hide out and conduct business. I wonder if video cameras are popping up on all the streets as in China, and numbers on our foreheads. The face recognition on my ipad is fantastic. I look at the screen to open apps. Hmmmm. Might be a bad side to that tech.
it’s hard to recognise faces now with face shields and masks on. though spatial recognition is still okay, the unique way people walk and waddle, thier mannerism, their height, weight, the way their hair fall on the side, etc. once noted, their chance of being ‘the’ person may not be 100%, but probability is greater.
I saw on t.v. that to police their border, americans are aided by advanced drone technology in the air, eagle eyed customs and sniffer dogs, high tech gizmos, and back up by federal agents and federal laws, on entry and checkpoints like airports and seaports. illegal activities might be minimized but still very much around.
I wonder if they’d interpret the finger properly.
I’m going to study movie style make-up techniques so I can change my facial shape when I go out. Getting shorter may be a challenge though, and losing the limp I got when I screwed up my hip digging trenches for the lawn watering system.
wonderful! make up is always useful.
Just to clarify, I’m not talking about criminal smuggling here, kb.
Simply that most Filipinos bring things into the airport, then when asked by authorities will feign ignorance. That s the USDA inspector perspective; but for me I personally , have sat next to old Filipinos who carry really heavy check-in luggages and/or carry-ons, and once you carry them, because good manners i guess, thats when you realize that from the moment they pack their stuff they never intended to carry these items themselves, they just knew people will help ’em do it.
Its a form of terrorism, IMHO.
In that similar vein, is it fair? because its kinda like the Social security debate over here with the Boomers. where the younger generation have to suffer thru their bad judgements leading up to climate change. Generational abuse. Must we keep carrying them. So with UBI, there should be more gov’t assisted suicide (voluntary of course, though COVID19 is doing this for us right now, i mean as we go forward as wider policy, I’m sure Greta would agree w/ me).
“The reason why I called them sociopaths is because as a generation — as individuals they are like every group, a mixed bag. But as a generation, they display the classic clinical indicators of antisocial personality disorder, which used to be known in a less PC way as sociopathy. So for example improvidence is a key sociopathic indicator. And we can see that in the national data based on cohort savings levels and national savings levels, which have been in significant decline since the 1970s when the boomers first entered the workforce. We can also see it in the national debt, which on a gross basis was just under 35 percent of GDP when I was born and is now at 105 percent of GDP and projected to exceed its World War II levels. That’s about improvident as you you can get.”
“It is the boomers as political actors who presided over the policies that allowed the national debt to become so large. So in the 1970s, there was actually a great deal of hand-wringing over this sort of catastrophic level of debt, 35 percent of GDP. And 40 years on, the problem is substantially worse and there’s no discussion of the debt whatsoever. In fact there were no discussions of any long term problems, problems that were of greatest moment to the young, during the course of the election of 2016. And the two candidates, both of whom were boomers, agreed on absolutely nothing, not even where to stand on the stage, save for one thing and that was an unshakable commitment to senior entitlements.”
On why he thinks the baby boomers are uninterested in preparing for future generations
“One of the key indicators for sociopathy is a lack of empathy. So you just don’t care for people other than yourselves. So in the case of Social Security, the Social Security Administration projects the trust fund will be depleted in 2034, but by 2034 the median boomer will be dead. And the same sort of dynamic applies to the national debt, which will reach crisis levels in next 20 years. And the same logic applies to — or lack thereof — applies to climate, which is a problem whose most significant impacts are expected from the late 2030s on, but any cost of remediation must be borne today and would therefore imperil the entitlements budget. So, they’re deeply focused on maximizing consumption now without regard to problems that are going to be postmortem.”
https://wamu.org/story/17/03/08/one-author-argues-sociopathic-baby-boomers-have-hurt-america/
The enjoy now and let the next generation pick up the tab is the problem. Thanks for the link Sir Lance.
I’d argue the trait has little to do with when you were born, or the Egyptians would still be running things. It has to do with our tribal self-indulgence and incapacity to project tangibility into the future.
It’s a free world and anyone can write a book but you’d be doing yourself a lot of favor if, in case you have a copy of this book, you throw it in the fire pit pronto. It’s senseless and full of contradictions. A generational assessment for whatever malady he imagines would readily fall right smack into the fallacy of generalization. The roots of historical or social maladies flows and interconnect over time and cannot be pinned in a single generation Supporting his thesis with very dubious economic claims on national debt and Social Security opens up his distinct ignorance on the subject.
I agree re generalizitions, Micha. But the question is is it a fair assessment of a generation, and I think it is.
Re Social security, from where does money come? Not the younger generation? Because I don’t even thinking about Social security in my future, Micha.
I see your point re National debt w/ MMT. But National debt did rise under this generation at the helm.
Would AOC or Greta or Malala be better, I don’t know– but under the Boomers I do think we’re worst off. thus I agree with the generalities posited.
Library books are free, I don’t buy books generally, Micha.
https://www.ssa.gov/news/press/factsheets/HowAreSocialSecurity.htm
Baby Boomers: Baby boomers were born between 1946 and 1964. They’re currently between 57-75 years old (71.6 million in the U.S.)
Which means they are mostly now retired, and enjoying the benefits (STDs is now rampant in this generation, like wild fire). Where that money comes from is via payroll tax here…
Gen X: Gen X was born between 1965 and 1979/80 and is currently between 41-56 years old (65.2 million people in the U.S.)
Gen Y: Gen Y, or Millennials, were born between 1981 and 1994/6. They are currently between 25 and 40 years old (72.1 million in the U.S.)
Gen Y.1 = 25-29 years old (around 31 million people in the U.S.)
Gen Y.2 = 29-39 (around 42 million people in the U.S.)
Gen Z: Gen Z is the newest generation, born between 1997 and 2012. They are currently between 9 and 24 years old (nearly 68 million in the U.S.)
Gen A: Generation Alpha starts with children born in 2012 and will continue at least through 2025, maybe later (approximately 48 million people in the U.S.)
Which means, I’m paying for all this antibiotics, Micha!!! so hell yeah, I’m mad.
“herpes simplex, gonorrhea, syphilis, chlamydia, hepatitis B, and trichomoniasis rose 23 percent in patients over the age of 60. (HIV was not included in the data.)” Yuck!
BREAKTIME
Lance, the child in the picture [link] must be receiving UBI from Mom with the stipulation that the child — in keeping with girl scout honor — asks everyone including Dad the same question. 🙂
[Attribution: got this from a Tweet of Eric Topol.]
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FDHTC1XVcAYAMEY?format=jpg&name=large
LOL! I would stress though that UBI’s point is to release folks from feeling beholden to anyone or anything. But funny, NH!
Honor etc. are all workarounds for human nature and its weaknesses.
I guess biologically we are programmed to be really nice (mostly) to family and friends, decent to a smaller community of 150-250 persons (Dunbar’s number which says there is a limit to the number of truly personal relationships we can store in our brains, probably the size of an average Neolithic community) and fair but cautious towards complete strangers, like the Visayan datus gave Magellan etc food and drink but watched them..
Forms of what I would call good honor are simply honoring one’s end of a deal or bargain (“a deal is a deal” as The Transporter played by Jason Statham says), better yet just being fair like LCPL_X described. Truly honorable, noble at heart is best but not common.
Bad honor would be the kind of “honor” behind “honor killings” of women by their own clans in some places, “Mafia honor” or the “do you know who I am” attitude of some Filipino officials with “Honorable” in their title but little true honor in their actions.
Honor codes in different cultures or basic fairness or the I think universal “word of honor” aka “a deal is a deal” simply make dealing with strangers more predictable, just like the 10 Commandments or similar morality makes larger communities possible.
Nice elaboration on honor in its various shapes and sizes. It is to me, in this article, ones’s personal commitment to doing that which is ‘right’ by the guiding values of a community, or, in our case, the Constitution and its western/Christian principles. Fairness is more tangible though, and better in a society layered with inequities, and I’m sorry I didn’t have LCX’s grasp of that when I wrote the article.
Part II then , Joe, Reviving Honor: how to CPR it in the Philippines. Starting with UBI.
Here’s two cases:
1. In the Bay Area, In-n-Out is being penalized for refusing to be the vaxx card police, reasoning its not their job to do so. Keep in mind, most Sheriffs and police have also made clear that they are not the COVID19 police, not for masks not for vaxx cards.
So it fair to compel In-n-Out, basically a bunch of 16 to 22 year olds playing police, to play vaxx police?
2. In Socal, there is this news story (also about fairness), https://www.latimes.com/sports/highschool/story/2021-11-01/inglewood-issues-apology-sportsmanship-106-0-win-morningside-high-school-football
“Inglewood (California) Morningside and Inglewood High faced off Friday in a matchup decided well before the opening kickoff.
The final score reflected that: Inglewood 106, Morningside 0.
Inglewood led 59-0 after the first quarter and a running clock didn’t start until late in the second quarter, according to the Los Angeles Times. The team attempted a two-point conversion while up 104-0 and quarterback Justyn Martin, who committed to the UCLA Bruins last week, threw 13 touchdown passes.
“It was a classless move,” Morningside coach Brian Collins said Saturday. ”
(the point of football is to clobber the opposing team, keep that in mind).
2a. Which begs the question what would’ve been a more “sportsmanlike” score to have, 99-0, 87-0, 64-0, 28-0 … ? And what did that apology actually entail?
My point here is that if you drill down farther into fairness, there are usually other fixable things to fix, ie. 1. There are counterfeit vaxx cards aplenty because there are mandate police mandating them– again both the vaccinated and unvaccinated are spreading COVID equally; 2. Sometimes you lose, get over it. Football is set up that there are always other games to be played– not so in life. Hence, UBI.
Perfect example of honor being relative. Why do NBA teams dribble out the clock rather than put in one more bucket? In recognition that it is a game among people who respect one another rather than animalistic fury. There is no fairness found in running up the score. There is just some kind og attempt to prove, at a personal level, that you suck.
Ha. Your understanding of football is totally different from mine, Joe.
But here’s a similar take from the new DUNE movie.
https://www.looper.com/643821/the-minor-line-in-dune-that-means-more-than-you-think/
“Is he toying with him?” asks Javier Bardem’s Stilgar, who is the leader of the Fremen tribe. To which Lady Jessica replies, “No. Paul has never killed a man.”
While the exchange may not seem important to most, fans of Frank Herbert’s novel have taken to Reddit to share its significance. Specifically, a Redditor named u/thisisntnamman launched a “Dune” discussion about how the minor line “absolutely nailed the whole movie,” and countless others said they felt the same way.
“[Is he toying with him] is an amalgamation of two book lines,” wrote u/thisisntnamman. They claimed the combined quotes from the book were “Have an end to it, lad” and “Don’t play with him” — both from Stilgar — and then a brief description from Herbert saying, “The crowd in the cavern began to mutter. They think Paul’s toying with Jamis, Jessica thought. They think Paul’s being needlessly cruel.”
So why are these lines so important that they had to be synthesized for the film’s climactic scene?
As Redditor u/thisisntnamman points out, the “toying with him” line seems like such a minor quote, but it’s actually fraught with “major implications.”
“It shows the brutally stark way Fremen live, that Paul’s attempts at mercy are instead interpreted as something akin to torture,” said u/thisisntnamman. “You immediately get a sense of how harsh a life these fremen truly live.”
It’s sports, a game. Mutual respect is a desirable human trait that sports teach. Animals learn eating one another. What is fair depends on one’s location point in the context.
Which again begs the question what would ‘ve been a fair or respectful or sportsmanlike
score? Fair, IMHO, here is that no one cheated. No one was gunning for anyone’s knee or trying to decapitate another. Simply, it was quarterback and receiver excellence. From what I heard in the news this HS quarterback was going to UCLA next year, and he threw winning passes to all his receivers and then some. All perfectly within the confines of the game, Joe. Thus fair.
Take for instance this also, https://youtu.be/ZjwjomAPMlw
DUNE was set on location, with all sorts of big named actors and crew and technology, but really nowadays, and Marvel has proven this again and again, no need really to spend all that because digitally anything can be done. Not fair to crew and locations, but if seen from fairness of De-growth economics, makes a lot of sense. Low carbon foot print and all that. Remember no one was really eaten in that football game, Joe, just some hurt pride (the opposing coach’s mostly, they interviewed the players for Morningside HS and they were pretty nonchalant about it, which is probably why they lost, but good on them for taking it in stride, IMHO).
Fair as in warfair perhaps, in the best animalistic manner of the fox in the henhouse killing all the hens because they are there, giving no thought to what he can eat tomorrow. Sportsmanship doesn’t have finite standards that would make us data points, but soft edges that let us decide when to put the second team in or dribble out the clock, knowing tomorrow is a new day and we know what it is like to be humiliated. There is compassion to be found in human fairness, I think, and brutality in animalistic fairness.
Purest sense of a game, especially football is win or lose– sportsmanship and these other high brow concepts come later, IMHO.
Within the confines of a game, winning comes first. How that is expressed is part of it, and a 106-0 score is one expression of that game.
But also in not giving up, for honor (winner’s bowing out) or for defeat (ie., we can’t win we’ll just quit).
The honor IMHO is in completion of the game to each team’s best. That’s why my first inclination is to see the defeated players reactions, not necessarily their coach (who’s crying about it).
Well, we think differently in how best to deploy honor in sports, and I see no need to try to defeat you on the point.
There are indeed differences in the competitive culture of different sports. Examples:
1) the kind of fairness I learned in my youthful engagement with Shotokan Karate would be useless in MMA or a street fight. Not even Kumite or freestyle fighting in Shotokan.
2) the US national soccer team made it to the quarterfinals in the 2002 FIFA World Cup, with Landon Donovan standing out. I told my brother then damn they play like basketball players, my brother said yes very athletic. Thing is, soccer which to most of the world IS the only football is fairer than what the world calls American football BUT way rougher than basketball which is low-contact – except maybe on Philippine streets where gulang, being able to elbow etc. without getting caught is king. In Germany vs. US in the quarterfinals in 2002 the US team looked a bit “like Boy Scouts” from my perspective which knows the roughness of European club soccer. Sokor I think made it to the semifinals also because Koreans are more willing to scuffle than other Asian cultures.
So what is considered fair depends on the setting. Filipino politics is for instance a “blood sport” like MLQ3 once said. More MMA or street basketball than NBA or PBA. Why is “lalaban tayo” (we’ll fight) from VP Leni’s candidacy speech so popular? Because..
I can see how VP Leni supporters have learned from how the losses in 2016 and 2019 were also about being too gentlemanly in a street fight. They still stay fair by not lying but don’t stop at refuting BBM arguments, they make sure the audience sees the victory. They no longer make the mistake of impressing athletically but failing to scuffle enough to win like USA in 2002, and have a chance of winning a game closer to Filipino street basketball than NBA or PBA by knowing when to elbow without getting scored a foul.
Two major moves of VP Leni that resonated with the street IMO but scared some classic yellows among her supporters – and showed how hard it is to win a street game without losing one’s “class” – are some of her Senatorial candidate allies and her statement on vote buying. Of course her having allies that are more willing and able to actually “slug it out” like Sentri or “pull hair” like Senator de Lima helps in this fight. Landon Donovan was great at offense but my memory of 2002 is that USA lacked defenders willing to do the “blood tackles” soccer defenders over here in Europe can be (in)famous for. I AM all for fairness of course. Still one of my main principles is don’t hate the player hate the game.
Yes, I agree fairness is a variable and each sport or contest has its ethics, shaped also by local traditions.
Yup, 100% agree, Ireneo. Knowing what game you’re playing is very important! I hope VP Leni knows this.
D5 certainly didn’t.
106-0 should be VP Leni’s mantra now.
What is 106-0? what is it all about. Some kind of USA vs Myanmar in basketball or something?
Score by which one US high school football team defeated another. Was running up the score fair? Yes, per LCX, no per me.
Many thanks.
@Irineo, [mostly] unmentionable in all of these is how China, the US, and other countries are playing their part — in one form or another — toward the PH May 2022 conundrum. These countries have no right to do anything on the matter of course. But can one imagine an intelligent adult person saying China is completely hands-free on the matter? Well, this is my thought of the moment, anyway.
If one looks at Malampaya, F2 and what connects them, one cannot help but think “Uy, sino kaya”? And then Pharmally and think “Yang ayaw magsalita ng Pilipino sa Senate hearing”. The rest is of course conjecture.
This all in the context of today’s version of the Cold War where the front is in the sea not on land, which makes things more complex, unlike a chess game which is frontal this is like Go which has more dimensions.
Think of Taiwan as a square beside the Philippines which has a white, Western stone on it, Japan and Sokor as neighboring squares with white stones – and the present Philippines as an empty square. The threat to the white area is clear.
Pretty obvious based on the Embassies that have invited VP Leni who is the preference of the Western alliance, though this is not actual intervention. The USA is hands off or waiting for now as it is regrouping from AfPak and Iraq IMO.
I can also see a certain prudence being exercised by VP Leni, seems she is saying little
about Malampaya/F2/Pharmally as of now, probably her usual approach of not wanting to fight a war on too many fronts. She will now what the risks are.
I’m thinking she is waiting for the campaign period. Her support group is very talented in producing meaningful videos. I’ll bet they are lining up the artillery.
China has seen a steep increase in individuals using its new digital currency since this summer as central banks all over the world explore issuing their own tokens to speed up payments and compete with the likes of bitcoin.
As of the end of October, more than 140 million people have opened wallets for the new digital yuan, which has been used for transactions totalling 62 billion yuan ($9.7 billion), a People’s Bank of China official said Wednesday according to Reuters.
That’s up sharply from July, when there were 21 million “eCYN” wallet users who made $5.3 billion in transactions.
https://www.reuters.com/technology/95-billion-spent-using-chinese-central-banks-digital-currency-official-2021-11-03/
21,000,000 to 140,000,000 in a matter of 3 months. Plus all the Evergrande housing stuff. China’s now in uncharted territory, no more America to hold its hand. De-coupled. Either sink or swim. My point, for 2022 maybe China will focus more internally.
Interesting point. Thanks.
To 106 – 0 an opponent seems like durugin in Pilipino.
That extreme may be hard to achieve given the machinery of the other side.
Though a wider margin of victory than in the 2016 VP race would be preferable to prevent a repeat of the years VP Leni had to deal with the PET due to BBM’s electoral protest.
Man, that’s a great sounding word for that particular meaning. How would you use it as verb? It’s so harsh sounding, that ‘r’ in the middle especially. Like drag , to drag someone into the ground.
Durugin si DU30?
But my point, there’s times for kid gloves, baby goats; and there’s times for Durugin. Durugin time.
Durugin means to crush so it is indeed harsh.
The root word durog is also a 1970s slang word for drugs BTW.
In sports winning by a huge margin would normally be called “tambakin”.
durugin, dikdikin, bayuhin, etc. our near equivalent is the presidential election 2004, won by gloria arroyo. fpj, da king, got only 4 votes in mindanaw, fledging lawmaker at the time, ex president noy, did better and gotten 6 votes!
durugin = pulverize (as in mortar & pestle manner, nothing left to the imagination)
In a board game such as Go, a true master of the game honors his opponent or student by contriving to score points lower than an ego-challenged game player would have done. Which in a way helps the masters’ play since control of animalistic tendency makes him calm to adjust his strategy, tactics, and calculations. Akin to what Joe said of a basketball team dribbling out the clock rather than put in one more bucket.
I suggest that honor in sports or games be inculcated so it unconsciously extends to the larger game of life. A master of boxing such as Pacquiao displaying a more honorable way of arguing with his political opponents? In this vein, Leni Robredo, a true master of politics, should be our next President in my opinion.
There’s an episode in Hikaru no Go (anime/manga series ) that talks about this very tradition, NH. In essence, you play a master as a younger novice, once the master says its done, its done. In deference, you accept defeat. But in this episode, no not Hikaru himself but one of the other characters (Hikaru’s friend) he challenged this tradition of simply bowing out, and actually playing the game out to the end, until there were less and less empty spaces, and upon finish, the empty spaces were counted and Hikaru’s friend won.
That I think is also animalistic hunger. Same species.
In Joe’s position above, I can certainly respect. But if I were a fan of Inglewood HS, and it s a friday night, and I bought tickets for said game, I would’ve enjoyed as a fan such a big difference in score (would feel ripped off if they arbitrarily ended the game early); like I would’ve enjoyed trick plays also. Or like I enjoy a good knock out, boxing or MMA. Because again said sport is based on violence. Football i don’t view as a gentleman’s sport, its akin to MMA/boxing. Where you want to see animalistic behavior played out violence conniving bob and weaving, trickery etc.; if say in tennis or basketball you saw this, you’d be turned off.
In the DNA of a sport.
Like when a guy gets tackled in a game, and his helmet flies off— you appreciate it as a good sack.
re FAIRNESS
and UBI,
now with METAVERSE
here’s some good reading. For De-growth Economics with MMT, lets pay people to stay home and make the next Web 3.0 , so Mark Zuckerberg and company don’t monopolize it.
I know gian awhile back mentioned DAO and NFTs, but I’m starting to understand it now re Climate Change.
Keep the majority of people in the Metaverse (or Bitworld); the skilled folks designers, engineers, social science, hard science folks, work on the real world, Meatspace. Just like 2020, non-essentials vs. essentials, who will be unfucking the Earth, fixing the environment.
But the point here is sequester people in Bitworld, so we can fix the Meatspace. A Biblical Jubilee period, where we leave the Earth fallow.
https://cointelegraph.com/news/a-gaming-dao-metaverse-and-yield-farm-come-together-in-this-recently-launched-nft-collection
The Virtual Beings Summit online event is a place where real people talk about fake people. That is, they’re part of a society that is trying to create virtual beings — characters with AI brains that behave as if they were real.
And this year, blockchain culture has invaded the event. The Culture DAO (decentralized autonomous organization) is launching its social token, dubbed $CULTUR, at the event. And that may stir as much talk as the Virtual Beings Summit itself (the event takes place today and tomorrow). Social tokens take advantage of the blockchain, the transparent and secure digital ledger behind cryptocurrency and nonfungible tokens (NFTs). I should pause and explain a few things. DAOs are like companies without leaders. They’re a bunch of people who come together on a project and take ownership of it through control of tokens. The creators get so many tokens. But so do fans and investors and other who acquire tokens. And everybody gets to influence the fate of the project. Edward Saatchi, organizer of the Virtual Beings Summit, believes that these kinds of blockchain-inspired concepts will be intertwined with the success of virtual beings. A DAO, for instance, might create a character as complex as Hamlet and run that virtual being’s life, or it might collectively figure out how to create the next Pixar.
“There is a natural tension between scalability, the number of decisions a collective can make in a period of time, and resilience, the incorruptibility of those decisions. We resolve that tension with a new collective decision-making process, called holographic consensus, whereby small groups can make decisions on behalf of the larger majority in such a way that guarantees perfect alignment between the two.”
— DAOstack architect Matan Field
Summary
“We envision many thousands of people cooperating on shared goals. This vision is soon becoming possible with the invention of of the decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), the basis of which is already implemented with the DAO stack on the Ethereum blockchain. But DAO operation requires a decentralized, resilient and scalable governance system, and finding such one has been a long-standing challenge due to inherent tension between scale and resilience in decentralized governance systems.
In this article I’m proposing a novel solution to this problem, dubbed holographic consensus: a process that allows decisions in a large-scale DAO to be made quickly and locally —by the approval of relatively small amount of influence in the DAO, while ensuring those decisions to actually reflect the opinion of the absolute majority of influence in that DAO. The alignment of local decisions with the global opinion is achieved via a crypto-economic game, transforming a possible mismatch between the local and the global opinions into an economic opportunity.
An open market of predictors can take advantage of that opportunity and thus support the upscaling of DAO governance. In essence, the DAO is outsourcing to an effective market the navigation of its collective attention by placing the incentive to produce a good —and backed— navigation signals. A solution of this kind may be critical to the resolution of the tension between scale and resilience in governance systems, and thus the success of DAOs.” https://medium.com/daostack/holographic-consensus-part-1-116a73ba1e1c
This notion of monetizing participation is so fascinating, watch the video in full. Best explanation of Web 3.0. IMHO. Solution to trolling also. people’s web personas will now be consistent and holographic (because of blockchain).
holograph
: a document (as a letter, deed, or will) wholly in the handwriting of the person from whom it proceeds and whose act it purports to be
Gadzooks! Democracy at light speed. Totally mathematical.
Thanks for the YouTube link on Web 3.0. I scanned the other link on the DAO. Until the author’s proposal or others’ proposal on the solution to the Scalability and Resilience problems are found definitely workable, I will wait to give more attention to the subject.
her concept of ownership via NFTs and blockchain, I can see being important, NH.
I watched this one yesterday, and you kinda get the idea that much of the technology that’s gonna make this all happen has a lot to do with how machine interacts with your eyes.
And from your Alma Mater, NH…
I see the facade of Stanford with its Hoover Tower on the left. I have not been there since 1993, about 27 years after I graduated. I used to bicycle to Stanford to and from Palo Alto, then a small university town, where I rented a room. I had an old (even then) 1954 Ford which I alternated with my bike going to the university — and I pass that foreground green area in the picture.
Yes, In the early 60s when I was there, Stanford was one of the tops in Computer Science. I suppose it still retains strength in that area or whatever it has evolved to.
Brings back good memories, including my impression of the US then. 🙂
I had a 53 Ford and went to a cow college. 🤣😂🤣
Too late for me now, but I should have gone to that cow college instead — and hope to make mucho dinero and live in a heaven of an island [until Climate Change, etc. change that life; in which case go back to the land of that cow college]. Hahaha.
Haha. Nice scenario.
NH,
there’s technology that deal with VR’s eyes-computer interface,
but the bigger field is about BCI– Brain Computer Interface , here’s one company (Synchron) , of course theres also Elon Musk’s NeuraLink,
Watch this.
NH,
Here’s more on NFTs,
“On the surface, Axie is a Pokémon-style game where you use Axies with various powers to battle against other players. But in the play-to-earn model, players earn tokens by winning a battle with their Axies against other players, or by selling them on Axie’s marketplace. These tokens can then be sold for fiat money — real cash. But to get an Axie, players have to buy one on the exchange or breed them from existing Axies.
Axies are themselves NFTs, or non-fungible tokens — unique digital items verifiable on the blockchain and controlled by individual users. But these NFTs are not just ownership certificates attached to snazzy JPEGs: They have utility in the game.
Besides the AXS tokens required to start playing, the game also has SLP, or smooth love potion, tokens. Players earn SLP when they win a match. They need SLP and AXS tokens to breed their Axies, which can be later sold or bred again.
For years, there’s been a question of when a consumer-friendly application for crypto will become mainstream. There’s an argument that NFTs are doing this for collectibles — see Dapper Labs’ NBA Top Shots. But gaming could become the real killer app, crypto insiders and investors believe.”
https://www.protocol.com/fintech/axie-infinity-crypto-gaming
“Think of Sky Mavis, the Vietnam-based company behind Axie Infinity, as a financial services firm with a game front end. It built its own sidechain to Ethereum called Ronin, a crypto wallet and a marketplace for buying and selling Axie characters as NFTs.”
(that’s an NFT, original , arguably art and fully tradable)
its essentially a form of money laundering, NH , but its the fact that all this creates a new economy also, one never seen before in history. just add content owners, NFT makers, to this list…
NFT [Non-Fungible Token] — another magic digital bean to make or launder money. Whatever. 🙂
It’s all magic, NH.
Fractional banking, money creation, all magic, but IMHO money laundering is the way you gauge if something’s possible, because criminals and the rich tend to have good instincts when it comes to hiding and moving money.
The question is how as the little people can we follow suit or make ours this new system.
Imagine all your imgur graph’s you’ve made, had you been able to make those NFTs, and somehow you became famous, we’d be trading those graphs as something of value. ie., these are NH originals first seen in Joeam’s blog.
But the bigger idea here is what Greta just realized, that adults, Boomers in particular aren’t gonna save the world for her. So one solution is to sequester most humans into the virtual world, the Metaverse, where they won’t be damaging the World.
NFTs along w/ crypto will pave the way for Economics in the Metaverse. that’s one solution.
the other solution is let’s help Greta take action, and the best way for her is to take it up the ICC using the OPOSA DOCTRINE, Filipinos have already won re UNCLOS, so based on the following…
In 1993, Mr. Oposa made headlines worldwide for his role in the landmark case Oposa v.
Factoran, where the Philippine Supreme Court held that a group of minors had the right to sue on behalf of succeeding generations because every generation has a responsibility to the next to preserve nature. Mr. Oposa was counsel for 43 Filipino children who initiated an action against the Philippine Government for the misappropriation of the country’s forest resources. The trial court dismissed the complaint on the ground of lack of legal personality to sue. In a widely-noted case on inter-generational responsibility, the Philippine Supreme Court upheld the legal standing and the right of the children to initiate the action on their behalf and on behalf of generations yet unborn. It is now known in Philippine and global jurisprudence as the “Oposa Doctrine”
Filipino lawyers can use the Oposa Doctrine, in the ICC, and bring to trial every world leader that attended in Scotland, as well as those that didn’t.
With VP Leni as President in 2022, Filipino lawyers suing the world onbehalf of its children now and in the future. Can you imagine how Greta will be so happy, NH? She’ll finally smile. All because of Filipinos and the Filipino OPOSA DOCTRINE.
NH,
This imgur .jpg that I just created , if made as an NFT, could be worth a lot of money, as this is the first of its type proposed by me to use the ICC in prosecution of world leaders and CEOs for climate change, both for causing and perpetuating…
Global Climate Change.
The Oposa Doctine is not mine, so too this original graphics. But combined with ICC this jpg image of lawsuit on behalf of children past and future becomes an original LCPL_X NFT (if it was put in blockchain, but i dunno how yet).
Then VP Leni can use it for her campaign, ie. when I become President, I will bring a lawsuit on behalf of the children of the world, especially Filipino children, to seek reparation and demand better stewardship of Earth.
Reparations will be in the form of Bitcoins. It will be the biggest class action lawsuit the world has ever seen, NH!!! hows that for Fairness?
Lance, with your expertise in graphics, I can imagine you making oodles of mullah with NFT. More power to you! 🙂
I hope the creative artists readers of TSH take up this NFT thing for their and their family’s benefit, at least in their spare time.
Also, there must be talented ones from among the trolls of the survey leader [Pres Candidate] — and not just waste their creative-artistic talents on FB in the service of that lying, non-degreed patron of theirs.
Exactly, NH.
here’s a current article,
“Concept Art House isn’t just a little art house anymore. The creator of art for video games and nonfungible token (NFT) collectibles has raised $25 million.
The San Francisco company is taking part in the same NFT boom that is benefiting artists, blockchain game companies, musicians, and celebrities. In many cases, Concept Art House is supplying the art that those parties use to sell collectibles to fans and gamers.”
https://venturebeat.com/2021/10/19/concept-art-house-raises-25m-to-create-nft-art/
Cebu City is perfect venue for this. They already have a bunch of digital artists.
Rather than posting in the long thread above, I am posting this here. The creativity, nimbleness, and probably effectiveness of Leni’s supporters in showing their support is interesting. Instead of a pink caravan of cars, tricycles, and motorbikes, the supporters are asked to stationarily line themselves/ their cars with pink paraphernalia as Leni passes through from Negros airport. [Perhaps in reaction to Sara’s advice not to hold her supporters’ announcement for car caravans to save on fuel.]
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FDWGg4vVUAAhtZG?format=jpg&name=large
leni’s supporters may not have millions and billions to give to leni’s election coffer, but they sure show their support by sheer presence, rain, hail or shine, in situ with their wavering pinks in blooms! all smiles and well wishes. cut both ways too, leni happy to see them, their presidential aspirant ready, willing and able, her line up complete with certainly no substitution is sight.
sara’s supporters, what exactly are they caravaning for? I think, it’s awful for sara’s supporters to undermine her decision to run as mayor of dabaw like she’s a little girl overruled. no caravaning to save on fuel may well be a bit late now. methink. dennis uy’s udena is going to export most of malampaya’s output to china, barely nothing left for our domestic use. and denis uy is family friend.
Honor is the adherence to a conventional standard of conduct. One that is honest, fair or has an unblemished integrity is a man of honor. Apart from respect, which is a way of treating people, honor makes respect more grandeur because it accords and show high regard to the person being respected. One maybe honored, hence, respected but it doesn’t go the other way. One’s respectability does not always necessarily goes with honor.
Honor can only be relative on self-serving situations when, for example, the rebels professed that their cause is honorable. That supporting insurrection is an honor thing to do. To avoid confusion, you have to distinguish between the actor and the act to find where honor lies.
It’s an honorable act to fight abuses, dictators and corruption but the people who does the fighting are not always necessarily honorable. Not all people who help topple the Marcos regime were honorable. Same thing with those people who threw out Erap from office. The current office holder, like Gloria Arroyo, is definitely not an honorable person. The office of the president is not only the seat of power, it is also a place of honor. You desecrate it, you dishonor it.
I’m not sure what a truth-based constitutional honor is. All I know is constitutions are moored from the moral fiber of a nation. We all know that a constitution is a set or body of fundamental principles and/or established precedents a nation binds itself to be controlled and governed.
Numerous times in history, leaders of dishonored integrity utilize the constitution to rule countries and its people not in accord with the spirit of the fundamental law of the land. Again, we have to distinguish. The constitution is a document of honorable ideas, principles and laws meant to operate, control and conduct the business of nation building. But it doesn’t operate by itself. It doesn’t distribute nor promote honor.
Given that scenario is death of honor possible? In the genetic constitution of our species, I don’t think so. One word: intrinsic. It is essentially a part of our well-being. It is what separates us from animals.
If honor dies, we all die. 🐟
I’m with you to the point you say the Constitution does not promote honor. It is the written definition of what is right and just in how the land is governed. So it defines honor. But you are also correct that implementation of the ideas is variable, so what is honorable in a specific circumstance varies. Is Senator Bong Go honorable or unethical in serving in the Office of the President? Different views on that. You are also right that as long as mankind has a conscience, honor will not die. Killing people is honorable to some. 1987 Constitutional honor is not guaranteed, unless people recognize it, want it, and defend it.
To begin with, before 2016, outside of Davao City, nobody really knows who or what Bong Go is. And that’s the nicest thing I can say about the man. I hope I’ll not be put in hot water here for expounding the why’s of that introduction.
Bong Go actually, is a general factotum to all the whims of Digong even before he became president. He is the go to guy of the president. But that I mean, he is not the fixer or the one who does the dirty works (as far as I know). In an ordinary job description he functions as a secretary which sometimes we call jokingly in colloquial language “dakilang alalay”.
Initially, there is nothing wrong in his function as ‘secretary’ but when the president started to prop him up and made him senator my impression of him started to change. Especially, when the Pharmally scandal came up. A lot of angles on that issue presented Bong Go in an unenviable manner. Video came up with him together with the president meeting the big shots of the Phamally corp; Him making a mess by trying to end debates in the Senate about the scandal and defending the president against criticisms. He’s a senator mind you but he still function as Digong’s stooge.
And then a couple of days ago, he was paraded and touted by the president as his next presidential bet in the coming elections. Afterwards, he withdrew, saying, in automaton way, his family does not approve of him running, at the same time mouthing his undying loyalty to the president, etc. Classic
Is he honorable? For lack of a better answer, I would just say this: An android, bereft of basic human dignity, will never be honorable.
And I would say President Duterte would say he is very very honorable. So it depends what reference frame you use. If it’s the Constitution, I think his working in the Office of the President would be unethical and dishonorable. If he were found to have a hand in corruption, he would be dishonorable. But the other thieves would view his work as honorable up to the point he got caught.