The Future of the Society of Honor
By Joe America
Those who read or comment here now and then recognize that The Society of Honor no longer gets the thousands of reads and active commentary that it once had. Times change, and with them, reading habits. I’m inclined to observe occasionally, “life’s a path, not a destination”. A few or us continue to walk the Society’s path, exchanging ideas.
It’s no different to me than when I started 15 years ago, then getting two or three comments, and fewer than 50 reads, per article. But the writing exercise is always, always instructional, and the comments are always always appreciated . . . and enlightening.
I’ve been working on a couple of projects to retain the works we’ve created here for reference. The writings were influential in their time and remain valuable to other explorers. Giancarlo took over as Chief Administrator of the blog to take the time to preserve the blog’s content as data files. I’ve embarked on two projects myself: (1) putting all the articles into The Wayback Machine archives, to remain available when joeam.com ceases to exist, and (2) organizing some of the articles in a book-like format on Adobe Acrobat which now allows public sharing of files. Both projects will retain the comments attached to each article.
I’ll provide links to the Wayback Machine archive in a month or so and to the Adobe book format later this year.
If you wrote articles here, you might wish to take your own initiative to preserve your works. Or if you have favorite articles you’d like to preserve for reference.
The joeam.com website will eventually drop off the internet. I’d like to keep it one more year at least, but how far the path goes, I cannot tell.
In the meantime, the Philippines remains our teacher, and we her students, at varying levels of attentiveness, LOL.
I expect to persist, to trek onward, looking about at the scenery and the animals within it. Perhaps we are a hiking club, eh? Hmmmm. I welcome y’all to gather around the virtual fireplace from time to time. Cigars and brandy are recommended, virtual or not.
Joe
Comments
45 Responses to “The Future of the Society of Honor”Trackbacks
Check out what others are saying...-
[…] The Future of the Society of Honor Categoriespersonal AnGoL […]
The Society of Honor by Joe America 
It has been a ride.
Pardon the drama in my article I once wrote. I apologize for any sacrilege
https://joeam.com/2023/04/17/christ-is-risen-when-will-tsoh-rise-again/
Perfect article, Karl. I like drama myself. Normal is so boring.
I understand. Must be hard for you to see the Dilawan/Pinklawan movement get destroyed by a BBM landslide. Then Kamala loses to Trump. Ouch. Time to ask a serious question: maybe you guys got it all wrong?
As to favoring principles like honesty, equality, and compassion, no, we are not wrong. If you prefer murderers, liars, racists, rapists and con-men, I suggest you take your commentary elsewhere.
Well, at least Marcos Jr. upholds the state and institutions, which is half of what we want. The rest may need time to take root in the Philippines because it wasn’t really rooted among the people yet until now, only among the learned. The Philippines, at least, has not slid back. It just has revealed where the majority always has been at. There will hopefully be some realizations and if we were able to plant mustard seeds (as Sonny said once in a very Catholic metaphor) then this shall not have been in vain.
As for principals, Risa Hontiveros is a far more modern but still highly respected head of the school among the high school kids in the Senate than Miriam Santiago, mother of dragons.
On X I gave ratings, 1 to 10, 10 high, as follows.
Arroyo 5.0
Aquino 8.5
Duterte 1.0
Marcos 7.0
Most wanted Aquino a little higher at 9 and some wanted Duterte to be a negative number. Most wanted Marcos to be lower. Some a lot lower.
The word I’d use to describe his results is “stable”. His cabinet is stable, not filled with acolytes, GDP growth is steady, inflation is a tad higher than wanted but not disastrous, he’s working hard and not blowing his top on Sara Duterte, he got rid of pogos, he’s firm on China. What do people want, miracles?
crime, apparently crime rates is higher under pbbm’s regime than during digong’s time, baste duterte, (duterte’s loud mouthed son) said so. and kapolisan were quick to give data that the opposite is true, that unlike digong’s time, crime lessened under pbbm.
I for one, would be happier if filipinos these days are no longer silent nor are they afraid of reporting crime, rather than fudging data and statistics just so baste duterte can be proven wrong.
if there is better reporting of crime now, and better crime detecting agencies that even some kapolisan are caught committing crime and duly punished, we should not be afraid to reveal what the true crime stats is.
I am a regular visitor here. Quite sad that you dwell on petty partisanship not on substance. Should you browse deeper, the articles here are informative, gems in my opinion.
https://joeam.com/2017/03/27/is-chinas-aid-an-entrapment/
so true, expat ought to know that filipinos have moved on but if expat wants to point the finger and drag us behind, he is in the wrong crowd. misers are rarely loved here nor are they readily indulged. we are sunny people here, full of fun and irreverence at times.
in case expat is slow on the uptake, pbbm visited leni at naga, same with sara duterte. both pbbm and sara were all smiles and shaking hands with leni. and if the significance of the gesture has escaped expat, he is missing a lot.
Giancarlo also planned a project or two before.
Things accelerated Gian, you only have a year more or less. But it could be done later if time does not allow you to do it sooner.
My half-joking idea that INC in a post-apocalyptic future survives thanks to an AI created by Giancarlo, who is by then a kind of saint, is something I shall embellish to include a bunker in Montalban connected to Commonwealth by tunnel and with water tapped from Sta. Mesa. Seriously, the idea of Giancarlo that we put out something in book form is good, which is one reason why I have been looking for the best of articles recently. The risk that in a weird future, there will be Literalists, Memorialist, and Loresian sects quoting from old printouts of TSOH, with the Literalists maintaining that there is a Book of i7sharp, is a risk worth taking. Though a book is not as urgent now that we will have everything in an online equivalent.
Irineo, Zettelkasten (particularly “Antinet Zettelkasten” by Scheper) will probably pave the way to my being able to write a book. Many excerpts from TSOH are etched in mind and will surely come in handy. 🙂
Thank you for all you’ve done, Joe America. May all go well for you and the stalwarts of the Society of Honor.
Thank you Tina, good of you to wish us well.
I’ll miss you. It’s been a long ride but this expat is reverting to sipping beers under the shade of a tree while the boboheads of the world do their thing for the next few years. Hoping there’s something left of us afterwards.
Stephen, I’m peering through the fog of memory. It’s thick. You wrote an article or two here as I recollect. Something about mountains? Superb piece. I’ll have to dig it up.
But nevermind all that, beer in the shade is wonderful. I think that’s exactly why God created the Philippines.
Or maybe it was photos? May I share the link to your photo-blog here? Fantastic capturing of life.
I was about to say photos maybe because it’s easier for me than writing.
https://www.stephenltylerphotography.com
stephensimagesoflife.wordpress.com
stephensimagesoflife on IG
Thanks Stephen. Absolutely stunning photography.
https://tinyurl.com/stp-bamboo-bench
Stephen Tyler Photography – bamboo bench
My father always said that what we leave behind is what counts. We have hopefully created a bit of a legacy. Your putting this online for posterity can be part of that.
Whether it will be in vain or not, we shall see.
If the Planet of the Apes becomes reality, there might yet be wise apes who preserve what we wrote among other literature and are puzzled about the dominance and territorial games of humanity that has forgotten how to speak.
Now am I feeling main character? Well, we all do from time to time.
We might be forgotten in a decade or unearthed as future Scripture by roaming bands of survivors in a post-apocalyptic world. It has been a great journey of a decade for me.
Hahaha, we might have to change the tag line to something about apes, to attract their reading interest. We’ve generated marvelous thinking. A lot of articles could be a lesson for any history class, or studies of government administration, or social development. I started noodling on a book using the articles but the comments are just so rich, it doesn’t do it justice. it could be 20 books, each taking a topic. “Mamasapano, the way it was”. Or “The presidents of the Philippines”. Or “The proper functioning of a damaged culture.” Great material here.
Just the top 5 articles of each year based on readership are a treasure trove:
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023 has just repeats of oldies..
2024 has two new hits:
Some humdingers there, for sure. Fond reflections. Great team. Thanks Irineo.
this is something we can work with. I was procrastinating because Joe and others of the society has written a ton and I wanted tongo through each to get the best ones , not necessarily the most shared/read ones. Thanks for this Irineo. We can do this.
As I was contemplating a book format that would collect the better writings and comments, I came across three problems. 1. The volume of material, 2. how to put it into a sequence that would read like a story, and 3. the recognition that the comments are in fact the greater part or the insightful part of any rendition.
One could I suppose organize a timeline and then bridge between articles and selected top comments with a narration of why they are important. Or one could address piecemeal various topics, say the Aquino presidency, how the damaged culture persists in being damaged, or sovereignty/defense.
I hope to go through the articles this year and organize them by topics. Not all but maybe two-thirds that are best. And I’d summarize them and score them 1 to 10 as to how meaningful they are, including comments. Big job.
Thank you to all who have been part of the Society of Honor. You have always been my ideological companions. Kept me from despair.
Blessings upon you all.
Thanks for stopping by, Paugie. It’s rewarding to know that we helped keep you balanced.
Thank you,Joe and the society. Salute!
Thank you Maria. Cheers and a tip of the mango juice to you and others who care.
Dear Joe, Although, I don’t give cimments in your site, cuz I’m not a good writer, I do read in email all your articles. Also, I find it difficult to access “how to give comments” as at my age, I’m not so computer savvy. I really admire your insights and opinions. Hope you will still continue to do so for as long as you could. Thanks for sharing your articles all these years. More Power to you! Brenda Monforte
Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone
Brenda, you made my day. Thank you.
I’m a late comer here, probably only 2 months. Love a lot of the ideas that come up in the articles and exchanges. Would hate to see it fold up…small is beautiful, I would vote keep it up even if small….
And it’s great to have you here, cd, provoking me and others into thinking about things. I appreciate your saying what’s on your mind.
I hope my “provocations” do not rub people the wrong way. 🙂
Haha, a little salt is good for the stew.
Chin up, people. Hibernate if we must, but keep the powder dry. Some may still be around when it happens, some may not. But we have to keep the archives accessible to future citizens. I just don’t see regimes based on deceit, oppression and a disdain to do the right thing lasting forever, history tells us that. They all crumble and judged harshly. The arc is long, but it bends towards justice.
That was an incredible run, Joe.
Indeed, Andrew, and thanks for being a vital part of it.
You were a late discovery to my daily reading, but I’ve truly appreciated the depth and breadth of your insights over the last couple of years. Thank you for the intelligent discourse.
I’m glad you found us Manny. Thanks for following.
Oh, no!!! I leave for a few weeks and everything comes apart. j/k. if something else comes up before year’s end, Joe, is there a possibility of keeping it going? Sorry to see this. I’ve been busy with UFO twitter, so there might just be use for joeam dot com if something big unfolds (which is what I’m thinking). like info sharing. Either way, stay or to continue it was still a good run. I hope you change your mind in a few months.
The blog is focused on the real world Philippines, and I’m holding to that as the future “product” of our articles and discussion. I consider conspiracy theories to be damaging to enlightenment. They are the place where belief is chosen over truth. So I’m not interested in publishing your explorations.