Three Blind Lies

 Three blind lies, Three blind lies!

See how they run, See how they run!

I've been meaning to make a satire on the nursery rhyme where I got this idea from, where I would like to show that the farmer's wife was more blind than the mice... but the story got too complicated. Plus, rhyming isn't that much fun or easy. So instead, I'll just make my usual rant.

Guess I picked up the idea from Marvel's Daredevil, who despite being blind saw more than others (literally and metaphorically). And it makes me wonder - who really are the blind people in our nation today?

So I present to you three "blindnesses" which I believe afflicts us Filipinos. I hope this will help us see things a bit better.

THE BLINDSIDE

Trust is the most important aspect in any relationship. And ruining it is the most painful crime anyone can do. Making false promises, false claims, putting one's best pedicured foot... a lot of bad people blindside us with these deceptions. And what's sad about it is that a lot of us are actually gullible enough to believe them. Just watch TV. How many times have you actually tried a product because of their advertisements, only to find out later that it wasn't as great as they said it would be? The good news is that the regret you get from wasting your hard-earned money on such products will fade away in a couple of days. Or at least until you used it all up, or finally decide to introduce it to the trash bin.

Some TV commercials, though, offer choices that has more far reaching consequences than a grocery list mistake. I guess they are what the economists refer to as the gross domestic product. But then, like junk food and vices, Filipinos still have the stubbornness to endorse and patronize such. Until cancer and other gross illnesses blindsides them later on in life, or sometimes a bit earlier.

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THE BLIND SPOT

We can't blame some people who are not fully aware of their own blind spots. But then there are people who do manipulate others and focus their eyes away on what they don't want to see, hiding their defects in plain sight. They would love to point out what's wrong with this and that, and all the while keeping mum on their own. I think a Filipino proverb phrases it as "Bago linisin ang dungis ng iyong kapwa, hugasan ang iyong putik sa mukha".

And yes, that's in the Bible, too.

But do you know what really gets me? It's the people's reaction when they realize the fault in it: "Hey, where did that come from? How come we didn't notice it before?" Magic? Duh.

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THE BLIND EYE

I don't mean the literal (physical) kind here. But this has got to be the most pathetic "blindness" of all. Why? Because you have no excuse! It was your very own free will to turn a blind eye on something. You know there's something wrong, but because of your own ideals and ideas, you prefer not to see the "bad side" and instead focus on the "good side."

But you know what? Ugliness doesn't disappear just because you close your eyes. And ignoring it doesn't make it even better. Although I don't blame them; after all, the glaring truth can also be the blinding truth - and frankly it's easier to just turn your back on it rather than keep your eyelids shut and pretend that you can't see anything.

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As an afterthought, I do wonder if the same applies to the saying "Love is blind". Well, didn't see that one coming. Yet.