For a while, I thought Noy was on to something. Oh, I never bought the whole “reluctant candidate” routine; it takes a very darkly cynical and opportunistic mind to even conceive embarking on an endeavor like a presidential candidacy before the body of one’s own dead mother has even cooled. But he played it up well, in the beginning, with the whole discernment thing. He discerned that plucking on the heartstrings tuned to the (faulty, but that’s beside the point here) memories of his mom would earn him the instant popularity and recognition his own vacuous presence in the legislature never could. He discerned that playing the ‘Will of God’ card would score huge with a deeply superstitious population of extraordinarily poor critical thinking skills. He discerned that using these things to portray himself as good to everyone else’s evil would keep him on top, at least for the first few rounds of surveys.

What he didn’t discern, obviously,  is that there’s no way polish a turd of a personal and political career that has no quantifiable achievement of any kind that indicates, even in the slightest, most optimistic degree, any intelligence, effectiveness, or even good intentions as a leader. What he didn’t discern was that giving nobody anything more to talk or think about beyond “GMA is evil” and “I’m the son of my parents”, and what’s more, specifically avoiding most opportunities to talk about anything else would begin to make people question the wisdom of considering him as a potential president. What he failed to discern was that, by not giving anyone any plans, platform, or even coherent points of view on any issue would encourage people to start looking into the more childish aspects of his character and past actions, to the point that now some previously-enthusiastic supporters are publicly — regretfully and with great disappointment, but firmly nonetheless — withdrawing their advocacy.

Does he discern that the dinosaur of his own arrogance is about to bite him in the ass? And more importantly, do the Filipino people discern that they’re being made fools of?

Tags: discern this