Archive for September 21st, 2009

Along with Dementia, my name is Marocharim, here at UP Theater for etonAPOsila: a fundraising/solidarity concert for Noynoy Aquino and Mar Roxas 2010.  This, of course, does not signify an endorsement or anything; as usual, I have nothing to do on Eid’l-Fitr.

7:45 PM. The APO Hiking Society is now performing. For those of you who don’t know who APO, that’s Buboy Garovillo, Danny Javier, and Jim Paredes are an institution in Philippine music, and are quite political in their points of view.  And guess who’s suffering from technical difficulties with his fucken’ camera… ewuroihsdfjsdk.

7:53 PM. Juana Change, resplendent in a yellow wig and a yellow shirt, is up.  Say what you will about the “populism” of the Juana Change message, but it is very effective for the bunch of supporters they have here.  Juana Change had the audience eating out of the palm of her hand.

8:05 PM. Aiza Seguerra is up.  She’s singing “Kaleidoscope World:” the acoustic version.  Brings back memories of Francis Magalona.  And apparently, our liveblogging has just been called up (and no, Manolo Quezon is not here, Juana).  You can email the Noynoy Aquino for President Movement ay napm2010 at yahoo dot com. There’s something for you.  Technical difficulties… arrrgh…

8:14 PM. Aurora – whoever they are – is up for a rocker number.  Yellow may not be the color of rock, but they’re spreading a message of change, as well.  Reminds me of the “Two Sides Live” concert… you know what, I didn’t eat yet.

Break time.

A Yiddish proverb goes: do not throw the arrow that will turn against you.

I sometimes think that the “bandwagon effect” is so misunderstood to the point that it’s demonized and maligned.  To some people, joining the bandwagon is to be like bacteria, hitching a ride on the bigger germ, on the way to infecting a cell.  It seems that joining a bandwagon is so conformist and so plebeian that the only recourse for intellectual and political freedom is to not ride it at all… and in effect, ride another bandwagon in the process.  See, it’s not plain old-fashioned stupidity at work: rather, it is an exercise in making a rational, coherent, wise choice based on the information that’s available.

Many, if not all, our political and economic judgments are made possible in great part because of the crowd.  That doesn’t make crowd behavior or herd instinct unwise or stupid or anything, though: it has a lot to do with articulation.  When people join a bandwagon, they already have an idea of what’s going on.  They already have an idea of their ideal, and it just so happens that this particular bandwagon represents their judgments, their preferences, and things that they value.  Faced with those options, they hitch a ride.