Notes on Democracy: God, It’s Brutal Out Here!
Filipino youth continue to become unrelentlessly upset.
Released in the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, 18-year old Filipino-American singer Olivia Rodrigo — revered by most, if not all of Generation Z — released her first album SOUR that has captured the hearts of many of her fellow Gen-Z audience, and so many other generations. Revered for its personal and refreshing take on various genres, Rodrigo has captured not only her perspective on a controversial heartbreak with a co-star from one of the Disney shows that started her fame, it has also captured the teenage angst that comes along with experiencing puberty during the Trump administration, a global pandemic, and systemic human rights abuses as a child star from simple beginnings. This angst is shown in the first track of the album Brutal: a rock track on the existential dread of growing up as a teenager with an addicting chorus and confessional verses. This song has got members of Gen-Z relating to lyrics about her own anxieties, her own crisis about her fear on wasting the teenage years, and the aforementioned ego crush Olivia Rodrigo has that is so severe that she screams into the microphone: God, it’s brutal out here!
On the other side of the world — well, where Olivia’s father originates — her release of Brutal strikes a chord on my last year as a teenager. While Olivia experiences a slowly rising economy in the United States because of the Biden administration’s efforts, I stay in my room blasting her album in my earphones as if my ear’s about to fall out due to the high volume. With the Duterte regime’s criminal negligence on the pandemic, various human rights variations rising, as well as the sheer annoyance I get after Duterte shows his smug face during his late night talks, I can’t help but scream out the chorus of her song with conviction — Olivia is right, it is brutal out here! As an anthem for all of Gen-Z to relish in, the song Brutal becomes one of my go-to forms of expressions when feeling defeated when it comes to fighting for a better future. But it’s also a motivation to refresh and restart.
Where’s our teenage dream?
With the pandemic ruining many college dreams for those who graduated high school in the Class of 2019, this served as the nail to the coffin for students filled with pessimism experiencing the harrowing effects of the Duterte administration. As Duterte’s regime continues to commit human rights violations, student activists are red-tagged and threatened, and rising prices for commodities and tuition fees concern students, an ideal teenage dream for college students filled with late-night parties, social events, and various opportunities are all suddenly gone. Fellow young friends and activists will tell me their main points of concern and they all have a common factor: Duterte has changed the lives of the youth for the worse.
I do want to touch on Duterte’s impact on youth’s perception on democracy not to go on a tangent (this is indeed a blog on democracy), but personally I can observe that the most times the youth speak up on the Duterte regime’s negligence is during news reports on extrajudicial killings, abuse of power through threats of Charter Change, or when freedoms of speech and expression are in danger. Mainly, Duterte’s regime is seen by the youth as something that destroys not only their democracy but their dreams. The reason for this: the state of democracy being shattered right in front of their eyes.
Who if not exploited?
Ironically, in a study done by Tutor, who analyzed the youth’s perception on the left, one of the reasons why the youth embrace leftism is because of the Philippine government. As the youth continue to realize that they live in a space that has no regard for democratic rights, the government radicalizes the youth that it continues to oppress: the youth continue to search for a better society — in this case, a better democratic space — and they will exert all means to do so. This angst and yearning for a better world, the anger towards living in a world filled with systemic failures, and the pandemic that has kept the young from many opportunities: this pent-up anger results to developmental democracy.
The youth face their fate of constant exploitation (as Olivia Rodrigo mentions in her song Brutal) and strive together to end it. Even with the rise of stress and anxiety because of not only the pandemic but Duterte’s negligent government, the youth can’t help but take up roles in defending democracy and changing the world each way they can. Through various means of developmental democracy, whether in joining cause-oriented groups, participating in protests and strikes, and even using social media to a certain extent, the youth see their potential towards building a stronger democracy. It is somewhat amazing that oppression faced under the Duterte regime causes anger and anxiety which then leads to a practice of developmental democracy.
Brutal thoughts
The first thing I thought about during the discussions I have in the course I take on democracy are my fellow Gen-Z friends who strive to participate in democratic processes amidst the pandemic. Although the likes of Duterte, Duque, and Go can make a head hurt, the youth cling on to the pessimism that they have and convert it to optimism. With democracy in the brink of death, it’s been hard to deal with the effects it has not only during the pandemic but also with effects on my personal mental health. Many Gen-Z people have a hard time coping with the anxieties and fears of inheriting a planet that is filled with systematic failures, economic recession, political inequalities, and hardships in life. With this, it can get frustrating to even live in the moment as we continue to live in a world that continues to burn. However, this also results to a rise in participation in democratic systems: a message that even if it is brutal out here and even if that burns us out, the youth will rise up together to do whatever they can to build a better world.
Bibliography
Cunningham, F. (2008). Globalization and developmental democracy. Ethical Perspectives, 15(4), 487.
Tutor, K. C. G. (2017). Masama ba ang mangaliwa?: A critical analysis on the Filipino youth’s perception towards the left(Doctoral dissertation).
Notes on Democracy is a series of blog posts concerning reflections on the state of democracy in the country and the state of emergency it brings towards personal crises.
