Comments on: An abnormal return to normality

By: UP n student

UP n student — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 15:51:20 +0000

Hollywood people quotes:

I love romance. I’m a sucker for it. I love it so much. It’s pathetic.
Drew Barrymore

It’s morally wrong to allow a sucker to keep his money.
W. C. Fields

If you’re playing a poker game and you look around the table and and can’t tell who the sucker is, it’s you.
Paul Newman

By: UP n student

UP n student — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 15:36:29 +0000

cvj: To remember, this began with the Ringer-quote: “Dwelling on injustice can hamper your efforts to achieve great things.”
I sense that you (and Jeg and Mike) may have mis-read the quote. “Dwelling on injustice can…” is not the same as “Dwelling on injustice always…..(hampers your efforts to achieve great things)”.
The other item to consider, given the many types of lazy/shady/crooked… speaks-with-forked-tongue talks-from-both-sides-of-their-mouth people in this world, is that an “injustice-cause”, like a campaign slogan, can be a con-job in disguise.

By: cvj

cvj — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 09:48:40 +0000

UPn, thanks for the advice. I appreciate that the world would be a more predictable (if not necessarily a better) place if everyone made the same sort of rational monetary cost-benefit calculations as you did.

By: UP n student

UP n student — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 23:45:11 +0000

Hey, cvj!!! Do you really know another person who will spend P500K to get back P100K to correct an injustice? Then here is a scenario where you can help your HERO be a hero. You find a good-swindler (you’ll see what “good” means in a minute) who gets the P100K. Then you sign up an anti-GMA lawyer like bystander to be a good lawyer (“good” in a minute, and might as well help fellow anti-GMA’s, right??).
Now you get HERO to give you the P500K, then :
— You give bystander P100K for using his name.
— You tell the “good-swindler” to return the P100K (to you); you then give him P120K.
— You give HERO P150K and tell him that you with your lawyer was able to collect the P100K and in addition, the “good swindler” is very sorry and is providing P50K as a sign of repentance.
— You give HERO an additional P50K because bystander is an honorable lawyer who lowered his fee.
— You spend P20K to get good press for your friend-the-hero who had corrected an injustice with cost no object. [Do not scrimp on this publicity. HERO deserves it. But that the P100K became P150K should not be publicized.]
— There is a final step. You may be tempted to skip this, but I strongly recommend that you give P80K to Hospicio de San Jose as an offering so that you get to know more HEROs in the future.

Net-Net, everyone should be happy because of HEROes:
(a) HERO is a hero who corrected an injustice. In addition, he got the original P100K back, along with a P50K rebate from a good lawyer and a separate P50K from a repentant good swindler.
(b) Bystander gets P100K.
(c) Repentant good-swindler gets P120K.
(c) Hospicio de San Jose gets P80K; P20K goes to “press/publicity”.
(d) I think there is a balance, which becomes your reward for creating the opportunity for the HERO you know to be a hero.

By: UP n student

UP n student — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 12:38:40 +0000

And if you really… really… really… need to make your cousin pay with a pound of flesh the injustice he brought upon you, then a dos-por-dos strike to the knee (only to the knee)will be quite efficient. I do warn… pick your action carefully as the wrong solution to a perceived injustice may leave the world a sorrier place.

By: UP n student

UP n student — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 12:18:48 +0000

cvj: I sincerely recommend for you to walk away when your lawyer asks for P500K to get back P100K from your cousin. Whether your lawyer may be an Abe on the same side of the fence on GMA/Garci or a Bencard on the other side, hang onto your money. Then, peel away P200K, head to Philippine Normal College, and tell the dean to use the money to fund the college education of 2 or 3 teachers. Or you may go to Hospicio de San Jose and give them the P200K. I dare say that even if your cousin sneers at you for lack of backbone and leaving him the P100K he stole, the world still is better off with the scenario I painted above.
Pick the wrong solution to an injustice, and the world may be a sorrier place.

By: cvj

cvj — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 09:29:09 +0000

UPn Student, thuggery and apathy reinforce each other. So those who encourage the second are the ones who (perhaps unwittingly) encourage the first.

By: UP n student

UP n student — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 08:35:32 +0000

cvj: As I said earlier, as you spend your time and money on the social cause of your choice, more power to you.

Now some people will work, others will panhandle, and others will take to thuggery to raise funds to correct the injustices that they sense. “Yes” to generosity and hard work; just do not do, and do not encourage, thuggery.

By: cvj

cvj — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 07:45:12 +0000

I suppose you really may be willing to encourage MLQ3 or Schumey to lose P400k (P500K less P100K) of their inheritance or savings in order to send a lesson to future swindlers. – UPn Student

The good thing is, there are people who do not need such encouragement. We do not have to look further than Capt. Faeldon or Lt. Trillanes. Rather than make a personal cost-benefit analysis, they are willing to take on a larger share of the costs to set things right. Psychological studies indicate that such a predisposition towards fairness is hard-wired in [certain] people.

By: Jon Mariano

Jon Mariano — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 03:29:38 +0000

If you only think in numbers then you lose 400k, but if getting justice and helping the society makes you happy, then that joy you get is worth 400k! If you have 400m in the bank that wouldn’t be too heavy but not for the ordinary man.