By Farah G. Decano

 

NICE advice.

It sounds simple, direct and achievable by any standard.  For who would fail at becoming a good lawyer, a good doctor, a good husband, a good parent, a good child, or a good friend?

Being good seems to be a non-threatening standard measured against anyone. It makes one feel chill and relaxed. Who would want to stress it out, right?  Similarly, very few are intimidated by those who are just that – good.

Just be good.

This is so antithetical to what we learned during our childhood.  Did we not often hear our parents and teachers ask, “Are you doing your best?”

However, being “just good” these days has now become a survival strategy in a world that has turned vicious against the brilliant and/or the creative.  Mediocrity now seems to be the rule.  Anyone who surpasses mediocrity has become abnormal, a deviant.  Try to be excellent and, almost surely, you will be on your way to becoming discriminated against, isolated and scorned.

The presence of a “better-than-good” member of society in any organization is supposed to be welcome because it raises the bar for everyone.  However, it threatens to disturb comfort zones and anxiety-free lives.  This may be the reason why some people abhor the excellent.

Then I remember another childhood lesson, “Just be honest.”

“It is the best policy,” my grade one teacher said.  Is this still true nowadays?

In the present Philippine society, we have heard of individuals being elevated to positions of power and influence even if they have lied about their academic achievements, even if they have mangled the truth in the name of so-called artistic freedom, or even for money’s sake.  Hello Darryl?  Hello trolls!

Haven’t we heard of crooked people in government whose values are exalted to high heavens by their shady bosses because of their contribution to the latter’s illegal wealth?

What has become of “honesty is the best policy” in these modern times?  Ah, this virtue seems to have been incinerated and reduced to ashes which are added to concrete mixture for road construction.  What a double whammy it is to be truthful – one gets burnt and then ran over.

He who lies best is now a cut above the rest.  It is not only in politics and government that we observe the normalcy of these aberrations and untruths.

With the advent of internet, bigtime and small-time scammers are everywhere.  Sad to say, the ones I have met are those who were born at least a decade and a half later than me.  That’s a generation or two, younger.  These young people have no qualms fibbing about themselves.  They intersperse truth with lies.  They have become self-marketing experts.

How do they do it?  Just have a look at their posts on social media!  If they can radically change their faces from an initial carrot to a glorious mango, then I don’t know what other lies they can manage.  Digitally altering one’s face too much is indicative of inability to accept the truth about one’s self.  This is a red flag for me.  Falsehood through pictures!  Frankly, I am amused by them.

My amusement stops, however, when the initially innocent over-editing of profile pictures by the younger generation leads to faking their own credentials, grabbing pictures from the web in order to promote their business and later scamming people.  They have advanced to larger-scale fakery.  Either they pretend to be someone they are not or they entice others for financial gains.  These fraudsters aka swindlers do not know that once they are discovered all the good acts they have done will be looked upon with doubt.

I am not claiming that over-edited profile pictures is a fool-proof predictor of a future scamming behavior.  But… really?  Why fake the only face you show to the world?

Just be good?  Better to be excellent?  It is still the best to be honest.

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