Learned Cynicism to Combat Learned Helplessness?

After experiencing both man-made and natural disasters year after year personally for the past few years (from earthquake in Japan to mudslide in Korea to rioting in the UK), the author has been growing more and more desensitized to the devastation brought out by these unfortunate turns of events.  But some observations of the Filipinos' reactions to the ongoing floods in and near their homes and workplaces, and the author is ashamed to say that his sense of cynicism to disasters from the past is not even close to being at the same level as the ones seen among the populace here in the past days.

While the author's cynicism is primarily one of ignoring the disasters and sufferings to focus on something completely different, the Filipinos, at least those the author has come across, have taken to almost wholehearted embrace of the floods as not only normal, but also a situation for which they can even exaggerate into the "best of circumstances."  On SNS and on the news, plenty of photos and videos show Filipinos, all smiles, splashing around in the streets that are now lakes and rivers, and even those going about their lives, transporting them from point A to B joyfully in rowboats.

We've also seen people getting together for street-side basketball tournament in waist-deep water, and people joyfully answering TV interviews and waving to helicopter-borne cameras from the top of their roofs.  Everyone seemed relaxed, full of smiles, even though, without a doubt, the majority lost possessions, property, and some even lost their friends and relatives in the ongoing disaster.  Maybe it is just an extension of that widely stereotyped friendly character of the average Filipino, hiding away their pains to show their best in public.

Yet, the simple joy of being in a flood is, beyond bouts of actual cynicism, actually present in reality.  Sure, certain materialistic possessions are damaged, but looking on the bright side, it is a time of unity.  In a nation of migrants working long hours, with complete lack of equality, often in faraway lands, there are few times like this when family members can get together, relax (because work and school are all closed), and doing something together (even if it is just about repairing flood-damaged items or moving valuables to the second floor of their houses).

What is more is a sense of how this country has become largely accustomed to the endless tropical storms that seem to visit the country every single summer.  Despite the floods that shut down traffic and logistical networks, for some reason all stores from the big SM Malls to the smallest of the street-corner convenience shops are open for business as usual, with no visible signs of lacking manpower for manning the stalls or lack of goods to sell...and there also seem to be more than enough customers walking about to be entertained on such a day.

Maybe the floods have given a chance for the country to breath a sigh of relief for once, slowing down a bit to enjoy rather than to just work.  After all, for people living in tropics, rainy season is not surprising and excess water maybe more of a nuisance rather than a real threat to livelihood (as much as the economic numbers and foreigners say otherwise).  They are not bothered by the rain nearly as much as they do by the state of their own lives outside of their home communities, from gaping inequality to unfairness in work, in politics, and in social statuses.

The rain, then, is a distraction to all of that, a step away from reality that is really really needed to recharge, despite the physical tiresomeness of dealing with the flood-related damages.  So then, maybe what the author saw as cynicism, on the news and on the streets, consisting of those "unintended" smiles and enjoying a soak in not-so-clean floodwater, is not really cynicism per se.  In fact, it may just be genuine happiness for some people who used this opportunity to regain their touch with their communities, families, and their own more human side.

The author is not going to buck the trend here and be cynical about a do-nothing government.  In the long-term, that surely does matter, but in the extreme short-term, when the floodwater is already on the street and all the damages that can happen has already happened, its useless to worry about what should and could have been done to prevent and mitigate.  In such light, the positiveness of the Filipinos toward the ongoing disaster, by all measures, is simply admirable.  And their attitude in turning the negative into something constructive ought to be a repeatable psychological lessons for all others.