Quontextag [i]: It's more fun in the Philippines

Yeah, a new, uhm, label. Can't articulate my mind, so, I'd keep some musings short by mentioning something that's "trending," and lifting, and juxtaposing , and linking stuff, in an attempt to share my thoughts by lifting a chunk of text out of its context and in another context. Daming shit! Anyway, got this [link] from Sir Omeng Rodriquez.

#ItsMoreFunInThePhilippines

fun (n.) "diversion, amusement," 1727, earlier "a cheat, trick" (c.1700), from verb fun (1680s) "to cheat, hoax," of uncertain origin, probably a variant of M.E. fonnen "befool" (c.1400; see fond). Stigmatized by Johnson as "a low cant word." Older sense is preserved in phrase to make fun of (1737) and funny money "counterfeit bills" (1938, though this may be more for the sake of the rhyme). See also funny. -from the Online Etymology Dictionary.

Indeed. So fun. And yes, those bells you're hearing are of faux nationalism!

*update - 01072012 - 0840 - I was drafting some sorta essay about this, and as I've expected, it ended up as draft, unpublished, shelved, since I don't think I can write that well and other people are more able to articulate what I am trying to convey. So, I "share" a status update from Prof. Gerry Lanuza, taken out of the SNS context and into this context.*

Freud suggested that the jokework involved in successful aggressive jokes distracts the listeners so that they’re not fully aware of the aggressive content at which they are laughing. Laughter is totalitarian when it says: I can get away with it because I’m only joking! Postmodernism has transformed this TOTALITARIAN laughter into CYNICAL LAUGHTER: the laughter of ‘those in the know’ who understand the web of capitalist conspiracies that we are caught within yet incapable of escaping from. This critical distance from the reality of oppression does not result in collective action. It results in more isolation, or individual liberation through new age spirituality, virtual reality gaming, or the occasional work-place transgression. The CYNIC’S inside knowledge of oppression makes him superior, thus making him enjoy his political inaction! Wag tayong cynic jokers! Instead, let’s laugh with the workers.

There. God, I promise, I tried filling this space up with the gist of how I see this, say, trending phenomenon, but I just can't find the words. I can't write, thus the translations.