The Varsitarian

READING the newspapers everyday can be toxic. Just looking at the headlines can cause a heavy feeling at the start of the day. It’s not only because the Abu Sayaff kidnappings have again filled the front pages of major dailies, but because there’s so much power struggle going on and nobody seems to be winning the struggle.

I’ve been trying to finish a fantasy series titled Wheel of Time written by Robert Jordan. The book used the phrase, “the game of houses” to stand for the way royalties and members of the higher-ups try to influence other royalties and luminaries to take a side on certain issues, especially succession where valor and gold is involved. In a way, it is synonymous to power play.

In a similar fashion, the series I’m reading and the situations in real life are parallel.

Everyday we encounter different power struggles. When we read the newspapers, we read about conflicts between government officials. When we watch TV, the simple issue of who gets the remote first often turns into a major house struggle; when we go to school and the driver won’t give us the right change, we sometimes assert ourselves to get justice for a peso or two which the inconsiderate driver failed to give us; when we talk about gender and issues like who should be considered as the stronger or weaker sex becomes a full blown oxford-like debate. These and other similar situations, can be considered power struggles. However, more often than not, these arguments are not only shallow, but unnecessary.

A classic example? The recently concluded senatorial and local government elections.

It’s funny how in the Philippines, people would always claim that they’ve been cheated after losing, especially during elections. It’s the normal reaction of bitter people. I guess, when you want something really bad and you don’t get it, you end up so frustrated that you’re willing to do anything to have what you want, at any price. After all, politicians followed all the steps in power play. They employed different tactics to try to get people to see that their side was in the right and the other was not.

Whoever gets the popular vote wins. Some losing politicians just shrug their shoulders and accept the people’s decision. But others would claim foul play. Some of them with no strong basis.

I am not discounting the fact that there is cheating in elections. But there are just too many incidents of candidates claiming foul play. In our country, it seems that nobody loses and everybody wins. Many candidates hardly accept defeat.

Maybe candidates forget an important fact in politicking, influence. The success of a politician lies in the power of influence with sincerity. Maybe some politicians didn’t play their cards well or maybe they forgot some tricks or maybe people are starting to realize that they’re not being sincere with their intentions.

Despite different names, strategies, and platforms, all candidates still seem of the same color.

The names seem to have been etched in stone. The strategies seem to have been taken out of a textbook. The platforms ape one another, echoing the need to lick the perennial problem of poverty. Even the brightest politicians would not deny that election campaigns are riddled with cliches.

This is the reason why politics is no different from the game of houses. Some politicians politicize They do not have any other cause to join the political struggle, to join the game of houses except to flaunt themselves, mingle with the elite, and earn a name for themselves.

But the real question remains unanswered. What happens when you win the game of houses? What becomes of you when you reach the top?

After doing everything, after “struggling,” and after reaching the top, the title wouldn’t mean anything. It becomes a “piece of tansan” that you can win in Eat Bulaga. Its value is diminished because you’ll feel that even if you have the power in the whole world, there are mountains you cannot move and there are spaces you cannot fill.

Sometimes you ask yourself, “Is this all I’ve struggled for?”

There are struggles worth fighting for but there are those, which are senseless and must not be wasted time on.

The game of houses is not when one reaches the top, but it is after the game of houses that the real struggle begins.

Maybe in their quiet moments, these power strugglers would realize that the game of houses was not really necessary to bring them to the top, especially game players who have been sincere with their intentions. After all, reaching the top is not what’s important but what you do when you finally get there. If you will keep your sincere intentions or fall at the mercy of the things you cannot change, it is all up to you.