Tatsulok: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

[Kaplok Kaplok]

"..Habang may tatsulok,
at sila ang nasa tuktok,
hindi matatapos itong gulo.."​

The song Tatsulok by Bamboo is one of the songs that rings true to a lot of Filipinos. He did not create the idea, but he is one of the most influential to put the idea forward. In fact, this idea is pretty common to most, if not all, of capitalist societies.

Let us explore the inner workings of this ideology and see if it is truly good for us.

The Good: Compassion and Justice

The tatsulok ideology is born out of compassion to the poor. We recognize the failings of a capitalistic society where we know how the richer gets richer, the poorer gets poorer.

We all know the story of a stereotypical Filipino child born out of poverty, having a hard time navigating the society towards success. "You have to spend money to earn money" mantra acts like a gatekeeper that prevents Filipinos getting a life they dream of.
Besides that, we do understand too that justice seems elusive to those who did not win the lottery of life. Justice seems to be askew towards those who have more, and not always to those who are right.
Tatsulok is a prevailing thought that reflects our compassion and value for justice, and the inner desire to make things right. Some Filipinos have carried the view that life is just a "survival of the fittest", which is heartbreaking. The tatsulok ideology exists to defy that.

The Bad: Baliktarin ang Tatsulok

One prescription of the ideology is inverting the triangle.

"Totoy, kumilos ka, baliktarin ang tatsulok
Tulad ng dukha, nailagay mo sa tuktok"​

The idea is to give the poor more power, and the rich with less. The problem of this resulting in it not being widely accepted by societies as a whole, is that: it eerily ressembles the philosophy of Marx-Engel's Das Kapital. Arguably, it is probably exactly what it is.

In application, the "ideal" society starts ressembling or becomes a communist or socialist society. Historically speaking, we know how this ideology took form in Maoist China, Chavez's Venezuela, and a few more. As far as we can tell, Marxism has never had a success in bringing a better society, or at least better than our current system.
Inverting the triangle might sound like a good idea at first, because it seems like perfecting the values of true democracy, but like Plato once quoted,

"Dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme liberty." -Plato

Doesn't history also kinda say the same thing?

The Ugly : Envy

As mentioned in "the good", the two angles that created the tatsulok ideology are compassion and justice. Taking shape in a triangle, there is a third angle that we must also understand: envy.

There are a lot of bad actors who subscribe to this ideology, not because they are compassionate to the poor, or wants justice, but because of envy towards people higher up in the heirarchy. When these people refer to the rich, they are referring to all people richer than them. The tatsulok ideology has made a platform or a guise, for these bad actors to justify their crab mentality.

We have seen this too many times to even notice anymore. Politician using the ideology to sabotage their opponent's integrity. Common people invalidating the success of someone rich, "..so, therefore his riches were ill-gotten."
Further aggreviated by social media culture where everyone displays their seemingly perfect lives, while the viewer just marinates in envy.

Having said all that, it is difficult to not acknowledge the good things the tatsulok ideology represents. Considering everything, should we keep this ideology as a nation? If so, what should we change about it? Or maybe we just have not understood how to use it correctly...

What do you think?

---

I am a little confused if this post fits correctly on this section or in politics, but i strongly believe that politics is shaped by belief so I thought this forum section would be more proper.

Anyway, like always,
thank you for reading.

 

[jashyyyyy]

interesting!.

 

[Kyklops]

hindi naman tatayo yong tatsulok kung ang pointed side ay nasa pinakailalim.

 

[plhbg1]

we need the tatsulok setup to show that every one of us differ in some ways, equality will just remain as hope, the actual scenario is still competition and that is good to purge the weak as pointed by the postulates of evolution

 

[Kaplok Kaplok]

we need the tatsulok setup to show that every one of us differ in some ways, equality will just remain as hope, the actual scenario is still competition and that is good to purge the weak as pointed by the postulates of evolution

Okay hitler.

 

[plhbg1]

Okay hitler.

hehe speaking of hitler, siya ang reason bakit ayokong maging sing successful sa kanya baka maging hitler din ako pag nangyari iyon, though hindi kami same ng pamamaraan, artificial (controlled) selection ang sa kanya, ako gusto ko i-wipe out ang weak by not blocking the natural selection so i am against anything that can block natural selection like preserving the wasted lives

 

[Kaplok Kaplok]

hehe speaking of hitler, siya ang reason bakit ayoko kong maging sing successful sa kanya baka maging hitler din ako pag nangyari iyon, though hindi kami same ng pamamaraan, artificial (controlled) selection ang sa kanya, ako gusto ko i-wipe out ang weak by not blocking the natural selection so i am against anything that can block natural selection like preserving the wasted lives

Ano ang boundary na dapat tawirin ng isang tao bago mo siya matawag na "wasted life" kung saan hindi na siya dapat tulungan ng gobyerno?

 

[plhbg1]

Ano ang boundary na dapat tawirin ng isang tao bago mo siya matawag na "wasted life" kung saan hindi na siya dapat tulungan ng gobyerno?

those who are not productive in the society

 

[Kaplok Kaplok]

those who are not productive in the society

What constitutes "productive"?

 

[plhbg1]

What constitutes "productive"?

just a significant amount goods and services will do, if you want to mirror on actual events, see how each country filter the immigrants

 

[Kaplok Kaplok]

just a significant amount goods and services will do, if you want to mirror on actual events, see how each country filter the immigrants

Immigrant ako, at hindi ako nagpoproduce ng goods and services nung mag migrate ako. In fact, naging dpendent ako ng social services nila dito for quite a while. At meron ako mga kakilala who have been dependents their entire stay here. I dont think that is a good example.

 

[plhbg1]

Immigrant ako, at hindi ako nagpoproduce ng goods and services nung mag migrate ako. In fact, naging dpendent ako ng social services nila dito for quite a while. At meron ako mga kakilala who have been dependents their entire stay here. I dont think that is a good example.

it's up to you, but the one who checks doesn't need to see the production, they only want to see you have the goods and services which you can immediately claim you produced them

if anyone can just be an immigrant then what's the point of checking

 

[mutagenesisx]

Bamboo and his crew are just spoiled rich kids na medyu namulat sa katutuhanan dahil sa rehab at under medication. Same sa mga marxist romantics na pinoy, puro lang ideolohiya pero di naman pina-practice, mga narcissist na gusto lang boses nila marinig sa masa.

 

[dummy01]

The song 'Tatsulok' is a left wing political view that calls out those who are on the top of social hierarchy when it becomes stiff and corrupt. It resonated due to the reality of political corruption, injustices, and inequality in our society. It is a song to call for left wing activism and about the political battle between the rich and the poor. Anyone, who is historically ignorant, is prone to get attracted to this ideology, which is rooted in Marxism. Fortunately, more and more people are now recognizing Marxism as the opposing radical political view equivalent to Nazism. Rational dialogue is an alternative way to address corrupt social hierarchy without unnecessary social chaos. In order to do that, the people involved have to bear the responsibility to pay close attention to those who are in power and to educate themselves by understanding both opposing views. IMO, it is the best way to address whether we are under a rule of tyrant or incompetent or both, that breeds corruption.

 

[Kaplok Kaplok]

it's up to you, but the one who checks doesn't need to see the production, they only want to see you have the goods and services which you can immediately claim you produced them

if anyone can just be an immigrant then what's the point of checking

Lets say what you said is true. That they only base it off from your percieved net worth, (regardless of you producing it or not), maybe the point is to show only what interviewee can show in case it is needed.

In some sense, it is more of a measure of your credibility and potential. Rather than "strength" in productivity.

 

[plhbg1]

Lets say what you said is true. That they only base it off from your percieved net worth, (regardless of you producing it or not), maybe the point is to show only what interviewee can show in case it is needed.

In some sense, it is more of a measure of your credibility and potential. Rather than "strength" in productivity.

so why are they doing all the credibility/potential checking?

 

[Kaplok Kaplok]

so why are they doing all the credibility/potential checking?

You tell me.. sinakyan ko lng ung theory mo eh.

 

[plhbg1]

You tell me.. sinakyan ko lng ung theory mo eh.

the highest impact of immigration is on the economy, that is the very reason why not all people can just move internationally, kaya kahit palitan mo pa yung productivity with credibility/potential, at the end of the day GDP (productivity) pa din pag-uusapan

 

[Haarp Machine]

Bamboo and his crew are just spoiled rich kids na medyu namulat sa katutuhanan dahil sa rehab at under medication. Same sa mga marxist romantics na pinoy, puro lang ideolohiya pero di naman pina-practice, mga narcissist na gusto lang boses nila marinig sa masa.

hindi po sila bamboo original kumanta ng tatsulok

 

[dummy01]

hindi naman tatayo yong tatsulok kung ang pointed side ay nasa pinakailalim.
View attachment 2504226

This is an important observation. When you flipped the hierarchy upside down, it will not defy gravity and float around but instead disintegrate resulting to turmoil. This is the same in religion as a hierarchical belief. For instance, Christiany has a hierarchy of values predicated on the idea that God sits on the pinnacle of hierarchy of values. The objective of the new atheist movement is to overthrow any beliefs of transcendence in order to flatten out the belief system of everyone and embrace a social constructionist view (or an evolutionary view) which will result in a more confusing morally relativistic orientation of the natural world. The post-modern philosophy is the mainstream doctrine that criticized any form of hierarchy/inequality.