The Problem Of Having The "Basta West, Da Best" Mentality

I may not be anti-Western, I don't blame Westerners in general for all the problems (though some Western governments and media do deserve a beating) but I'd like to talk about the problem of, "Basta west, da best." mentality. In English, "basta west da best" means "As long as it's the west then it's the best." Why I decided to write this article was because of a series of incidents where PNoys or Yellows brag that the world supposedly sympathizes with them.

I use Western stuff such as Google is my current platform, I like eating certain types of Western food (ex. pasta, pizza, hamburgers), I'm using Microsoft -- you get what I mean, right? The problem seeps in when people tend to think of their love for Western affirmation or approval. Right now, one of them would be when they think of certain Western media that featured President Rodrigo R. Duterte as a tyrant without knowing the facts -- except from biased mainstream Philippine media! Some of these media are Time Magazine and WatchMojo.com. Others involve organizations like Liberal International and Progressive Alliance.

I don't find anything wrong with Filipinos getting featured or honored by Western media and organizations. The problem is when one heavily depends on Western affirmation or approval as a basis towards one's credibility. How sure are the Western organizations that awarded Leila De Lima, Maria Ressa and Etta Rosales of what's really going on in the Philippines? Did they really check the situation and bother to listen to BOTH sides of the coin or are they Westerners who honor Filipinos who prefer to bootlick over them? This also raises credibility issues like since when did being a Westerner make one an expert of the world or are these Filipinos awarded by them already out of credibility in the Philippines?

There's the instance where many Filipinos actually overrate American culture as if it's the best. I even wrote something about my speculation that having an overabundance of American media may be contributing to Philippine anti-intellectualism. While there are still some good American shows but I really find it on a severe decline towards anti-intellectualism and whiny idiocy. There's also the tendency to choose the Americanized version of stuff and the reason is "Duh, because it's American!" without any reason other than that. Since when did American make something better or worse? Then we have people follow the negative in the U.S. as if there's nothing wrong with the culture.

In the end, it's all about achieving a middle road of East and West -- getting rid of the bad from both sides and blending the good from both sides. I suggest reading the book of Amy Chua-Rubenfeld called "The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother". It's an interesting setback to how she found the best balance between American culture and Chinese culture. At first, she tried to raise her daughters the way her parents raised her -- only to realize that she should get the best of both worlds. She started thinking about being strict without being unreasonable especially when her second daughter eventually rebelled against the overly Chinese authoritarian way. Getting feedback is important but the problem is relying only on Western feedback (without considering the credibility) is not the right way to do it.