Learned Helplessness

Naalala ko yung isang report ko nung undergrad pa ako. Intro to Public Administration class. I was one of those Political Science students who did not really take an interest in the bureaucracy. Why? Because it was, to me (back then), “unstudyable.”

I mean, on the one hand, you think of it as something which could be subjected to scholastic scrutiny. Stated crudely, it is the structure which directs the processes of governance (ayos ba?). Pero to me (again, back then) the things which are of real consequence to the bureaucracy’s functions cannot be studied “systematically”--the way Political “Scientists” would attempt to study them.

Back to the story… Eh di report na namin nung partner ko. Hindi ako prepared (which is unusual). To comfort me, my partner said, “madali lang yan. LEARNED HELPLESSNESS” lang yan.” “Okay.” I said. I used the expression to explain every concept in the report. Yun nga lang yun. It worked.

Maraming applications yung “learned helplessness”. I’ve known that before, mas pronounced lang ang expressions nya right now that I’m working in government and have friends who are engaged in Research, NGO and Development work. For example, a friend of mine wrote about a conversation he had with a friend of his. He told him about this consortium of civil society organizations (to which his organization was a part) who were crafting an “Alternative Budget” for health, education, environment and agriculture. The initiative’s goal is to make proposals to legislators so that the budget—General Appropriations Act, they would craft would course national government funds towards the attainment of Millennium Development Goals pertinent to these sectors.

Way cool, diba?

But no! His friend said, “Futile!”

One of the nastiest byproducts of learned helplessness is crippling pessimism. “The bureaucracy’s bulok!” “It’s ailing with corruption!” “We can’t do anything about it!” (EKcetera). The pessimism, I could tolerate. But it’s the crippling side of it that I could not pardon. It’s human to get frustrated with the “system” (in this case the bureaucracy, or the government in general). It does fail us. The people we elect in office betray our trust and drag us to the ground. Sure. But when we allow this pessimism to defer (worse, deter) corrective action and have us frown upon initiatives which look at societal ills and propose solutions to it--that’s more disappointing.

I hope we could render the term learned helplessness obsolete in our vocabulary.