check out radical chick‘s take on the u.p. friday the 13th riot that found burgis youth freaking out, as in OhMyGodWhatTheFuckIDON’TWANTTODIE, and suggesting that the u.p. admin close the university and limit access only to u.p. people.  haha, as if u.p. were close-able.  and, hey, what does it tell us about these u.p. youth and about u.p. diliman today.  how burgis naman talaga.

in fairness, alex maximo’s post in reaction to radicalchick’s is gracious and thoughtful, more agreeable than defensive, pero defensive pa rin, of course — he was misinterpreted, he wasn’t done, it’s a stream of consciousness in process.  well, possibly.  benefit of the doubt, just because some of the thoughts are worth remarking on.  particularly the ones regarding that clear line drawn between the jologs and the burgis, and about being burgis:

For the longest time, I have been arguing that the discourse of the blogosphere is the discourse of the burgis. At one point, I considered playing the anti-burgis role in the blogosphere but dropped the thought altogether. The fact remains that I am burgis and all the people I know who blog are burgis too. I’ve resigned to the fact that there will always be struggle between classes and, as a member of the petty-bourgeois, it is inevitable for me to acknowledge the differences between social classes.

Whether the burgis guns for egalitarianism in their discourse or not is based on their own ideologies and now I do agree with Manolo in his answer to a question I personally asked him – that the blogosphere’s voice is heterogeneous.

In the context of the anti-jolog sentiment, even some of the kindest people I know who were in the Fair that night drew the line between themselves and the jologs. I really do understand why people think this current blogging discourse on the UP Fair is quite “classist.” I really do. Maybe I’d be with them in this one if not for that delectable experience of being in the middle of a sea of angry jologs with barbecue sticks and water bottles who were cursing UP, the fair, the organizers, etc…

… Oh well. I’m sounding too defensive to my distaste. I’d be a bigot for now and if this becomes a prime example of classism then I think I have strengthened one of my points regarding hegemony and the discourse of the Philippine blogosphere. Quite interesting to find myself as part of the dominant bloc in this one.

good honest thoughts, these that grapple with conflicted values.  the clearly sensed perceived line between burgis and jologs is the very line that has to be crossed, and deleted, if there is to be any hope for inangbayan.  after all, burgis and jologs share many common interests, good and honest governance, transparency and the right to information, among many others.

we are them.  they are us.  ang sakit ng kalingkingan ay sakit ng buong katawan.  being burgis but concerned for the masa shouldn’t, doesn’t have to, be so hard.  some tibaks have gotten the hang of it and do a pretty good job at balancing things.

the burgis youth have as much to learn from the masa, as the masa youth from the burgis.   imagine if burgis and masa were friends that night in u.p.  that raw energy could have been channeled constructively — they could have together helped bring down those fences to accommodate everyone along some arrangement that would keep everyone happy in place.  and the next day they could together have ganged up on the concert organizers and given them hell (well, rotten tomatoes at least, and maybe some baho tsinelas) for inciting violence.  ang saya sana.