something to remind us

Taken from the letter of Jose W. Diokno from prison to his son (1974):

“Increasingly as you grow older, the values that you have learned from us, your parents, and from your Christian faith, will be called into question - by you or by others. Why be honest when it pays to dishonest? Why be fair to others when they are unfair to you? Why fight for others when they won’t fight for you – or even for themselves? Why think for yourself when it is easier to let others think for you? Why lead when it is less troublesome to obey? Why have principles when others don’t – and they often get away with it? Why be good when it seems so much more pleasant to be bad?

The answer, I think, is in what life means to you. If life means having good time, money, fame, power, security, then you don’t need principles; all you need are techniques. In fact, its better not to have principles; they would just get in your way. On the other hand, if life means more than those things, if happiness counts more than a good time, developing your talents more than developing wealth, respect more than fame, right more than power, and peace of soul more than security; if death doesn’t end life but transforms it; then you must be true to yourself and to your God, and to love and truth, good and beauty, and justice and freedom.

You will have to decide for yourself which of those things life means to you. Neither I nor anyone else can decide this for you. But perhaps this will help you decide; That even those who know they do wrong feel compelled to convince others - and eventually themselves - that they are doing right. So the man of greed often gives generously to charity; the megalomaniac poses as a messiah; the coward hides his fear under the mask of being realistic; and the guilty wash away their guilt, like Pilate, by washing their hands with the excuse that “It isn’t my choice” or “it isn’t my job” or “I can’t do anything about it.”