The McVie Show Season 4

Me and We

I’m raising the following out of intellectual curiosity. Really, pramis! I welcome any comments of a legal, sociological, psychological, even moral nature. But can we leave religion out of this, please?

Anyway, here goes.

It’s obvious to me that in an incident like the recent stampede at Ultra, the organizers are held accountable for what happened. It is their responsibility to make adequate preparations to prevent such a tragic incident.

But I wonder: what about the individuals in the crowd who pushed and shoved? Are they exempt from any kind of responsibility for their actions? If we assume that they pushed and shoved without knowledge that they are killing the people in front—therefore they acted without malice—is that considered an “accidental homicide” then? In a crowd or herd mentality, do individuals “lose” their identities, making them not responsible for their individual actions? Are those individuals exonerated from any charges simply because they are just too many of them to track down one by one? Or is holding them liable an exercise in futility?

In a stampede like this no one dares bring up the question of whether individuals in the crowd can be held responsible for their actions. (Obviously, ABS-CBN cannot do that.) So I ask: what happens to individual responsibilities in cases like these?

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Quote-Unquote

I made a mistake of giving my number to this guy named Ace. He saw my Downelink profile and stupid me I gave in to his request. He’s been sending me jokes, quotes and sayings almost every day; I’ve kept quiet the whole time, neither encouraging nor complaining.

This morning I received the following message from him: Send u naman me ng mga lab kowts.

Sigh.

I actually had to think more than twice before deciding not to do anything but press “delete.”