HOTSPOT
When I was growing up, I used to walk around our mixed working class-middle class neighborhood in Sampaloc, Manila, and I noticed that some houses had marble labels on their outer walls. Inscribed on the markers are the full names and professions of the people that purportedly live there. They were a bit bigger and different from the signs outside offices of lawyers, doctors and dentists.
The markers set apart the middle class from the working class. Actually the size and built of the houses did. The markers were a flourish and quite expensive pieces of brag.
I remembered this episode from my childhood as we again witnessed an online furor over academic titles, that a PhD holder should be called doctor because he or she rightfully achieved it and so deserved to be called as such.
Hyper-exposed as many of us are to international media, I’m quite certain we are aware that this is not the case universally. In more egalitarian, more democratic or less stratified societies, there’s usually little use for or emphasis on titles or honorifics. People are called either “Mister,” “Miss,” or “Mrs.”
Except for formal events, high officials, senators or members of parliament are not universally addressed as “honorable.” Not a disrespect to them, but a nod to the people who elected them and to stress that high office cannot or should not separate them from the public they swore to serve.
Some friends have actively shied away from displaying or using their work titles at this time. Not that they’re afraid, selfish or humble-bragging. They just feel the titles go in the way of their free expression.
A friend who’s a doctor doesn’t wish to practice medicine and be obliged to dispense medical advice everywhere he goes in the social media space. Sometimes – or often – he just wants to be an ordinary citizen who has wide interests. In the case of my friend, he just wants to react on current events, popularize the use of fountain pens, and tangle with anti-fascists online.
There are also a lot of friends who are lawyers, but resist the temptation of being called “attorney” every time and everywhere for the same reason.
In both instances, I would assure you that they don’t shy away from speaking as a doctor or as lawyers whenever necessary.
Methinks the social capital behind the titles and the titles themselves are not bad per se. What could be irking more and more people is the separation or othering that they connote or are used for. We have a lot of attorneys, but people are denied justice. We have a lot of RNs, MDs, and DMDs, but they are exported to other countries while our own health system is in crisis. We continue to elect “honorables,” but national and local governments are less honorable by the year. We support the education of Masters and PhDs, but there’s an inability to explain and solve the troubles beyond justifying the status quo or gaslighting the public.
I don’t agree with “smart-shaming” but I also don’t agree with our smartest people aspiring solely to reach the ivory towers, palaces and mansions and be the brain trust of the warring factions of the elites. Perhaps the “smart-shaming” is less about the mistrust of the knowledge that our smartest people hold dear, but about at whose pleasure they serve.
I would like to believe that most ordinary people continue to respect highly-educated persons, including doctors, lawyers, engineers, architects, professors and those belonging to other professions. We know how important they are to our personal lives and to national purposes. But in our country that is wrecked by conflict and crisis, and also highly stratified due to wealth, income and other inequalities, our people look up to the professionals for more than displaying or celebrating their credentials.
Historically, many of our most highly-educated people, especially the younger ones, have been at the frontline of meaningful change. They were the brains of uprisings, revolts and revolution that sought to end domination and exploitation. Many of professionals we lionize emerged from times of crisis. They attained greatness and our people’s eternal respect when they lent their high education, titles and lives to a higher goal.
I don’t mind friends asking that their hard-won titles be used when referring to them. But they shouldn’t mind the public expecting a lot from them and asking directly or indirectly, “for whom?”
Follow me on Twitter @tonyocruz