There goes our false pride again

American author Dan Brown is being roundly criticized by some sensitive Filipinos for describing Manila as the “gates of hell” in his new book “Inferno.” Have we got nothing better to do than be upset by one man's opinion in a work of fiction most of us have not even read?

If Manila is not the “gates of hell” then why be upset about one man saying so? In fact, a hundred Dan Browns badmouthing Manila at the top of their voices will not mean anything if nobody believes them.

Those now up in arms against Dan Brown should take heart from Abraham Lincoln, who said: “If the end brings me out all right, what's said against me won't amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference.”

I would rather have Dan Brown, or whoever for that matter, say something bad about the Philippines or Filipinos that everybody else knows to be untrue than be lied about something that I know is a fact.

The problem with us is we prick so easily. We get overly sensitive over inconsequential things. So what if Dan Brown calls us Mickey Mouse. Yet, for all our bitching over Dan Brown, has it ever occurred to anybody that we seem so deathly silent over the bullying we get from China?

Right this very moment, as we fill all of cyberspace with hateful comments against Dan Brown, our hapless Filipino fisherman brothers are being shooed away from our own fishing grounds by Chinese bullies. And we just turn the other cheek.

Right this very moment, while we quiver and salivate in righteous indignation over Dan Brown, OFWs in Taiwan are cowering for their lives in fear of being beaten up with lead pipes and bats. And we simply ignore that.

Incredibly, what seems more important and relevant to our lives and actually lose sleep over, is that someone described Manila as the “gates of hell” in a fiction novel. Wow. Far worse things have been said of other places and people, yet nobody reacted the same as us.

I am aghast that while many of us would actually want to lynch Dan Brown over a personal comment, not as many rose in defense of poor Jesus Christ in that infamously blasphemous work of supposed art wherein his holy face got defiled by a penis crafted by self-proclaimed artists.

I am horrified to recall that, in fact, so many more people defended the self-proclaimed artists in their sacrilegious act than those who defended Jesus and those who felt offended by the act. To them artistic freedom was more important than religious sensitivity.

So where do we stand really? How can we defend the “artistic freedom” of self-proclaimed artists to put a penis on the face of Jesus Christ and yet at the same time deprive Dan Brown his “artistic freedom” to call Manila the “gates of hell?”

I also remember quite well the national uproar over a proposed cybercrime law that tried to introduce libel as a responsible parameter in cyberspace. Filipino netizens, vigorously citing freedom of expression, refused to be restricted in what they can express on the Internet.

But where are these freedom fighters now? If they can vigorously push the right to free expression for themselves, why cannot they push for the same right to free expression by Dan Brown? Is what is good for one not good for everybody else?

The Philippines is a beautiful country and I love it dearly. But I also understand and accept the fact that it is not perfect. What is beautiful to me may not be so to others, who may even exaggerate the imperfections they see. But that's their opinion and they are entitled to it.

If we truly know our country better than others, we should be able to stand taller than their inaccuracies. For what we know to be true cannot be shaken by mere fiction. And it does not make us any less Filipino if we can tolerate a little foreign display of ignorance.