Today, in 2022, we all are aware of the terms like “ghosting,” as all of us have been ghosted in our lives. It is a prevalent thing by now, which is why it has become relatively normalized. Our minds have accepted this human trait and run according to it now.
We have entirely made up our minds to be “ghosted” by someone or the other. However, we are shaped to be treated this way; the Philippines have spoken up about this issue and made it real again.
While we all know to ghost, it is a brutal comeback to give someone; when you cut off ties without any closure, it is cruel and has a lot of effects on your mental health. It decides the choices you’ll make further with life, people, and work. Small things like this make a difference and is a form of emotional abuse.
Emotional abuse is that because your mind is so used to this being so mainstream, you don’t even realize what’s happening with you. Finally, people are speaking up about things related to mental awareness and health.
All of the credit goes to a legislator in the Philippines. Negros Oriental spokesperson Arnolfo Tevez Jr. stated in House Bill 611, which was made public on Tuesday that ghosts are painful because they “generate sentiments of rejection and neglect.”
“There is a physiologic relationship between rejection and pain, as studies demonstrate that social rejection of any form stimulates the same pain pathways in the brain as physical pain. Both friends and romantic partners should remember this,” Tevez stated.
“The real issue is that no closure is provided between the people involved. As a result, it may be compared to a type of emotional cruelty and should be corrected as a dynamic offense because of the anguish it causes the “ghosted party,” the legislator said.
He said, “This is comparable to an act of emotional abuse and ought to be penalized as an emotional insult.
Even though it’s 2022, the concept of mental wellness is alien to so many, and as the problem isn’t there for these people, how can we expect a solution out of them? It’s time to make things like these not a taboo topic to speak about, especially when we’ve already witnessed the consequences of its absence in our lives for so many years. Tevez said in an interview with The Final Word on CNN Philippines on Wednesday,
“the emotional trauma brought on by the ghosts is also harming the nation’s productivity.”
“If you’re an employee who’s not in a good mood, it will impair your work because you’ve turned into a ghost.”
Although we have normalized it to the extent where it’s not a big deal anymore, Tevez thinks that something should be done to eliminate this trait from our generation. We are people who believe in being rewarded when you do something good and punished when you do something adverse, and that’s why ghosting someone should also come with a penalty, for people to see it as something offend-able.
“We can apply a community service punishment for offenders to recognize that ghosting is unacceptable,” he added.
As its comparatively a much new topic for the people, Tevez is still making sure that the people understand it as something illegal and prohibited. And since the lawmaker is referring to it as “illegal,” it comes with a sanction of its own. But they haven’t decided yet what that would be; he wished to discuss this with this team and colleagues to define the legislation properly.
“Resentment shouldn’t be a big emotion for me. To show criminals that believing in ghosts is incorrect, we might sentence them to community work,” Tevez stated.
However, the silver lining for people who are fond of ghosting is that the proposed ghosting ban only applies to two people dating, cohabiting, or romantically contacting each other for a time. But sometimes, ghosting is the only option that we have, for example, the millions of promotional and spam SMS messages we receive each day which aren’t even helping us in any way possible.
This kind of situation gives us full rights in support of ghosting. As the world is in a revolutionary phase as well and we are hearing or seeing something extraordinary every day, many have criticized this bill for being merely a publicity stunt. Arjan Aguirre of Ateneo de Manila University told the Washington Post that the action was,
“a calculated maneuver to make him popular and be part of the public debate.”
Tevez has also been in the news for unconventional approaches to the world. A few years back, he introduced a controversial measure that would have changed the name of the nation’s primary airport, Ninoy Aquino International Airport, to Ferdinand E. Marcos International Airport.
He falsely said when submitting the bill that the aviation hub, formerly known as Manila International Airport, was constructed under the administration of the late dictator. Before the late Ferdinand Marcos ruled the nation from 1965 to 1986, the airport was open for business. It seems like a baseless choice towards bringing a change to many people, but it has always made sense to Tevez.
What are your thoughts on this new not ghosting bill? Will it solve issues or create more? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.
Sources:
Washington Post
CNN
