Europeo, J. Analysis report: “Duterte is your walking, talking id” By Jessica Zafra Rodrigo Roa Duterte is the 16th President of the Philippines who is known as “the Punisher” because of his brutal war on drugs. “Duterte is your walking, talking id” is an article written by Jessica Zafra. She describes Duterte as a person who doesn’t have to calculate. Duterte is our walking, talking id that is not affected by reality, logic, right or wrong. Making rape jokes, kill criminals, and just get away with it. She also said in the article that Duterte’s rise is based not on a political machine, but Keynes “Animal Spirits”. In John Maynard Keynes’ 1963 book “The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money”, he used the term ‘animal spirits’ to describe the instincts, proclivities, and emotions that ostensibly influence and guide human behavior. This turns out to be true as Duterte called Barack Obama “a son of a whore”, making rape jokes, even killing innocent or suspected drug users and violating human rights in his war on drugs. According also to Zafra, Duterte’s supporters fail to take into account the reality that healthy psyche is characterized by rational thought, the super-ego. The super-ego controls our sense of right and wrong and guilt. It helps us fit into society by getting us to act in socially acceptable ways. (On Jessica Zafra’s pseudopsychoanalysis of Duterte’s appeal to Filipino voters’ id, 2016). As Social Weather Station survey (SWS, 2016) shows public satisfaction with Duterte is at a respectable 76%. Even in the latest survey of SWS in 2018, it viewed that Duterte’s trust rating is “excellent”. That despite of all the killings happening, he stilll have a lot of supporters. It means that Dutertards doesn’t care how Duterte solved problems as their id just wants instant self-gratification. Filipino voters are responsible for Duterte being elected as president. And even before his presidency, Duterte once appeared to openly confess as much. “Am I the death squad? True. That is true,” he told his local TV show in May 2015. Duterte was only doing what he promised. And we, Filipinos, are the ones who are responsible with him being elected. But, it is solely not the voters’ fault as they’re just being played by this Jedi mind tricks. As Jessica Zafra was able to show how Duterte successfully tapped the Filipino id. Gaining all the power he has now. That it is said in the article that id is the part of our personality that contains our most basic instincts. And this is what lies behind the prominence of Duterte Administration.
