BLIND ITEM # 4 : Philosopher-Senator

This controversial lady senator did some philosophizing several days ago, upon her mentioning of the catchphrase “beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.”

She mentioned this in the wake of an uproar over a very pricey building that was built to the tune of two billion pesos, by the patriarch of her family in an upscale city. Her brother, who now sits as the mayor of that city, described the notorious building as “world-class.”

Critics, however, are not convinced as they think otherwise. Ocular inspections revealed a disconnect between the “isness” of the building and the mayor’s “world-class” pronouncement.

According to a quantity surveyor, the building is yes, modern, but of average standard. The same surveyor also mentioned that there was nothing astonishing about the building and its design.

With its “world-class” tag, it should be comparable to a five-star hotel or condominium. But this isn’t the case according to one architect.

And so this lady senator issued a feisty statement to bluff the critics, wherein she established a close parallelism between “world-class” and the concept of beauty:

“Di ba, parang, parang  beauty din yan eh...It’s in the eyes of the beholder.”

It is indeed very true that beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder, since what a person perceives as beautiful may be the opposite in the perception of another person. Beauty is a matter of taste, in other words.

I am neither an engineer nor an architect, and not an interior designer as well. But plain logic tells me that in order for a building to be considered world-class, then it has to be compliant to certain standards o requirements, like the kinds of materials used and the incorporation of technological innovations. So if a building is not at par with such requirements, then it is not world-class.

This rules out the parallelism made by the lady senator, since subjectivity (“beauty is in the eyes of the beholder”) will not thrive amidst established guidelines and parameters that have to be considered.

Hence, either the building is compliant or not, or world-class or not.

Beauty is a far different matter, since there are no clear-cut guidelines or criteria that can be used to make a judgment on whether a person is beautiful or not, for beauty is a matter of taste, laced further with an individual’s social and cultural influences.

To conclude, the lady senator’s parallelism does not hold water. Nice try at philosophizing though.