NOW PANIC and FREAK OUT!

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Hubris Personified

Whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad.

In this case, however, Willie Revillame’s been mad for a very long time.

Do I believe he had any intentions of truly harming or hurting the child?

No.

Up to this point he’s still arguing that he didn’t abuse the child, and that he never forced the child to dance lewdly.

The videos were spliced to make it look like the child was coerced into dancing repeatedly, he said.

The thing, though, is that the fact that he didn’t force the child doesn’t make any difference.

Willie Revillame had one fault in the whole dancing child debacle: he didn’t stop it.

He could’ve stopped it.

Right after the child danced for the first time, he could have recognised the impropriety of this performance. He could’ve refrained from making equally lewd statements, likening the child to Burlesk Queen. He could’ve refused to let the child dance again and again and again.

Nobody forced the child to dance, but Willie Revillame could’ve handle the situation better by doing the following:

- not making crass and malicious remarks

- not allowing further and repeated performances of the lewd dance

- not putting the child on an elevated platform while adults fawned and screamed like women in a gay bar

That said, I honestly believe that this would not have been such a big issue had he simply apologised and admitted a lapse in judgment. A lot of people who saw the episode still don’t understand why letting a young boy dance like a macho dancer is wrong. Willie could have apologised and people would’ve understood.

But he has remained arrogant, unapologetic and angry.

Mad with power, drunk with the belief that people love him rather than the money he throws at them.

The only people who still take his side are those who would willingly humiliate themselves on television for a few bucks.

The rest of us? We’ve recognised his madness a long time ago.