I often think about the profound implications of the title whenever I think of our society – as a whole and in its key parts (political, economic, civic or social) and whenever I wonder why we are who, why and where we are and whether things could ever get better.

Having seen one functioning democracy exercise its right to vote up close, I am now even more moved to wonder whether our biggest problem simply is the enemy within – our very own selves.

We cannot escape collective responsibility for our current conditions or situation. One of our biggest hurdles to improvement has always been individual and group attempts to just do that.

And our problems are manifest in small things, small everyday things. They demonstrate how each of us is a subversive, with what we do helping (intentionally or not) to undermine the society we all say we wish to improve.

Let me try to explain by highlighting one situation and demonstrating how inter-linked everything is and how this inter-link inevitably leads straight to you and to me.

My favorite everyday example of subversives within begins with our traffic enforcers.

One simple way by which society demonstrates control, imposes order and guarantees stability and assures regularity is through the lowly traffic signal light. Consisting of three colors – red, yellow and green – the traffic signal light is a visible tool used to communicate to every motorist the simple message that in due time his or her interests will be met. And isn’t that interest – to get across an intersection – a very simple one?

Here, though, is how we complicate it, and begin to subvert the whole structure of control and order and stability and regularity.

Very often, we as motorists read the traffic signal in a very narrow and very selfish manner, especially the color green. Every elementary school child knows that green means "go", means that we can move forward – and like elementary school children go and move forward we do when confronted with the green signal light. But wait: what if up ahead us, everyone who had gone forward before us have now effectively clogged up the intersection and are right smack in the middle, unable to move forward? Our simplistic instincts tell us: we must still go forward, first because the light is still green and second because if we don’t, we could get stuck in the traffic jam building up. So we move forward, contributing to that traffic jam we were afraid of in the first place.

And thus we find ourselves stuck there, in the middle of the intersection, just when the light turns yellow, and then red. Naturally, as our light turns red, someone else’s turns green. And that someone else starts to react naturally, moving forward. But wait! He or she couldn’t move forward much, because there we are, stuck in the middle. And so this new motorist honks his horn – his signal light says green and green means go and how dare we block his way? Finally, we are able to move, but now, as the second motorist crosses the intersection he is confronted by a third – the guy behind us – whose signal light has since turned green!

Here’s more: things are not helped any by our traffic enforcers, many of whom decide to take matters into their own hands and direct traffic at will.

There is nothing inherently bad in that – except when right above the traffic enforcer the traffic signal light is still operating normally and the traffic enforcer ignores the signals.

I have had countless arguments with traffic enforcers at intersections about this. I have appealed to them, sometimes yelled at them, to switch off the traffic signal lights if they are to manually direct traffic, so as not to undermine and subvert the traffic signal light system. Not surprisingly, they don’t get it. I remember how, in 1981 when I was a student visiting Germany I noticed how some traffic lights at intersections were hooded; curious, I inquired and was told that a hooded light was a message to motorists to proceed at will. (In some other areas they are just left to blink.) The hood conveyed a very important message: with it, the motorist is left to his own devices to navigate the streets; without it, he must follow the signal light’s command. I smile remembering how much care the Germans put into trying to keep intact the credibility of their traffic signal light system; my smile turns to a slow and sad shake of my head when I think of how, I the eyes of the Filipino motorist, our traffic signal lights are hooded, everyday!

And so, very soon, to many motorists the signal lights mean nothing. Very soon the principle that matters to motorists is "every man to himself." And very quickly, the very expensive system of traffic signal lights and the process behind it that we have set up to try to put some sense of order and control and stability and regularity into our traffic situation simply crumbles.

Now think of other processes of government – paying taxes, voting, etc. – and substitute them in the place of the traffic signal light and you see why in totality our society is in such a mess.

Indeed the whole logic and structure of government is meant to move people away from the basic "everyman to himself" principle of survival to a more structured and communal system. The more successful societies where the interests of the community are better addressed are those where that move has been far more advanced.

If we are to be honest with ourselves – whether it is the everyday manners of a motorist or the corrupt ways of a government official, it is very clear that ours remains an "everyman to himself" society, with processes and procedures like the traffic signal light simply there to give us the trappings or the appearance of a more civilized order.