Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Wisdom of Spinoza
These words are very apt nowadays:
While democracy is the most reasonable form of government, its defect lies in its "tendency to put mediocrity into power; there is no way in avoiding this except by limiting office to men of trained skill. Numbers cannot produce wisdom, and may give the best favors of office to the grossest flatterers". (Spinoza, in Durant (1926))
I believe that Gloria Arroyo is a weak leader. Ever since she ran for office, I never voted for her. I know she is an elitist and lacks the power to affect the hearts of the masa. Asked (she was running for senator then) about her mass appeal, she retold a story when she and her yaya went to buy something at Raon. And how the people ran after her. (Such stupidity that can be excused only for the elite. ANd she does not look the part)
Yet I believe that the average Filipino, who is pissed by the rallies and would rather stay at home and go online or watch TV and spend time with the family, does not care about the brewing people power.
We should not rely on the streets for power grab. We should not rely on priests and nuns - no offense meant - to tell us what to feel and think. I think they have insulted us enough by dictating during sermons what to feel and think about the issues on the government, societal ills, population control, death penalty, etc. (Freedom also means being free from the dictates and whims of the last bastion of feudalism in this earth. Yes, while the European churches lie in waste.)
Rather, if we feel that the idiots in Malacañang deserves to get whacked, let us stop and think. Should we act extra-constitutionally again? And this time, with the same idiots from the 2nd Edsa who btw were the ones who got kicked out of power? We deserve the leadership we have. Don't we have the best laws? Shall we bypass them again? Because if we will do it again, let us do it to the bones. I mean, start from clean slate. The reason why our revolutions are failures is that we don't read the advice of history. We still want to cloak our revolution with Christianity and with our vox-populi vox Dei thing. The reason why Rizal rejected the plan of Katipunan then. He said that the Filipino cannot handle revolution because it is predominantly Christian.
Mob rule is not democracy! If you want the true picture of people power, why not include all the people of this land? Our mob rule is Manila-hearted. It does not reflect the thinking and feeling of the northern and the southern clans. It does not reflect the feeling of Cebu, of Iloilo, of Bacolod, of Cotabato. It does not reflect the feeling of Ilocos, of Cagayan. It does not reflect the emotions of Sta. Rosa, and Calamba.
Rather, in the narrow streets of Manila, some few kilometers in length - a poor sampling technique by all statistical tools - they try to shout their complaints about a government that has lost its mandate. And that, they say, is the voice of the people.
But really now. The government is not something we believe anyway. It has lost our trust in the Erap days. Even as far back as Ramos, as Cory, as Marcos, as Quirino...
The average Filipino does not believe in the government! Give them anarchy and they wouldn't care less.
But is that what we want?
I believe in democracy. I believe in the rule of law. Being a part of the two Edsa movements, I believe that Edsa should not be the venue of our change. Rather, and it is a belief beyond what can be seen by the human eyes, it lies in the proper channels of change.
It lies in the courts, and in the halls of Congress. Yes, I do believe that because that is the voice of the Constitution, which we ratified.
But how to put the right people there? The answer is in the voting public. It is painful and slow, but we must - in order to preserve democracy - believe in the process of law.
Else, what do we teach the kids? What do we teach our children? That, should there be a concensus among all students - 3000 in number for example - we can already change the rules of the school?
While democracy is the most reasonable form of government, its defect lies in its "tendency to put mediocrity into power; there is no way in avoiding this except by limiting office to men of trained skill. Numbers cannot produce wisdom, and may give the best favors of office to the grossest flatterers". (Spinoza, in Durant (1926))
I believe that Gloria Arroyo is a weak leader. Ever since she ran for office, I never voted for her. I know she is an elitist and lacks the power to affect the hearts of the masa. Asked (she was running for senator then) about her mass appeal, she retold a story when she and her yaya went to buy something at Raon. And how the people ran after her. (Such stupidity that can be excused only for the elite. ANd she does not look the part)
Yet I believe that the average Filipino, who is pissed by the rallies and would rather stay at home and go online or watch TV and spend time with the family, does not care about the brewing people power.
We should not rely on the streets for power grab. We should not rely on priests and nuns - no offense meant - to tell us what to feel and think. I think they have insulted us enough by dictating during sermons what to feel and think about the issues on the government, societal ills, population control, death penalty, etc. (Freedom also means being free from the dictates and whims of the last bastion of feudalism in this earth. Yes, while the European churches lie in waste.)
Rather, if we feel that the idiots in Malacañang deserves to get whacked, let us stop and think. Should we act extra-constitutionally again? And this time, with the same idiots from the 2nd Edsa who btw were the ones who got kicked out of power? We deserve the leadership we have. Don't we have the best laws? Shall we bypass them again? Because if we will do it again, let us do it to the bones. I mean, start from clean slate. The reason why our revolutions are failures is that we don't read the advice of history. We still want to cloak our revolution with Christianity and with our vox-populi vox Dei thing. The reason why Rizal rejected the plan of Katipunan then. He said that the Filipino cannot handle revolution because it is predominantly Christian.
Mob rule is not democracy! If you want the true picture of people power, why not include all the people of this land? Our mob rule is Manila-hearted. It does not reflect the thinking and feeling of the northern and the southern clans. It does not reflect the feeling of Cebu, of Iloilo, of Bacolod, of Cotabato. It does not reflect the feeling of Ilocos, of Cagayan. It does not reflect the emotions of Sta. Rosa, and Calamba.
Rather, in the narrow streets of Manila, some few kilometers in length - a poor sampling technique by all statistical tools - they try to shout their complaints about a government that has lost its mandate. And that, they say, is the voice of the people.
But really now. The government is not something we believe anyway. It has lost our trust in the Erap days. Even as far back as Ramos, as Cory, as Marcos, as Quirino...
The average Filipino does not believe in the government! Give them anarchy and they wouldn't care less.
But is that what we want?
I believe in democracy. I believe in the rule of law. Being a part of the two Edsa movements, I believe that Edsa should not be the venue of our change. Rather, and it is a belief beyond what can be seen by the human eyes, it lies in the proper channels of change.
It lies in the courts, and in the halls of Congress. Yes, I do believe that because that is the voice of the Constitution, which we ratified.
But how to put the right people there? The answer is in the voting public. It is painful and slow, but we must - in order to preserve democracy - believe in the process of law.
Else, what do we teach the kids? What do we teach our children? That, should there be a concensus among all students - 3000 in number for example - we can already change the rules of the school?
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