Inspired by HI 166, 02-08-2011, Tuesday.
This is my problem with ideology.
It is a kind of power, especially when introduced to seeking, (often) young minds who are so desperate for something to believe in or to be critical with or to deplore. I imagine what charisma can do with blunt reason and a vivid metaphor. Something deadly, perhaps; something explosive. Package all this in a suit, or a tye-dyed shirt, or a gun (even if the weapon is a prop), and what you have is an audience that can turn very easily into a mob and, furthermore, an army. People are fed ideology so easily. And I bet the world chews with its mouth open.
What is my point with this.
Mid-20th century, the Philippines was moving from World War II. We were re-establishing the old power structures, the oligarchies with its hacienderos and kompradors and caciques, i.e., the ruling classes of landlords. Society was still a pyramid, with a select few on top whose resources and opinions trickled down into the blocks below. This is one of the reasons why the Philippines hasn't progressed as much as other agriculture-based Southeast Asian nations, like Thailand or Malaysia, or even Vietnam (who suffered a war more recently than we did). Our socioeconomic situation is the result of the following: uncompetitive producers, a protectionist government, the neocolonialist influence of the US suppressing the formation of industries that would establish an independent Philippine economy. We (still) have crony capitalism after all this time, and the Ayalas, the Ortigases, the Aranetas are still as prominent now as they were in the 40's.
And that paragraph right there, whose content frustrated me when I first heard it in my HI 166 class, is fact. However -- since it is history and value-laden, and has been filtered through textbooks and my teacher's UP-background and was received by one of many impressionable young minds, which was hungry for something to have an opinion on -- it sowed the seeds of ideology.
I know when I first heard about communism in high school, I was disgusted. And this is because when I was in high school, my dreams for the future included only self-fulfillment and what I decided was going to be a worthwhile life, which, let's be honest, largely consisted of running through meadows and ministering to Irish fairies. (This, too, was a kind of ideology, although probably not one that would make waves in the real world.) But when I heard about communism again, in college, I realized, that, all things considered -- the communists were really were saying something important.
I'm not saying I'm communist. If I were to put a name to my political view, it'd be more social democracy that does it for me. But I realize that those people who were, indeed, communist -- especially the youth who rebelled against Marcos' dictatorship -- had been moved by something really powerful. Love for the country makes heroes (Rizal), rebels (Luis Taruc), presidents (Aguinaldo) of ordinary people. It also makes you start skirmishes before you're 20. When the PKP (Partidong Komunista ng Pilipinas) degenerated into criminal action and the youth wing decided, hey, you know, what they're doing doesn't make sense anymore, the CPP was started (Communist Party of the Philippines). These were students and a couple of laborers. Students, the youth, people from UP (which, I am reminded, my school shares an avenue with; how far do the ideologies need to travel?) From the CPP, the NPA was started as well, or the New People's Army. Which is very easily recognizable as the most active arm of militant communism in the country.
First Quarter Storm, circa 1970s. People are starting to get bothered by Marcos. Students and laborers and other advocates of CPP's cause show up in Mendiola and throw things at the President. They make a commotion. (Was January 26, 1970 a weekday? Didn't those students have exams?) And then the government responds with armed action, and students are killed. The week after there is a Condemnation Rally in Mendiola, in response to the violence which happened the week previous. The police take action again. And again. And again. It's a cycle that continues until March, until the Plaza Miranda bombings, until Marcos' declaration of Martial Law, until the communist party in the Philippines starts getting marginalized enough to be virtually demonized, until their student-led activism becomes terrorist action. Do you see? You have a situation and people itching to respond to it, and perhaps all it takes is a man like Joma Sison (such a man) to make some speeches, to alert his fellow youth to the ideas within them that resemble his.
The seeds of ideology that are sown in the minds of impressionable university students: they grow, and how they rise up.
I listen to this lecture in my afternoon class, which falls right into siesta time. I am sleepy and I had to buy coffee before the class started just so I'd be sure to take complete notes. I sit there and I am 40 years away from the events that we are talking about. But I am an impressionable university student, and 40 years away is not long enough to be considered textbook history so much as sort-of-dated headlines. I still see the influence of the Ayala Group of Companies. There is still a Marcos in congress. Joma Sison is still alive, and writing, and disseminating his opinions, in his exile in the Netherlands. Our current president? Largely got there by the driving force what his surname represents ('Aquino' - [Ninoy, Jr.] the journalist whose death inspired snap elections; [Corazon] the widow whose electoral defeat inspired a People Power Revolution). I am an audience to these ideologies, which are the combined products of politics and history and my college classes and what I see in the news everyday. And it is not clear just what I should cling to, at least politically and socially. I sympathize with the masses but the ruling classes' children are my friends. Public and private arenas merge, a historical figure is some classmate's uncle, I go to a university which glorifies the value of being The Administration even as I attend these little talks and forums with leftist lecturers who say that, in fact, The Socialists Had A Point.
I wonder what ideology I should hold onto -- and even as I confront the ideologies, I am wary of the power they have held over their advocates, how they have shaped men and women and the youth through the development of the Philippine nation. What sort of power they possess with which they move Filipinos. What power they can hold over me.
This is my problem with ideology.