Socialist Philippines
What you see is not always what you get.
I have never really put much thought about our society. How could I when I can't even put much thought on anything less?
But Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy made me. Although I haven't really read until the last pages, its foreword had enlightened me about how we, Filipinos, can rise from the slums our ancestors left us in.
Edward Bellamy was a lawyer who gave up his practice to pursue his passion - writing. He became an editor in a newspaper but he knew that wasn't the kind of writing he wanted. He wanted to write about his thoughts. So when he fell sick, he retired from his newspaper job to write literature. That's when he wrote Looking Backward. Because he had witnessed the social and political ills and because he had always vied for reforms, he wrote Looking Backward.
Looking Backward calls for socialism. The much yearned utopia of the American people, he said, will be achieved if equality reigned. His descriptions were vivid. His analogies were convincing. He said that society could be imagined as a coach. The horses pulling the coach are the poor people and the wealthy are on top of it. The driver is hunger who does not let the working people rest. They're making their way to a bumpy road that can unseat even the rich.
The poor people are working their lives to death just to avoid suffering from hunger. The rich, meanwhile, are sitting there trying so hard to cling to the coach fearing they might fall. If they do, they would lose the benefits of being on top of the coach. They would become workers, themselves. And the workers pulling on the coach would try to take that fallen man's place. The ablest would win. At long last, he does not have to worry about hunger. The sad part is, he has forgotten about the other working men because he is so preoccupied with clinging to his seat.
He does not try to help them because he knows their isn't enough space for all of them in the coach and even if there were, who would keep them moving?
I can clearly see the Philippine society in this setting. I think socialism is very much appropriate for us. Imagine losing all the capitalists and following the middle way. Everyone will live as they were supposed to live - not as workers or as the elite but as a human beings able to appreciate life and all of its comforts.
Of course, our capitalists will oppose this but we have to sacrifice for the welfare of everyone. We have got to stop thinking only for ourselves but for our fellow Filipinos. We need to stop the tycoons from gobbling all the resources up.
Just think of what it will do. If we were to embrace socialism, the door of possibilities will open wide.
I have never really put much thought about our society. How could I when I can't even put much thought on anything less?
But Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy made me. Although I haven't really read until the last pages, its foreword had enlightened me about how we, Filipinos, can rise from the slums our ancestors left us in.
Edward Bellamy was a lawyer who gave up his practice to pursue his passion - writing. He became an editor in a newspaper but he knew that wasn't the kind of writing he wanted. He wanted to write about his thoughts. So when he fell sick, he retired from his newspaper job to write literature. That's when he wrote Looking Backward. Because he had witnessed the social and political ills and because he had always vied for reforms, he wrote Looking Backward.
Looking Backward calls for socialism. The much yearned utopia of the American people, he said, will be achieved if equality reigned. His descriptions were vivid. His analogies were convincing. He said that society could be imagined as a coach. The horses pulling the coach are the poor people and the wealthy are on top of it. The driver is hunger who does not let the working people rest. They're making their way to a bumpy road that can unseat even the rich.
The poor people are working their lives to death just to avoid suffering from hunger. The rich, meanwhile, are sitting there trying so hard to cling to the coach fearing they might fall. If they do, they would lose the benefits of being on top of the coach. They would become workers, themselves. And the workers pulling on the coach would try to take that fallen man's place. The ablest would win. At long last, he does not have to worry about hunger. The sad part is, he has forgotten about the other working men because he is so preoccupied with clinging to his seat.
He does not try to help them because he knows their isn't enough space for all of them in the coach and even if there were, who would keep them moving?
I can clearly see the Philippine society in this setting. I think socialism is very much appropriate for us. Imagine losing all the capitalists and following the middle way. Everyone will live as they were supposed to live - not as workers or as the elite but as a human beings able to appreciate life and all of its comforts.
Of course, our capitalists will oppose this but we have to sacrifice for the welfare of everyone. We have got to stop thinking only for ourselves but for our fellow Filipinos. We need to stop the tycoons from gobbling all the resources up.
Just think of what it will do. If we were to embrace socialism, the door of possibilities will open wide.
