Foolishness Revisited

As I have passed the 150th mark of my entry to this blog and still enjoying the aftershocks of the Mamburao mass action last Wednesday (click here to view video documentation), in retrospect, allow me to post an old article from my column “Third Yoke”, the first English article that I have written in a local newspaper called Mindoro Guardian in 1996 entitled “Foolish Solution”:

“Mababago lang natin ang ating lipunan kung papatayin natin ang lahat ng tao at ang ititira lang natin ay ang mga batang wala pang muwang na siyang bubuo sa bagong matitinong henerasyon”. (We can only change our society if we kill all grown-ups and create a new generation of human beings.) Statements to this effect irritate me like hell.

That desperate notion of annihilating a specific age bracket of our population as the ONLY way to create a new social set-up, values and consciousness towards social transformation, is no longer a strange proposition to some of us. It is the common “solution” being laid by some self-proclaimed social critics on every misguided and immature discussions in our midst.

Modesty aside, my long experience in community works in the barrios have prompted me to find out that this one heck of a foolish idea is oftentimes being initiated and propagated by equally foolish men themselves. Including some local politicians that I know.

Yes, I am personally considering it as foolish, if not demonic “solution”. Simply because that it is un-Godly and inhuman. It is precisely against life, God’s presence and most divine present to the world. Besides we are no longer living in a world of savagery, so to speak, and I’ll bet my whole life that there will be no single existing government (shadow or legitimate) today in the world would formally propose and/or agree to this uncivilized, bloody and barbaric resort. However alarming their social problems may be. However brutal and oppressive are their social structures.

Please take note that even immortal Utopian authors like Robert Owen and Thomas Moore did not even utter such “non compos mentis”. And it that is the case, so what is the use of proposing or insinuating a not only illegal and immoral, but most of all,- impossible “solution”.

The moment our people’s mind is corrupted by this concept as the only and “end-all solution” to all our social problems as people of Mindoro Occidental, there will grow a negative tendency inside us of not getting or be committed to any realistic, practical and humane alternative or course of action. And accepting this mental conditioning in our consciousness is tantamount to saying that there’s NOTHING we can do, individually or collectively to change our presently deteriorating systems and values. This would nurture passive and submissive spirit among our youth. With this, our hero’s examples would eventually land in a dust bin. Knock on wood.

Likewise, this would only affirm our misconception that social change solely lies in the hands of our leaders and not to the whole citizenry. Moreover, believing in this foolish “solution” is a clear indication of our hopelessness, whether we admit it or not. But spreading this foolish “solution” kills all hope.

End of my old article.

But in parting, again I would like to share a part of the homily of Benedict XVI three years ago at St. Peter’s Square: “ The People of God, which had found its first configuration in Sinai, extends today to the point of surmounting every barrier of race, culture, space and time. As opposed to what occurred with the tower of Babel (cf. Gn 11: 1-9), when people wanted to build a way to heaven with their hands and ended up by destroying their very capacity of mutual understanding, in Pentecost the Spirit, with the gift of tongues, demonstrates that his presence unites and transforms confusion into communion.” Indeed the tower of Babel became the symbol of man’s greatest foolishness!

To all Mindorenyos around the world, let us all keep the Torch of Hope Alive as we celebrate today the Pentecost Sunday.

"Veni, Sancte Spiritus!”…

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(Photo from SSC File)