Laboring for a decent society - CHASING THE WIND by Felipe B. Miranda

May 1st, Labor Day, ought to remind people of how decent societies are actually put together. Not so much by the incantations of pious hieratics nor the martial rule of forceful tyrants, not even by the guile of deceitful democrats but mainly by the determined labor of those who educate people towards rational and scientific thinking, intelligent nationalism and humanizing social justice.

Contrary to conventional wisdom, society’s most valuable product is not any of its usual commodities and services – those entries in national income accounts by which the relative health or malaise of modern societies is usually assessed – but the very people who comprise its citizenry. Human resource development is a technical concept which acknowledges this truth, but most HRD experts do not give enough emphasis to the human values which make for a fully developed human being. They neglect much of the social and ethical growth of people and focus more on the latter’s place and utility in the material processes of production. The kind of workers which HRD experts generally concern themselves with are easily replaced by robots and other mechanical creations devoid of social perspectives and human considerations.

People who never learn to undertake rational thinking cannot clarify concepts and ideas sufficiently so that their discourse with others might lead to productive results. Much passion is wasted in ambiguities that could easily have been avoided by a better sense of reason and a stronger grounding in logic. Even among those who are presumably better-educated, there is much propensity for admitting ambiguous ideas if only to preserve social courtesies. Thus, in many faculty conferences in the University of the Philippines an outstanding contribution used to be made precisely by a properly impatient professor of economics – now unfortunately deceased – who would say to the long-winded speaker, "Professor, what is your point?" Or even simply, "That’s idiotic!" With him no longer around, faculty conferences and executive meetings in the UP have become more pleasant and longer, but one suspects that the intellectual content of these meetings has not been significantly enhanced.

However, reason and logic are characteristic too of astrology as well as other arcane disciplines which do not materially assist the progress of a community. For societies to develop well, the empirical thrusts of science and history have to also be part of a citizenry’s education. Those who labor to build progressive societies have to disabuse themselves of too much romanticism and like Don Quixote ultimately learn to distinguish windmills from ogres. In this country, people would develop faster and better if they were weaned earlier from the illusions foisted by formal treaties with influential political allies as well as the political pronouncements of powerful religious leaders. A clearer understanding of the historical relations of church and state and a more objective sense of international politics would go a long way in enabling Filipinos to chart their country’s march to progress better.

A society needs to labor much in defining its identity. Even as globalization is on the march in our contemporary world, the basic unit of political organization remains the national community. Even as more and more of the world’s concerns allow only for international management as in the case of borderless criminality, human traffic, economic relations and various environmental issues, among others, no country has been willing to yield its national identity and submerge it unconditionally to a greater, supranational entity. Despite the rise of the European Community and the various conventions on world trade and other global concerns, the nation-state remains the primary unit for political interaction and Filipinos would be grossly disadvantaged if they embraced internationalism or globalism way ahead of other nations.

Finally, those who continuously labor to build decent societies are ever aware of their project as ever a work in progress. As such, at any specific point in time, there will be people within these societies which – for one reason or another – need assistance in building themselves up towards self-reliance and enduring competitiveness. With reason and logic, with scientific and historical predilections, even with a strong sense of national community, societies will continue to renege on its promise of humanity to a great number of people unless they develop compassion for the disadvantaged, the disempowered and even the outrightly abused in their midst. Unless a clear commitment to implement social justice is discernible within the community, humanist social development rings no truer than a politician’s pre-election rhetoric.

For Filipinos who seriously contemplate the challenge of what must be labored for nationally as we celebrate Labor Day, these thoughts must be quite obvious. Yet, the history of our country suggests that recognition is not the ultimate phase of effective education. Beyond realizing what needs to be done is doing it. Obviously.