ANY successful enterprise starts with a clear vision or dream of what it wants to achieve. On top, therefore, of dream elections should glow the ultimate goal of social reform, a dream society.
If our humanity, as generally accepted, consists essentially in the ability to be loving, compassionate, just and fair to fellow human beings, then our dream society must be one that provides avenues to citizens to practice all those virtues. In classic philosophical terms, that society must promote the pursuit of the good, the true, and the beautiful by all its citizens.
Assuming that the prevailing Philippine social order got us lost instead in the woods of corruption, lies and dire poverty, we cannot get to our dream society by keeping or perpetuating that order. We cannot stay in the woods and hope to be loving and compassionate, just and fair to others in the evil, untruthful and polluted air we breathe in it. To become fully human, we have to find a road out of the woods and unto our dream society. But how?
Communism’s ideology-prescribed armed revolution could get us out of the woods. The problem, however, is it might just lead us into another woods as it has two basic flaws. One, justification of violence if it serves the revolution is on the other side of the true, the good, and the beautiful that we seek in our dream society. Two, the communist dream is a godless society that is still ruled by an elite. It is the Central Committee of the Party of the Proletariat that dictates everything on everybody.
A revolutionary government (RevGov) promoted by a modernizing elite (the woke members of the ruling elite) could get us out of the woods. This would be the quickest road out, but it is not very likely to happen for obvious reasons. Besides, and for the same reasons, it is open to the prospect of violence. Entrenched oligarchs might oppose this movement with private armies.
But one way it could succeed is if it gets overwhelming people’s support. Yet, this also is not a likely prospect mainly because of the influence of the Catholic Church. The Philippine Catholic hierarchy wants us to strive to be human in the polluted atmosphere of a system that it implies should be accepted as made in heaven. It does not care for reforms that touch the very foundations of the social order it is the historical cornerstone of. Thus, it will deter people from supporting RevGov.
That leaves us with the last road out, a cultural revolution. This is ideal, but it is a long and drawn-out process of a reformed education waking us up to the inhumanity of the current system and marching us towards our dream society instead of meekly accepting our current situation. But then again, how likely is that?