Liberalism, Neoliberalism, and the Rise of Consumerist Education by Edberto M. Villegas

Liberalism, Neoliberalism and the Rise of Consumerist Education
Edberto M. Villegas

The rise of the bourgeois class into economic and political powers in the 17th to the 19th centuries in Europe correspondingly brought with it a theoretical justification of this social phenomenon, the dissemination by this class through their intellectuals of the theory of the natural rights of men. Though the theory of the universal rights of men first gained academic credence in the Peripatetic school of the Stoics of Ancient Greece, dominated by the Athenian middle class, it was revived in Northern Europe, particularly among the active merchant class in the Netherlands by two philosophers, Athusius and Grotius. The Ancient Stoic philosophy had still a religious basis as it expounded that all persons are the breaths of One God and therefore are equal and that there is a Divine Plan in the world. Stoic philosophy did not, however, reach the masses as it was confined as a culture of high learning among the intellectual elites of Greece and Rome, the most notable of which is seen in the writings of the stoic Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (121-180 AD ). The theory of natural rights as it was resurrected by the intellectuals of the rising bourgeois class in the 17th century, after its long hiatus during the Middle or the Dark Ages when all forms of Greek thought were eschewed, later found expression in the theory of liberalism of Thomas Hobbes. While his predecessors still advocated a God as the basis of rights, Hobbes eliminated all religious justifications of these rights. To him they are founded on the basic instinct of self-preservation or what he calls the right to life of every person.

John Locke, who was closely associated with the English bourgeois class as a custom official, developed the right to life and happiness of Hobbes to include the right to property of the individual. The theory of liberalism when it appeared in Europe primarily emphasized the rights of the individual against the state, which was then controlled by the nobility and the clergy, who had as their favorite milking cows when their coffers ran out, the emerging wealthy bourgeois class in the form of new taxes, enforced monetary contribution and even outright confiscation of properties. Thus to the liberals the right of the individual became the right to do business unmolested by the state (Adam Smith and the French Physiocrats) and the right against unjust taxes, the rallying cry of the French bourgeoisie in the French revolution of 1789. This was also the case in the earlier American 1776 revolution in which the main spark of the rebellion against colonial master Britain was what the nascent American bourgeois class considered unjust taxes on imports which led to the Boston Tea Party.

After the successful revolutions of the bourgeois class against the feudal monarchies in Europe, using the masses as cannon fodders who were led to believe that they too will enjoy political and economic emancipation after these social upheavals, this class forthwith limited the right of suffrage to the propertied and educated. And all promised economic reforms were all but forgotten. The masses were made to believe that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaimed by the National Assembly in 1789 will bring about their liberation from the shackles of feudalism, under a new regime of liberty, equality and fraternity for all “citizens or people” as the French revolutionary bourgeois and petty- bourgeois intellectuals call them. But such trust in their bourgeois leaders proved to be misguided.
The betrayal of the libertarian promises to the lower classes pushed them to seek for an explanation of their unfortunate fate as some of their leaders were even hanged by the victorious bourgeois classes (the cases of the Levellers in the Cromwellian Army in the English revolution and Babeuf and other leaders of the League of the Just during the French revolution). For indeed the liberal philosophy of the bourgeoisie only reflected the morality of this class which became economically and politically dominant in Western Europe and the United States. Thus the virtue of individualism and the inviolability of private property were lauded in the constitutions of this class and none of the rights of man went beyond egoistical man, “an individual separated from the community, withdrawn into himself, wholly preoccupied with his private interest and acting in accordance with his private caprice” (Marx 1964: 26). In short, the modes of life of the successful bourgeois became the rights of the citizen.

In the Communist Manifesto of 1848, which was written at the request of the banned League of the Just (which later became the Communist Party), Marx and Engels analyzed the historical roots of the betrayal of the masses, particularly the working classes, and explained the causes of their continued impoverishment and even more intense exploitation. Marx would later go into a more in-depth study of the exploitation of the working class and the rapacity of the now-dominant bourgeois capitalist class in controlling the resources of societies. Using the methods of political economy, class analysis and the labor theory of value, which were earlier developed by theoreticians who themselves defended the rights of the bourgeois class, Marx used these tools of analysis to expose the oppressive nature of capitalism itself. Forthwith, the writings of Marx and Engels instantly became popular among the masses, especially the working classes of Europe and America, later also inspiring and arousing to action the common peoples of all continents. Though Marx was hard to read, there emerged among the masses intellectuals who sided with the plight of the poor and endeavored to teach to them the basic principles of Marxism. Going into the 20th century, socialist revolutions riveted Europe, spreading into Asia and later into South America and Africa. The bourgeois class was shocked from its momentary complacency during the period of the glorious rise of capitalism from the point of view of its leaders in the second half of the 19th century and encouraged and supported intellectuals in the academe to formulate theoretical arguments to confront Marx’s scathing critiques of capitalism, which were threatening the very foundations of the comfortable existence of the bourgeois. (Hobsbawm 1979)

In the field of economic analysis, the German Böhm-Bawerk (1851-1914) from his university pedestal, attempted to demolish the theory of Marx, but it is generally acknowledged today by economic theoreticians that Böhm-Bawerk committed the error of isolating volume I of Das Kapital from volume III. (Böhm-Bawerk 1954: 597; Negishi 1989: 77) What dismayed the bourgeois academics and their mentors, the big bourgeois class, was that the very discipline that was developed by their predecessors, political economy, was the very same weapon utilized by Marx to show how the capitalist system that sustains them was self-contradictory in its supposed role as the bringer of progress to humanity. Capitalism itself was instead, as Marx elucidated in Das Kapital, bringing the world order into a state of economic chaos and degradation of the humanity of individuals. Political economy with its assumption of the existence of classes in society afforded a tool for Marxists to emphasize the irreconcilable interests of the dominant and the subordinate classes. Thus, to avoid the onslaughts by the Marxists with their concept of the class struggle, the study of political economy was increasingly transformed by the petty-bourgeois and bourgeois intellectuals in the academe into a variant of mathematics. The first notable expression of this was the equilibrium analysis of economic variables - prices, supply, demand and interest - by the Englishman Alfred Marshall in his Principles of Economics (1891, 1920) where economic phenomena were analyzed abstracted from the existence of classes in societies. Later on, the term ceteris paribus would be utilized as a methodological premise in economic analysis, which is the assumption that all individuals are equal in their influence on the economy (“market” to the bourgeois economists). Thus, the concept of exploitation of the dominant class over the subservient class, which was even seen by the classical political economists Adam Smith and David Ricardo, was done away with one stroke of “keeping all else constant.” Inevitably, the word “political” was dropped from the study of the productive activities of humans, and only the term “economics” was retained in American universities starting in the 1930’s and the so-called mathematics of economics (econometrics) was developed, notably in Harvard. Economics was finally divorced from the social inequalities of classes and became a supposed science of scarcity (Samuelson) involving the interaction of land, labor and capital. When Simon Kuznets introduced his concepts of gross domestic product, gross national product and per- capita income - the latter an assumption that the wealth of a nation is equally distributed among its population ceteris paribus - capitalist-dominated/ influenced countries, starting with the US, adopted his methods to map the economic development of their societies. For these countries, the growth of Gross National Product (GNP) and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) henceforth became the mantra for progress, including the Philippines, from the 1950’s to the present. Pleased with the non-political economic ideas of Kuznets, the bourgeois-influenced Nobel Priza panel in Stockholm awarded the Nobel prize in economics to this Harvard professor in 1971.

With the advent of capitalism, private corporations gradually made strong inroads into the universities of the US and Europe. They funded studies and researches of professors and scientists to advance their business interests by putting up educational foundations like the Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Fullbright Foundation, and more recently the Bill Gates Foundation. These activities of the bourgeoisie were two-pronged – they were able to save on taxes since educational foundations were tax- exempt and they could co-opt academic intellectuals who may have leanings to Marxist theory. In order to accomplish the latter objective, generous scholarships and study grants were extended to graduate and post-graduate students to develop and disseminate theories which counter the Marxist analysis of societies. Such theories were the equilibrium analysis, first popularized by Marshall in economics and applied by Pareto to sociology, the functionalist theory of Talcott Parsons, inspired by the anti-Marxist social studies of Max Weber, the theory of growth of Walt Rostow (Five Stages of Growth has the sub-title of A Non-Communist Manifesto [1960]) and of course the ideas of Kuznets.

Neoliberalism and Globalization

With the fall of the USSR in 1991, considered by capitalist nations, especially the US, as their arch-rival in controlling states and their resources, especially in the Third World, the bourgeois class has reconstructed the ideological meaning of liberalism, placing greater emphasis on its economic application. After the demise of the USSR, monopoly capitalism, through its influence on the academe wanted to make sure that its ensuing more intensified expansion and entrenchment in the global economic order will have secure theoretical trappings. Thus, the theory of the “global village” first popularized by Marshall McLuhan from the University of Toronto and the so-called globalization of market by the Harvard professor Theodore Levitt were developed by capitalist-dominated economic institutions, the World Bank and the World Trade Organization (WTO), to justify the more aggressive drive of the Transnational Corporations (TNC) in the global order. While formerly, the theory of liberalism had a more dominant political connotation when the rising bourgeois classes in Europe used it as an ideological weapon against the feudal order to wrest power in national and local politics, the theory of “neoliberalism” in its advocacy of global free trade is more encompassing.

Neoliberalism as befitting its usefulness for the bourgeoisie has been given a development meaning in line with the economic growth of societies to the advantage of the capitalist nations. For instance, the theory in politics of Theda Skocpol and Peter Evans of Harvard of “strong and weak states” had been hyped-up by capitalist-funded institutions and spread in universities in order to orient states, particularly in the Third World, including the Philippines, to the economic programs of the TNCs to open wider their markets. (Macapagal-Arroyo’s strong republic was inspired by this theory.) Evans, for instance,
Korea and Japan, with their export-driven economies as examples of strong states. Evans calls these states “developmental states” with their “embedded autonomy” or their capacity of mixing two contradictory features which is a “Western bureaucratic insulation with intense immersion in the surrounding social structure.” (Evans 1989: 561-587) It is to be noted that the theory of strong and weak states, sometimes referred to as the “relative autonomy of the state” is just a revival of the idealist theory of the state of the liberal George Hegel of the 19th century. Hegel viewed the state as independent from civil society and thus could play an arbiter role in reconciling conflicting interests of different classes in society. Hegel takes the state as an abstract moral entity which must lead a society to the realization of the Absolute Reason. It thus could function as a savior of defective societies, if it only truly assumes its designated moral responsibility.

With the more aggressive excursus of private corporations in the 1990s into the educational system, curricula of schools have been gradually patterned to the globalization programs of the monopoly capitalists. More and more schools the world over have given greater emphasis to the needs of capitalist business, emphasizing vocational courses, recruiting grounds for rank and file workers in factories, in lower and middle schools and promoting research in universities for the profit goals of companies, e.g., research for high-breed plant varieties, which use fertilizers of capitalist firms, and simulation studies to prove that an export-led economy is best for national development. Universities, as in UP, have put up pools of scientists and professors, who can be hired at call by private corporations needing their expertise. This trend is epitomized in the so-called UP Intellectual Property Office of former UP President Emil Javier presented in his UP Plan 2008. Slowly, subjects, particularly in the social sciences, which capitalist creditors of indebted countries consider irrelevant to their interests and even potentially threatening, are to be phased out in the schools of these countries, even in state universities, like the UP. Such epithets as being “world-class” in education and being competitive are being given honorific meanings or hyped-up meaning that universities must give priorities to the natural sciences, important for the discoveries of new saleable products and considered socially neutral. Thus, more funding are extended to courses needed by the TNCs as in schools of engineering in Third World universities, which supply the personnel for global corporations, and so-called techno- parks are put up in campuses as is the case in UP where private firms can more immediately gobble up good graduates and sell their products to school authorities.

Ever since the first liberal apologists of the bourgeois class have become ascendant in universities in the US with their fervid emphasis on individualism, knowledge has been considered a commodity as is true with all products produced by capitalists. Terms like the universities as “marketplaces of ideas” and “students as consumers of knowledge,” inspired by the market mentality of the bourgeoisie have seeped into the academic vocabulary. With their new-found confidence after the fall of the USSR, US monopoly capitalism is now more than ever determined to commercialize education. In UP, this took the form of the Revised General Education Program (RGEP) introduced in 2002 where students are given the choice as “free” consumers of knowledge to select what subjects they want among a variety being offered in the university “market” to suit their personal interests. As a result, subjects which are vitally important for nation- and culture-building like history courses are dependent upon the economic calculations of the students. Since these students exist in a capitalist milieu where monetary advance is considered of primary importance, students consider if they will profit from such knowledge materially or not. In this market-driven culture, the purpose of education of instilling the values of social responsibility is defeated in the face of intense individualism promoted by liberalism and neoliberalism as they are expounded in theories in our schools today.

With the drive to dominate the global market by monopoly capitalism with its neoliberal rationalization of globalization, which is of course detrimental to weaker economies, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank (WB) and World Trade Organization (WTO) have popularized the call for liberalization, deregulation and privatization as beneficial for all societies. With the approval of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) in December 1995, the TNCs have eyed the educational systems as a lucrative area for business. It is to be noted that the TNCs under GATS have already succeeded in opening wider the global financial and retail systems, causing the great financial crisis of Asia, Russia and Latin America from 1997 to 2001 which have wrought havoc to the lives of millions of peoples in these areas.

The TNCs, led by US monopoly capitalism, has lobbied in conferences on GATS in Geneva for the elimination of government subsidies for education under the program of privatization and deregulation being pushed by globalization. They have formed a so-called Global Alliance for Transnational Education (GATE) headed by a certain Gleen R. Jones, CEO of the virtual university Jones International Inc. This Alliance with the support of the World Bank aims to make the service of education market-based as it has identified the $2 trillion cost for education or 1/20th of the world GDP as a very promising new investment area. The World Bank had been very cooperative in this project, pressuring governments, including those in Europe, either to privatize state schools or to increase tuition fees, gradually freeing governments from educational subsidies. Moves to eliminate state support for education in France and Germany have, however, been met with massive student and faculty demonstrations, with French students forcing the closure of Sorbonne University for two months in early 2003 in their show of force against the commercialization of education. The Chirac government as a result of these student protests rescinded its decision to abolish free tertiary education.

The GATE, with the assistance of the WB’s own Alliance for Global Learning, has sponsored so-called Information Technology (IT) rooms in schools and universities under their program of e-learning, primarily aimed to sell their computer products. It has undertaken training for teachers and is working closely with governments and private firms to conduct intervention programs in educational institutions. Other business sponsors of such programs are the corporate bank JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs, the consultancy firm Ernst & Young and TNCs in IT, such as Sun Microsystems and 3 Com. The Bill Gates Foundation has also been funding the putting up of techno parks in English universities to sell Microsoft products. As Glenn R. Jones enthuses, “Education is one of the fastest- growing of all markets. Private training and the adult education industry are expected to achieve double-digit growth throughout the next decade.”

The intrusion of private business into the educational system of welfare-state societies in Europe has alarmed student and faculty organizations in this continent. This is expressed by Per Nyborg, Chairman for the Committee for Higher Education and Research, Council of Europe:

The emergence of other providers of higher education than the domestic universities has caused concern in many countries. Especially in developing countries and in countries in transition, governments have felt the need to increase their control over these new providers. National standards, curricula and degree-awarding powers must be protected to safeguard the inclusion of higher education in national objectives for economic development for protection of the culture and for the further development of a democratic society. Little is known about the consequences of GATS for quality, access and equity of higher education. There is in the university sector a fear that GATS may influence the national authority to regulate higher education systems, and have unforeseen consequences on public subsidies for higher education. Both the European University Association (EUA) and the National Unions of Students in Europe (ESIB) have taken a critical stand on trade in educational services.

The Rise of Consumerist Education

Neoliberalism as purveyed in universities serves as a reliable base for the growing commercialization of education. It has created a new generation of highly-individualistic students, imbibing in them the belief that the knowledge that they acquired in schools was due to their capacity to pay and no thanks to society. They graduate from schools with the consumerist mentality of getting back from society what they have invested in their education. The consumer is self-centered with the aim of maximizing his/ her pleasures in the market or calculating what he/she will benefit for himself/herself in the future for any present spending.

Under the aegis of liberalism and neoliberalism, educational institutions, including state schools, are being made to eschew value-directed education. Especially in the United States, with the rise of pragmatism and behaviorism in the 20th century, which are offsprings of liberalism, it has been contended by many academicians that a discipline can only be respectable if it is value-free. Within this knowledge milieu, universities have shirked from the inculcation of social responsibility among its students, consequently breeding mostly go-getters and socially-indifferent humans. This situation has been aggravated by the phasing-out of social science and art subjects in favor of technical and business courses favorable to the interests of private corporations, in the era of globalization of monopoly capitalism. Education to form the well-rounded person, the generalist- oriented individual, has been considered less important compared to the molding of technical and scientific specializations. The techno-freak has been a product of this emphasis on specialization in contrast with education in the past ages of humanity when the development of the socially-aware and compassionate person was highly valued, the Renaissance man in European classical education and the great man in Confucian education. Specialization in knowledge has been a natural consequence of specialization in the production of a good as argued for by the founding fathers of capitalist thought, Adam Smith and David Ricardo. Smith strongly advocated specialization and division of labor to improve the quality of a product and efficiency on the factory floor, while Ricardo vies for specialization in the manufacture of a trade good by a country in his theory of comparative advantage. In the age of neoliberal trade, developing nations are made to specialize in the making of manufactured parts of machines needed by the leading TNCs, whose mother companies are based in the developed countries. This assembly type of business is being promoted by capitalist institutions like the World Bank and the IMF as an export-oriented industrialization for developing nations. Well-paid economists and other intellectuals in these institutions and the academe have presented this set-up as a so-called international division of labor, which of course reduces the production cost of TNCs since labor in developing nations is cheap,.
With the rise of capitalism, knowledge has become a commodity sold and bought in the market of the capitalists. Computer, business, engineering and nursing schools have cropped up like mushrooms in the forest to service the assembly lines, offices, call centers, department stores and hospitals of the big bourgeoisie. Students anxiously look forward to the interview with the personnel managers of the big firms, and their drive for good grades are directed to impress these recruiters of capitalism who are in the lookout to buy at the cheapest price possible summa and magna graduates.

Under consumerist education, schools are becoming like huge factories to mass produce students for the TNCs. But this mass production of graduates has only created an excess of skilled individuals who increase the number of unemployed in a society. But this is to the great advantage of the private companies who can offer lower salaries and wages to the numerous applicants competing for scarce jobs in the labor market as the very advance of technology in capitalist undertakings constantly render labor redundant. The emergence of the reserve army of labor under capitalism, particularly in the age of globalization, where according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) around 2 billion people are unemployed or under-employed, has resulted in a tremendous wastage of knowledge acquired by peoples in their long education and who are unable to find work.
With the trend of privatization of state schools, initiated by neoliberalism, education may inevitably become just an adjunct of corporate business. Since business primarily regards the utilization of things and values as means for the advancement of profit, this trend of education will expectedly turn out mere specialists of knowledge and techie freaks, whose social and cultural sensitivity may be sorely lacking. Since culture and art to the capitalists are only useful for as long as they could lead to more profits (note the attempt to appeal to Filipino culture by McDonald’s advertisements), graduates from capitalist-influenced educational institutions will most likely just add to the coterie of humans who may not be able to grasp the value of selfless sacrifice for the welfare of society. Such a phenomenon is slowly being witnessed in the epitome of capitalist societies, the United States, with the rise of individual crimes such as corporate malfeasance, inheritance and thrill killings and the growing number of callous retrenchments of workers to save on costs by competing firms. The rule of capitalism, with the consumerist kind of education it engenders, can only lead to material greed and social decadence, not to speak of the economic crises of overproduction that it gives rise to. The deterioration of post-industrialized capitalist society is slowly unfolding before our eyes, with the greater and greater concentration of the wealth of the world in the hands of the few, while the have-nots continue to swell in all continents. Never in the history of the world have we seen such extensive hunger of its populace - according to the United Nations numbering nearly one billion people - this while the resources to support humanity continue to increase tenfold. Such an appalling contradiction can only happen in a materialistic culture that champions private ownership at the expense of the collective good. Engineers, workers, and scientists continue to churn out and invent technological goods that can improve the lot of humanity. These, however, are owned and are under the disposal of the parasitical bourgeois class.

Conclusion

Unless the commercialization set by neoliberalism in schools with its theoretical incantations of free trade, competition, the level playing field, and consumer preference, is ended, the goal of education for the emancipation of humanity from want and social ignorance will indeed become more remote. Neoliberalism as it is peddled in universities today has taken by-ways and side-ways to snare in its grasp intellectuals who are prone to follow new fashions of knowledge set by the capitalist societies in the West. Liberalism and its variant neoliberalism have been the inspirations behind such theories like post-modernism and that of the weak and strong states which have attracted intellectuals in institutions of higher learning the world over. But as we have seen, liberalism and neoliberalism are the ideological paraphernalia of the bourgeoisie or the capitalist class, the dominant economic class at present. The clever ideologues of this class have coated these theories as if they will promote the freedoms of all individuals. However, the freedoms promised by these idealist ideologies, are only abstract freedoms as the bourgeoisie will never aim to liberate all classes from want through a social distribution of the resources of societies, since this might displace their control on the social means of production. Thus, the kind of education that the bourgeoisie encourages is one of endless theoretical debates on issues, and the governments they control discourage, even persecute, those who would advocate a radical change in the private ownership of the production and distribution of social goods and services. For indeed, the selfish bourgeois is becoming more and more aggressive in the struggle to perpetuate its intellectual hegemony in schools today in its preaching of neoliberalism and the globalization of markets. Socially-aware intellectuals and leaders must not allow this battle go the way of these enemies of the collective will to advance the economic and social liberation of humanity.

References

Böhm-Bawerk, E.V., R. Hilferding et al. 1975. Karl Marx and the close of his system. London: Merlin.
Evans, Peter. 1989. “ Predatory, Developmental and other Apparatuses: A Comparative Political Economy Perspective on the Third World State.” Sociological Forum 4(4):561-587.
Hobsbawm, E. J. 1964. The Age of Capital, 1848-1875. New York: New American Library.
Marx, Karl. 1964. “Bruno Bauer, On the Jewish Question.” In: T. B. Bottomore (ed.), Karl Marx’s Early Writings. New York: McGraw- Hill Paperbacks.
Negishi, Takashi. 1989. Economic theories in a non-Walrasian tradition. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Cambridge University Press.
Rostow, Walt. 1960. Five Stages of Growth. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Cambridge University Press.
Schumpeter, Joseph. 1954. History of Economic Analysis. New York: Oxford University Press.

More on Marx by Arnold P. Alamon

MORE ON MARX
18 February 2006

It has been awhile since my last entry and we have covered quite a lot of ground since then. There are reasons for this delay of course. While the remote control and internet are equally guilty in keeping me from writing this blog or going out of my room (remember, they use to refer to my demographic as belonging to the slacker generation, the disenchanted not-so-young incapable of mustering enthusiasm for anything), I would have to confess that I have been hesitating in writing this entry. It is a daunting task writing about marxism.

For one, marxism is very much a contested body of thought. There are many groups who refer to themselves as marxists and each one of them is quick to contradict the other. Based on their divergent philosophical interpretations of marx’s ideas and their take on the social condition in question, they assume different political positions. However, they are unified by the basic marxist unity that things must change. The continuing critical debate among marxists which is a testament to the perspective’s relevance in the supposed postsocialist era we inhabit. These impassioned debates are not just informed by intellectual rigor (yes, marxists are a foolhardy lot). But what informs their passion, more often than not, is their deep commitment against social injustice. The best examples of humanity I have encountered within and outside the university were displayed by marxists. Their genuinie compassion and sacrifice for others are a continuing inspiration to others like us who have higher standards for being human. Thus, marxism does not just seduce our intellect but it also worms its way inside our hearts.

It is these twin traits that make marxism so appealling and also so difficult to explain. Should one talk about the brave and refreshing certainties that marxism so (arrogantly?) defends amidst the cynical and fence-sitting character of contemporary thought? Or should one highlight the unrelenting humanism that underlies all marxist revolutionary movements? On the one hand, marxism and the many intellectual bastards it has spawned stand as the singular philosophical system that offers a comprehensive understanding of almost everything from religion to sex, from politics to popular culture. Beyond offering such a sweeping understanding of the dynamics of the world, it also provides us with a map to change it. This trait of marxism has been the object of many criticisms from those who have problems with the arrogant certainties which characterizes marxist thought. That is why it becomes important to clarify and in the process resolve the dilemma posed above, that such necessary certainties should be understood in the light of marxism’s other trait .

Marxism is also a political movement borne out of people’s suffering. It is not just an intellectual movement which can be understood according to the quaint standards of philosophers and those who seemingly have a natural abhorrence for the truth. It is also a political movement of the rejected, downtrodden, and the plain dissatisfied. Peasants, workers, the urban poor have rallied around Marx’s basic ideas on the basis of a shared hope that things will change. It is not because Marx’s musings are essentially true and will remain so forever but its because the world continues to exclude many people from the fruits of their labor, the land that they till, the realization of their true potential. Marx does not regard the proletariat as beggars awaiting the charity of their masters. In the final analysis, he rejects the call for higher wages since according to him, they remain a slave’s wages nonetheless. Remember that for Marx the objective is to free the worker’s labor from capital so that he can work in a condition of freedom. And it takes a revolution to achieve this. This is the heart that informs the intellectual passion and political commitment of those who continue to dream of a better world.

Marxism is not just an allegiance to a rational and believable system of ideas but more so, it is also a hopeful stance despite the odds – a movement of the head and heart. It is not just about philosophical certainties but it also about a persistent hope that there is something better than this. There should be something more than (as quoted from the Indigo Girls) “cold beer and remote control.”

Which brings me to a moment of clarity. I have been numbed by serious multitasking for the past weeks – doing academic work, downloading, eating, drinking and beating deadlines (while always putting off writing this essay) all done within the confines of a room with Kanye West blaring in the background. I remember Marx’s famous quote while writing this and understand the conflicted nature of my existence. To paraphrase Marx, ideas “which reason has riveted to our conscience”, are like chains that we cannot free ourselves from without breaking our hearts. I should be going out (to the streets! to the mountains!) more often.

Classical Theories of Social Change

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Bisdak and Home by Arnold P. Alamon

"BISAYANG dako," that's what we call ourselves in reference to our Visayan origins.

This is an ethnic identity that spans inhabitants of both Visayas and Mindanao island groups but not in the formal sense of how ethnic identities are determined.

We are more accurately classified as Cebuanos, Dabawenos, and Kagay-anons just to name a few of the sub-groups that make up the Bisdak identity.

Bisdak is more of an ethnic identification that arises in the context of other groups. Say, someone from Cebu and Davao find themselves in line at the MRT in Manila, and in the jostle for space during rush hour, one of them mutters, "pisti!" then an automatic solidarity is formed between the two.

It's like a trump card or a membership of an exclusive club composed of half the country's population versus the other half from the rest of non-Bisaya Philippines.

What is unique and heartwarming is the fluidity of relations instantaneously established when Bisdaks meet.

Everytime I ride a cab in Manila, I always engage the driver in small talk. Apart from mining from the cabbie about the sharpest political insight (many of which have made their way to this space), I always listen for the familiar Bisdak intonation.

Eight times out of 10, it is always a "Bai" (the bisdak version of pare) who happens to be at the wheel. If such Bisdak identities are established between the passenger and the driver then one is spared the obligatory tip, and the passenger can worry less about getting held up.

In universities in Manila, isn't it the case that the Bisdaks rule the many dormitories by their sheer number? I know of Tagalog friends who envy and are actually annoyed by this auto-solidarity - how we could understand them and speak their language and yet huddle among ourselves, speak our own dialect, and laugh devilishly, and then proceed to converse with them using their mother tongue. I am sure this is also true for Filipinos and Bisdaks working abroad.

Yet, one wonders if this lightness of friendship and easy solidarity of the Bisdak take place in all contexts. It seems to me that the Bisdak identification emerges in specific circumstances only. For instance, when the dominant culture is foreign i.e. Tagalog, or American, like a talisman or "Ironman," the Bisdak identification is called upon.

But among ourselves, do we have this automatic solidarity for each other "at home"? I am afraid not. Just look at the mayhem of our streets.

Crazy as it is, there is still some rules of courtesy that define Manila traffic behavior.

Eye contact is important among drivers in the northern metropolis. In that split second of seeing eye to eye, drivers communicate their intention through a method still yet to be deciphered by anthropologists. It could be that one acquires the right of way because you looked at the other driver first which would mean that you have first dibs at the intersection.

Here in Cagayan de Oro and other southern cities, eye contact is a no-no.

In fact what I observe is the absolute avoidance of eye contact and instead, the intention of the driver is conveyed through the bumper of his vehicle. At first, this frustrated me so much to the point that I have thought of installing a PA system just to vent and air out the expletives echoing inside the cabin of my truck. But I have learned the bumper trick since then to the discomfort of the occasional Manila-based passenger.

This kind of "iya-iya" behavior can be observed not just in the streets but also in almost all public spaces. In the supermarket line, when paying your bills, the bumper rule applies. Only when people line up to take their bland Sunday wafer is there a semblance of order.

One wonders why this is so. We can be Bisdak before others and yet not be Bisdak with ourselves here in our "home".

Maybe because the concept of "home" is problematic among us Bisdaks.

We are a people without roots because life is hard in the places we came from. That is why many of us leave or plan to leave for places more abundant and orderly. While we call CDO our home, we know we will be ready to leave it at a moment's notice once better opportunities come by. The solidarity Bisdaks is achieved when they meet each other in faraway places and is bounded by these common migratory aspirations.

In the meantime, for those of us left behind, our southern streets reflect this desperate dance of our shared fates as residents of migrant cities slowly transforming into urban squalor. These are places whose bounties are seemingly reserved only for the lucky few.

Maybe this is why drivers look away in the intersections of our streets in a migrant city like CDO. We might see in each other's eyes the truth and the horror about how we all are just going round and round without a destination.

And home always is far away and a dream.

Mdme. Genita and Home by Arnold P. Alamon

TRAVEL brings us a better understanding of home. This was my thought as this small frail lady sat beside me on a six-hour bus ride from Butuan City to Cagayan de Oro, the sunset creating a golden halo on her silhouette.

I can see that time has beautifully weathered her face. Must be the different seasons that she had endured in the many places fate has brought her - first in the green and wet rice fields of Agusan del Norte as a young girl, then as a factory worker in Manila, and later on as a nanny to the royal family of a Middle Eastern country in the throes of revolution during the late 70s.

For the past week or so, I have been criss-crossing Mindanao for work. The anonymous hotel rooms, dusty and craggy roads, and the fatigue of work were settling in the spaces between my bones and I needed inspiration to carry me through the arduous bus ride. I didn't expect that an empty bus seat can be the balm to a tired soul.

This is the story of Madame Genita of Butuan City told to me as the bus we rode on hurtled through the coastal towns of Agusan del Sur and then Misamis Oriental. The middle daughter in a brood of 14 siblings, she decided to risk finding employment in Manila after realizing that her parents who tilled a small plot of rice land could barely feed their big family much less send her to school.

The ambition to help her family came when she gazed up one afternoon and saw an airplane rise up to the heavens from Bancasi airport taking on its wings her own dreams for a better life for her family.

Barely in her twenties, she asked permission of her departure from her father whom she dearly loved. In tears, her father who was already in his late years told her with certainty that if she leaves they never will see each other again. But the future and faraway places beckoned her.

And so she found herself as a factory worker in a textile firm in Manila. She found it fortuitous that a government to government program for overseas work was offered and she placed 34th among 700 applicants despite her broken English and just a few units of college.

It must be her unassuming yet determined demeanor that set her apart. The qualities that she saw in her father as he tilled their hard land through heat and rain, she mirrored in front of the employment agency and later on her bosses abroad. So she flew to this Middle Eastern land to serve as a nanny to the scion of a royal family.

That employment brought her to Paris as the family fled by private plane the Islamic revolution of the late 70s. After which she worked for another member of the wealthy family as a nurse to a recuperating patriarch in London.

In these jobs, she endeared herself to her bosses as the small yet reliable Filipino lady who could be trusted with providing care for their small children and family members. Not for long, she was considered a member of the family and brought to vacations all over the world every three months.

One of the memorable perks of her employment was having been serenaded by her idol Andy Williams at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. Her employer gifted her with VIP passes since he was part owner of the casino hotel.

She could have continued her employment with the wealthy family and enjoyed the comfort and stature that her bosses generously showered upon her but her independent spirit pushed her to seek her fate on her own terms.

The next few years saw her working in Hawaii first as a crew member and then manager of McDonalds. It was here that she experienced brief jail time as an undocumented worker. She defended herself before US immigration officials by arguing that her father fought for the US as a war veteran and she deserved to stay and work in the country. The spunk and courage of the diminutive woman must have impressed her interrogators and she was released.

It took 15 years before she was able to come home to her family in Butuan City. By this time, her beloved father was long buried. But home remained the same. Despite her regular remittances, her siblings, nephews and nieces were still struggling. This time around she was married and now had a daughter to raise whom she had to leave at the care of her mother because she had to leave for work once more for her own family and siblings.

She found herself working for a fish cannery in Alaska for the next few years. Their factory was open and unheated to preserve the valuable Alaskan king crabs they were packing and they worked with gloves and hard hats.

It was only a few years ago that Madame Genita decided to come home to Butuan City and build a home over the land that her father tilled. She was side-lined by a major injury while stocking in a Walmart store and she had to endure surgery on her arm and shoulder.

Back home, she needed to recuperate at the same time face once again the same problems that caused her to leave. She is worried over her daughter and her family who also needed to follow her footsteps working abroad in Hong Kong while her grandchildren remained under the care of her estranged son-in-law.

I asked her as we passed the rickety and dusty shacks of fisherfolks along the coastline, why did you still come home when all the heartbreak and frustration in your life emanate from this place, your country? She smiled and said sweetly, there is still no place like home.

In that seat on the bus toward home with Mdme. Genita beside me, I gained a new understanding about this place we call Mindanao.

One of the enduring stories of our people is the determination and sacrifices of the courageous who seek their fortunes elsewhere for their families. I just pray that when they come home, the land that caused them to leave will give them reason, this time around, to finally stay.

Welcome home, Madame Genita.

from: http://www.sunstar.com.ph/cagayan-de-oro/opinion/2013/05/31/alamon-mdme-genita-and-home-285020

Bukidnon by Arnold P. Alamon

BUKIDNON has always evoked awe and mystery for us people of the Bay. After all, we lowland dwellers lie at its bosom, cradled by her mysterious mass and shadow.

The Mangima Canyon. The magnificent drop of her crevice and her glorious jagged peaks, in the midst of which we, humans, like ants, built snaking ribbons of asphalt where we busily trudge up and down. Sticking my neck out of the vehicle, cool mountain air blows strong almost suffocating and then gazing upwards; there was always the recognition, even as a kid, that I am before the ancient, the timeless.

Many years since then, the place still evokes that same mystery and strength. It is more palpable at night when the engines of agriculture take a break and the stores shut their lights and windows for the night. With the cry of the cicadas as their cue, the wild takes over the dark lonely highways and on her hidden cleavage secret campfires without smoke.

When I was younger, I had the privilege of climbing her highest peak, Kitanglad. And I can say, two decades later that I have never done anything as exhilarating and wondrous. Standing atop this gigantic mound of rock, below you the valleys, the mountains, the rivers, even the clouds. In the distance are the twinkling lights of the place called Cagayan. I felt like an extra-terrestrial gazing down at a faraway galaxy that was my home.

In this place at night, it is colder outside than your air conditioned room. So you open your windows and let the cool mystery in. And she whispers, I know you. You were born here. Understand.

I remember mornings in this place with my mother and father. They call me kimpi, knees somewhat locked. As a consequence, the side of my rubber sandals always put a straight swath of mud on my inner ankle. It bothered me but they didn’t mind.They were busy dreaming of coffee bounty, bales and bales of breakfast aromas for the family that never came.

I was born here, or to be accurate, I was made here. It must have been one of those cold mornings that my parents had to make fire with their bodies and I was the end result.

It was industry, the industry of pineapple plantations that brought my parents here. And that same industry has brought my consciousness back to this place. From the lowland where my parents eventually settled and upwards through her silted rivers and bald forests, my thoughts gallop to her scarred timelessness.

Because what have we done to this place? We have ploughed the land too deep to make profit for a few. And she bled a torrential flood of rocks, logs, and mud. We have become conquerors of our fellow oppressed just because some other conqueror vanquished us where we came from. And we bleed real blood, drop by drop, for forty years.

There is a bond that exists between this place and ours, me and her - one that revealed itself disastrously that early December morning many moons ago.

The thing is, after we are done with her, she will remain standing majestic and unforgetful. While we, like ants, are washed out to sea.

from: http://www.sunstar.com.ph/cagayan-de-oro/opinion/2013/06/06/alamon-bukidnon-286129

Osmeña St. by Arnold P. Alamon

ANYONE who drives a vehicle more than ten years old will find the following circumstances familiar.

I am writing for many of us who drive around with cracked shields, leaking transmission fluids, and other necessary ailments of our surplus or second hand ride. This one goes out for those who whisper a lightning speed Our Father before they crank the ignition praying that the engine will turn.

I used to have an older vehicle that is 30 years old, which finally gave up on my efforts to keep her running. And now, this younger trusty vehicle, about half as old, gives me, on average, also half the trouble of the former. That is how I define trusty - which means a monthly trip to Osmena St. and my friendly mekaniko instead of the almost weekly for the latter.

My rickety vehicles' condition has allowed me to achieve a degree of familiarity with the best places to buy which kind of parts here. It is something of a secret knowledge that one gains while standing around Osmena and engaging its regulars with small talk.

It is really an exhilarating adventure of the devotedly scrimping, not that the likes of us have much of a choice. After the long hunt for that elusive part, you either go home victorious or depressed in a manner that matches the swell of emotions of a good action flick.

Good fortune and the honest assistance of your mekaniko's posse will determine whether you will dare the long commute or ride on your metal steed to your daily destinations. And if you share your concern among these old-timer shop attendants, there is a certain camaraderie among all of you, including the other customers, who are only too eager to share to you a seller or an innovative solution that should give anyone hope that yes, the engine in trouble will purr again.

So there I was in the backstreets of the City's Osmena St., aiming to have a quick and cheap oil change for my "trusty" ride. But what I thought to be a fast lube drain and refill process extended for hours since I had to bring a piyesa to the machine shop for customization.

Amid the clanging and banging, the acetylene torches and melting brass, it occurred to me that what I am actually witnessing on the machine shop floor is a representation of the possibilities and limitations of our local economy.

There on its work space was an assortment of jobs to be undertaken. A huge metal assembly for the wheels of a tractor was being reconditioned. New metal fillings were forged into the portion eaten away by decades of use and corrosion. On its side lay gears whose indentations had also been mangled perhaps by a loose bearing. It awaitied its time to be worked on, teeth by teeth, centimeter by centimeter of forged metal.

The client patiently waited on this laborious job since its success and precision will determine whether his 40-year old tractor will be able to participate in the coming months' planting season in Bukidnon. Meanwhile, a boy tried his hand at welding a broken part of his BMX bike's frame. Good thing he was ably assisted by a shop hand and not before long, he happily rode out with the services done for free.

What these combined efforts actually represent, and in a way, symbolized by places like Osmena St. is the culture of "making do." Here in these places, acted out daily, is the muted desperation of farmers, surplus or second hand car owners, and jeepney drivers, all trying to squeeze the diminishing lives of their dying work horses. It is what German scholar Adorno defines as the process of "adjustment" or the "mode of behavior which corresponds to too little." We have to make do since this is all we could afford.

It is a situation that is not unique to the City. In fact, every major urban area in our country has a version of Osmena St. or this kind of space where various clients converge to find cheap and innovative solutions to their mechanical predicaments. Most often, the recourse is the machine shop where custom solutions are undertaken to revive out-of-production original parts. If you’re lucky, one will be able to find a replacement from the dealers of surplus parts which are bought as junk from Japan then shipped to second hand economies such as ours for our unique version of recycling. All these are hallmarks of a backward economy that remain export oriented and import dependent bereft of any serious plan for national industrialization.

I was able to "make do" with the custom job on my vehicle's leaking oil pan which saved me a few pesos I would like to think. Thanks to the camaraderie of the bros in Osmena, my vehicle and plenty others similarly situated will run again. Thanks to me too, my mekaniko will have a bit of money to spend for his sick 1-year old baby. In a country such as ours run by hacienderos without vision, we all have little choice but to make do.

from: http://www.sunstar.com.ph/cagayan-de-oro/opinion/2013/04/30/alamon-osmena-st-280048

A Tale of Two Cities by Arnold P. Alamon

A Tale of Two Cities 

by Arnold P. Alamon 

In my weekly commute for work, I travel between the sister cities of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan. The trip is like a travel back in time for me, for Iligan displays many of the features that I love about my hometown a decade ago when the beast that is Cagayan now was still a manageable and livable city. Iligan has long been overtaken by her obese sister economically but I don't necessarily consider that bad thing. 

For one thing, the laid-back provincial feel has long been lost in Cagayan and you can experience this among its people. It is very hard to get a smile much more proper service among frontliners in stores and customer service because everyone is in a hurry, tired, and obviously over-worked. I am reminded of the feel of Metropolitan Manila especially its army of grumpy contractual workers eking out a living day in and out. 

In the most important matter of food, it has become very expensive in Cagayan. It is very common nowadays for hole-in-the-wall eateries in this city to charge Php 40 upwards for a single viand. If you want to survive on your meager allowance, there is no choice but to go vegetarian. There is good food around, but it will cost you because you pay for the gaudy ambience which you are sure to take in because of the long wait for your order to arrive. 

Iligan City, on the other hand, while having been excluded from the distorted cosmopolitanism that afflicts her sister city, still retains some of the matters that we have lost. Here it is easy to solicit a smile and a light friendly conversation about the weather with your manang vendor or shop attendant. It might not have fancy restaurants but it has it's own share of reasonably priced good food. 

There is an eatery at a curve where MisOr meets LDN, and this merging is represented in the halal and non-halal sections of their food choices and dining area. One can have a hot meal and the best bananas while staring at the sad lights of cargo ships on Iligan Bay. 

An important measure of the ease and convenience of life of the people here in Iligan is the fact that most of the residents can still go home to take their lunch in their respective homes. This singular convenience might not seem important for many but it reflects greatly on the traffic situation, degree of stress, and over all sense of well-being that Iliganons enjoy over residents of Cagayan. 

The tale of these two cities tell us of the divergent paths to development that they both undertook and the trajectories that they also will have to face. 

Cagayan has continued to benefit from its position as a major port and trading hub serving the whole Northern Mindanao region. It will likewise continue to attract more migrants who will cram its urban spaces, provide for cheap but overworked contractual labor in the service sector, and jack up food prices consequently. 

Iligan will stay as it is I believe. Despite the stunted project of industrialization with the moth-balling of the promising National Steel Corporation, there is still the presence of 1st stage industrial processing enterprises of agriculture-based raw materials. Its growth will also be carried by its role as a trading hub for the goods to and from the Zamboanga Peninsula albeit limited. But again that is not a bad thing. 

I think the two cities have much to learn from each other. Cagayan should look at Iligan as a reminder of its inclusive and simple past. Iligan should likewise not be blinded by the neon lights and malls that now dot the landscape of its bigger sister. For if there is any lesson that Iligan can cull from its big sister Cagayan, is that not all growth is good. The quality of life of a people is a better measure of meaningful progress.

forthcoming in the June 21 issue of sunstar cdo

The Birds by Arnold P. Alamon

The Birds

by Arnold P. Alamon

This morning, the birds are unusually noisy in this property just a few kilometers from the Laguindingan airport which is on its first day of operations. The pied fantails, robin magpies, and the yellow-vented bulbuls are agog over something.

An interspecies buzz is taking place and I can almost translate their extended and frantic chirps: “Did you see that humongous silver bird in the skyline? Even the takirol (white-collared king fisher) is no match for her deep rumble and screeching whine! I wonder what they eat to be able to grow so big. Do they also prefer the chico, sineguelas, and balite fruits? Because if that is the case, then boy, are we in trouble!”

And so it has come to pass that after 80 years of serving the flying public, Lumbia airport in Cagayan de Oro City has closed and a new airport, “The Laguindingan International Standard Airport,” as the banners along the road belaboredly declare, has now replaced it.

Like the first impression of the birds of this place to the arrival and departure of giant human-laden flying machines, a strange transformation is taking place in the tri-municipalities of Alubijid, Gitagum, and Laguindingan, now codenamed by government planners as AGILA.

What used to be third-class municipalities along the sleepy coastline South of Misamis Oriental are gently being awakened by the roar of jet engines and constant heavy traffic. Roads are being expanded and gasoline stations have sprouted like mushrooms overnight. Technocrats have a name for this – they call this development. But Sociologists need to ask – “Development for whom?”

The story of AGILA has yet to be written as we still have to see the changes that the airport transfer will bring to these largely agriculture-based communities . But the trajectory is already apparent in the beginning.

If the rumors are indeed true, the story begins with a giant real estate company acquiring vast tracts of land in the hundreds of hectares beginning in the 1980s for a song. For decades, they allowed the land to sleep,the birds to happily frolick on the rolling hills, while waiting patiently for their sponsored government bureaucrats to begin the process of the airport transfer to the area. Out of their supposed benevolence, they donated 180 hectares as the site of the new airport to expedite the process. With tax payer loans secured and construction done of the new airport a few years later, they now are in possession of prime real estate with the new public facility providing economic impetus and value for their investment.

There are heady plans that make the middle and upper classes drool in excitement over the prospects of a planned city just like the Bonifacio Global City in Taguig in this place. It is a promising modern suburbia almost equi-distant to both Cagayan de Oro and Iligan Cities where those who have the purchasing power from these cities can frolick and spend their money in the planned restaurants and malls that are sure to rise from the limestone ground. Among the afficionados of imported goods, the opening of a popular px goods outlet store make the 30 kilometer distance from Cagayan de Oro seem like nothing.

There is now a mad dash for remaining real estate with buyers purchasing property in the tens of hectares for planned subdivisions in the area. On the unspoiled and deep coastline are future marinas for the speedboats and yachts of the rich that are sure to disallow the late afternoon ritual of shellfish gathering  among the residents.

Meanwhile, the long-term farmer-residents of the tri-municipalities are tempted by lucrative offers from real estate agents also cashing in on the increase in value of the land. Sometimes it is a painful choice between letting go of the family’s sentimental ties to their ancestral land in exchange for the much-needed cash.

Farming in these places has been a losing bet because of the unpredictable seasons and low farmgate prices for their tobacco, corn, and sineguelas. Better that their children enter as contractual workers in the enterprises that will be established in the new city by the airport instead of becoming land-tillers like them. Beggars can’t be choosers they say.

If the residents of the tri-municipalities do not watch out, they will find themselves at the fringes of all these private capital-led development that has descended upon their homes and communities. There is no sentimentality to this kind of development, and capital determines who leave and who stay. 

Just like the birds who are scandalized by the arrival of flying machines, it is good for us to realize as early as now that with the descent of this kind of development aggression, boy, the people here are in trouble too.

published in June 18 issue of sunstar cdo