Monday, July 28, 2008 Arinday: 'Moral anarchy' By GH Arinday Jr. Sunfare
DOES IT sound anachronous?
The sense of striving for righteousness is not just premised on perceptions, poll survey data, classic opus of wheelchair-critics, whining editorials but the extensity or intensity of pleasure or pain produced by universal phenomenon which even the cool mind of an expert bonesetter is thrown to bewilderment.
In our case where domestic issues are the central pieces of our impressions or sutured perceptions derivative of incurable prejudices, we have made prejudgment of the State of the Nation Address (Sona) of the Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, which has yet to be delivered today.
If judgment is a product of examined reason related to the ideals of justice and equity, then if an individual is a rational and free-willing being, he must be possessed of a nutritive thinking soul.
In his "Critique of Pure Reason", German philosopher Immanuel Kant, whose transcendental philosophy has tremendously recast the whole legal philosophy particularly those in the teleological realm, posited the view that "the righteous man can attain freedom" if he liberates himself "from the arbitrary power of his senses and from enslavement to his emotions". Simply put, the free will of the individual must blend or agree with the free will of the majority.
Does poll survey taken from a minuscule of the population be considered as the "categorical imperatives" as the metaphysicist Kant would pose to issues involved in the whole of governance?
The tolerance of spurious interpretations of the "common good" coming from two contrasting groups like the "civil society" and the "struggling masses" while marching like state troopers under different hues of banners is wickedly strange.
Blinded by hatred and disillusionment, the two opposites are united only in one goal-to topple the government!
However, it must be remembered that insofar as Friedrich Hegel's political philosophy is concerned, "civil society is not the end or reconciled idea". In the Neo-Hegelian approach which is the protective agency of the law and supremacy of the State, it must be forcefully pursued to be the "basis of the philosophy of unmitigated power in the hands of an individual-the leader - and the consequent complete surrender of the people to that power".
How could one remove the sting of the Neo-Hegelian theory of the "state deification and totalitarian law power" as directed to the geniuses of the civil society to ponder on this crucial issue, covered temporarily by the "common cause of action" against the present dispensation?
The present economic crisis is definitely the product of the skillful manipulation of the fossil-fuel producing countries, its domino effects on domestic political economy cannot find resolution in raised fists and angry voices.
It is given that in a truly democratic and free society, issues often evolve among the three groups of interests (private interests, public interests, and social interests). From the functional perspectives, private interests often clash with public interests, classically exemplified by the Social Security System (SSS) and the Manila Electric Company (Meralco) or the private transportation firms against the social interests.
However, in the scheme of things, the reality on the ground is that the major stakeholders, namely the consumers and the commuters, are practically held hostage for failure of the majority of the populace to demonstrate their "will". It is under this atmosphere where the ideologues compete in pursuing their agenda shrewdly veiled by championing their ideals of freedom. Once any of the competing ideologues triumph, the same freedom they have extensively exploited shall gradually vanish and a "leader" shall arise.
In a sick society like ours where freedom has become licentious, those ousted from their respective appointive positions morphed into incurable critics of their former benefactor. They have no compunction about virtues, morality or ethics as embodied in the first elements of non-jural laws or in the secular legal order. This kind of conflict has been feebly illustrated by the 'Hyatt 10', which now sports the name of 'Black and White' and is among the dissonant voices distinguishing themselves with legal debility for failure to show any "categorical imperative" of empiricism in their cry of graft and corruption.
Every activist-critic group today is raising their flag of moral values. A conspicuous illustration is the issue on the reproductive health program on how to arrest the burgeoning population, but the axiological test is that "it is not free from personal or group preferences or prejudices".
Where different groups submit their own moral guidelines directly in contrast with the others, there is the moral anarchy as there are a good number of false prophets.
