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Saturday, November 12, 2005
Carvajal: Elitism as a way of life
By Orlando P. Carvajal
For true democracy to thrive, two things need to happen to the people. They must be educated, freed from ignorance and they must be economically empowered, freed from poverty. It is precisely in these two areas where past and present administrations have failed.
Both administration and opposition have simply taken turns in paying lip service to education and poverty eradication. The result is an ill-educated and poor population of Filipinos that readily succumb to the proverbial “bread and circus” enticements during elections.
We can blame this on the elitist world-view that our ruling elite imbibed so well from our former colonial masters. Those who espouse this worldview consciously and publicly espouse equal rights to freedom and a prosperous and fulfilled life for all. Subconsciously, however, they divide society into the favored few, the elite, and the unfortunate many, the masses.
The mission of the favored few is to rule and take care of the needs of the unfortunate many without fundamentally changing the existing social stratification of society. The unfortunate many simply need to obey and trust the favored few.
This division can be seen to exist currently in politics, business and religion. In politics, we have our political dynasties having a stranglehold on government at all levels and getting re-elected time and again even without any perceptible service to the people.
In business, we have the management elite, favored and trusted by the owners to keep the rank and file in line. A huge income divide separates management and rank and file in most businesses in this country. Thus, during hard economic times, it is usually the poor rank and file that bears the brunt of cost reduction programs.
In religion, clericalism is the name of the game. The pope, the bishops and the priests (which compose the clergy, hence the name clericalism) are the elite, the favored few who are steeped in theology and more steeped still in canon law. They alone can tell the laity what to do or not do to get to heaven.
It is therefore not exactly correct to say that our current problems are without genuine solutions because of self-serving politicians. Religion and business have to accept part of the blame because both are also elitist and are doing next to nothing to democratize knowledge and to spread the nation’s wealth equitably.
Nevertheless, although I have said in a previous column that genuine change can only happen from below, it would help if the few progressive clerics and businessmen in our midst can match the people’s initiatives towards democratization of knowledge and wealth that alone can lead to democratization of political power.
(November 12, 2005 issue)
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