Just about most of us know that climate change is the destructive aftermath of the unlimited exploitation of the earth’s resources by a relative minority of her children. Yet only a few of us behave like we are convinced it can be reversed by shifting to a more equitable and earth-friendly system of owning, managing and using the planet’s resources.
Earth, we should also know, can stave off its destruction simply by getting rid of the humans that devastate her. But then she might not have to do that as the latter are already screwing themselves. Massachusetts Institute of Technology scientists with the use of a computer have recently predicted the collapse of human society in the 21st century. That’s right, this century. The timing is debatable but the collapse could be inevitable unless...
But then again, Filipinos might not have to worry about earth’s destruction and human society’s collapse. Philippine society’s demise is looking to come first. We might not want to acknowledge it but we have long been on track towards collapse, hastened along by the confluence of the unholy trinity of capitalist greed, extremist violence, and the irrelevance of Philippine Catholicism.
High up on Cloud 9, capitalists are unseeing and unfeeling of the dire poverty of the masses, a ticking time bomb that could explode anytime and destroy Philippine society. Thus blinded, they push back on any and all attempt to change a system that stacks the economic cards in their favor, remanding to a life of poverty a huge chunk of the nation’s population.
The violence, on the other hand, of extremist change agents, never solves anything. It only serves to provoke the ruling oligarchy to counter it with even more violence. Worse still, capitalist-controlled governments use extremist violence as an excuse to brand (red-tag?) as terrorists and thereby crush peaceful, legal, constitutional, and faith-based social agencies.
Last but not the least, Catholicism, unmindful of the injustice around its imposing churches, is abdicating its power to transform Philippine society into God’s kingdom of love, justice and peace. It is for the most part irrelevant to poor people’s lives as it merely glories in its devotions and ritual worship but refuses to be in the thick of the fight to change a socio-economic order that systematically impoverishes the majority of a nation’s population.
Philippine society cannot save itself from collapse unless neo-liberal capitalists mitigate their greed and allow more than cosmetic changes in our socio-economic system, not unless change agents renounce violence and Catholicism goes beyond devotional ritual worship and courageously works for justice in the country.
N.B. It’s business as usual for the unholy trinity due to the Filipino’s culturally-induced indifference. Bottom line? Our society’s collapse is inevitable unless we rack up the courage to break out of the prison of our indifference.