Can we defeat corruption? (2)
Had our national heroes been alive today, they would have certainly been vloggers. I can easily imagine Dr. Jose Rizal setting up his own podcast, regularly inviting over the Luna brothers and other key revolutionaries. I can imagine his YouTube channel featuring interviews with a roster of illustrados with a wide range of expertise: Melchora Aquino on grassroots mobilization and women’s leadership, Apolinario Mabini on law, Juan Luna on the arts, Antonio Luna on military affairs, and Emilio Aguinaldo on local governance. I can imagine them discussing the latest developments in the country, connecting them to global events, and drawing lessons on how to fight authoritarian populism from all around the world.
I can imagine Rizal making daily reels, explaining all key issues of national concern in both local and European languages. Or Rizal and his peers taking selfies, visiting slum areas for “kalye surveys,” and sharing the daily grind of serving as a doctor and educator in marginalized communities. I can imagine our revolutionary heroes using social media while also publishing scientific works, columns in major dailies, hosting talks with policymakers and technocrats, and giving lectures in leading universities on Earth, where future political leaders are trained. I can also imagine them leveraging their multimedia platforms to not only point out the Gramscian “common sense” of ordinary folks but also use their influence to empower our people to develop a “good sense”—namely, a true consciousness about systemic injustice and ways to overcome it.
It was precisely in this spirit that our generation of public thinkers has tried our best—despite our extremely limited resources and the direct challenge from junk content—to push the boundaries of national discourse on multiple fronts. The reception has been encouraging. Over the past few days alone, two of our latest “Deep Dive” episodes on Philippine politics—featuring Atty. Kristina Conti, Atty. Star Elamparo, and former Secretary Ronald Llamas—have garnered more than half a million views on YouTube alone. Interestingly, philosophers such as G.W.F. Hegel and Antonio Gramsci have been a common thread in our latest discussions. Earlier this year, our reels on industrial policy, featuring highlights of discussions with economic analysts such as Stephen CuUnjieng, garnered millions of views on Instagram and Facebook.
Inspired by our revolutionary leaders, we combine dark humor, sarcasm, and infotainment with real expertise to ensure a balance between limbic traction and intellectual depth. Going through hundreds of thousands of comments on my YouTube channel alone, it’s clear to me that there is a widespread appetite for informed public policy discussions. More fundamentally, my message is this: we are making some progress, and there is hope!
Our pervasive sense of hopelessness and cynical complacency can often be traced to the diatribes of our chattering classes, especially those who are not exactly on the frontline of fighting disinformation, authoritarian populism, and sheer ignorance. Think, for instance, of a curiously self-satisfied opinion piece in the otherwise sensible Gulf News website, titled “The Philippines doesn’t just vote for policies—it votes for a show.”
Written by a veteran journalist based in the Persian Gulf, it talks about the supposed genius of demagogues such as Sen. Robinhood Padilla, who “makes people feel something,” as opposed to deracinated experts, who are afflicted by “a strange disconnect [from] the Philippines today.” The piece goes on to not-so-subtly mock—I’m sure this is totally coincidental!—Filipino thinkers who focus on “big ideas: Hegel, Marx, Gransci [sic], Renaissance, industrialization, energy security, economies of scale, etc.,” because these themes are based on “a dangerous assumption” about what sells in our modern attention economy. The bizarrely “Captain Obvious” piece culminates with a totally unheard-of revolutionary recommendation: “The Philippine elite needs to change.” Duh!
In fairness, I’m sure the author has great intentions for and truly cares for our nation. And the same goes for sections of our locally based literati, who have made cynical lamentation and unhelpful nostalgia a cottage industry. In my next column, I will explain why challenging this discursive tradition is relevant to our century-old struggle against corruption, since it not only overlooks/denigrates gradual positive changes on the ground, but also overlooks practicable and rational solutions to our national problems that go beyond “let’s beat the clowns in their own game” recommendations. This is the best way to honor the sacrifices of Rizal’s generation, who had the audacity to combine Enlightenment values with mass education beyond pointing out the obvious and regurgitating clichéd opinions.
—————-
richard.heydarian@inquirer.net
