I pretty much "woke up" in 2003 - brought about by the (still) incredulous invasion of Iraq. This made me realize a number of things: human beings are easily manipulated (see George Orwell's seminal "1984"), we do not know everything, most of us are "asleep," religion has its negatives, we are basically selfish creatures, among others. I had read somewhere that 29 years old is the age when a person's beliefs are galvanized - I suppose I, being a late bloomer, was four years late.
What do I label myself now? I think I've narrowed it down to a progressive, pacifist, radical, liberal, anarcho (no enforced authority), Socialist Democrat, Christian. A mouthful and also contradictory, I agree.
Of all the definitions given for Socialism the one I identify most with is this given by the writer Howard Zinn: "Socialism basically said, hey, let's have a kinder, gentler society. Let's share things. Let's have an economic system that produces things not because they're profitable for some corporation, but produces things that people need."
It was also during this period - curious why a "Christian" nation would advocate war - that I decided to read the four gospels to find out for myself what Jesus Christ stood for. I came to the conclusion that if he lived in the present, he'd be labeled an iconoclastic, radical, left-leaning troublemaker. That it is not the conservatives, who have co-opted Christianity, that Jesus would most probably be comfortable with. That it was the conservatives (who were violently opposed to the change he was proposing) of his time that had him killed.
Zinn, who passed away early this year, became famous for having written a history of the U.S. from the perspective of the common people and not from the political and economic elite (read " A People's History of the United States"). His chapter on the American occupation of the Philippines is revelatory - a precursor to its involvement in Vietnam and Iraq.
The U.S. - because of the freedoms it holds dearly - is startlingly diverse. It is home not just to nut jobs from the left and the right but, more importantly, to wide-open, compassionate people like Zinn, Noam Chomsky and even an envelope-pushing comedian like Bill Hicks.
The Philippines will benefit greatly if more out-of-the-box thinkers emerge and be an influence on the country. I think we've collectively settled into a rut...into a fixed false belief that the current system that was handed down to us, the ideas we hold on to...is the only way.
Howard Zinn, when asked what he wanted to be remembered for said, "I guess if I want to be remembered for anything, it’s for introducing a different way of thinking about the world, about war, about human rights, about equality, for getting more and more people to think that way.
Also, for getting more people to realize that the power which rests so far in the hands of people with wealth and guns, that the power ultimately rests in people themselves and that they can use it. At certain points in history, they have used it. Black people in the South used it. People in the women’s movement used it. People in the anti-war movement used it. People in other countries who have overthrown tyrannies have used it.
I want to be remembered as somebody who gave people a feeling of hope and power that they didn’t have before."
When asked about his philosophy: "I believe, I suppose, in what could be called democratic socialism. I believe that we need a society where the motive for the economic system is not corporate profit, but the motive is the welfare of people, health care, jobs, child care, and so on. But that is dominant. Where there is a greater equalization of wealth and a society which is peaceful, which devotes its resources to helping people in the country and elsewhere.
I believe in a world where war is no longer the recourse for the settling of grievances and problems. I believe in the wiping out of national boundaries.
I don’t believe in visas and passports and immigration quotas. I think we need to move toward a global society. They use the word “globalization,” but they use it in a very narrow sense to mean the freedom of corporations to move across boundaries. But what we need is a freedom of people and things to move across boundaries."
His advise to us: "Think for yourself. Don't believe what the people up there tell you. Don't depend on saviors...or our leaders to do what must be done." 'nuff said. Howard Zinn, may you keep fighting the good fight wherever you are.
