SABBATICAL NOTES. 27 JAN 2014 N4
Or, re-rereading 'Nikita' and the Philippine condition.
By the time you hit Season 4 of Nikita, you grow in awareness of the capacity of people, the jerks of our lives, to become duplicitous, their very tactic in advancing their narrow, selfish ambitions.
One trope that comes out every so often is the reality of the 'double,' those entities that resemble the original.
Externally, it is the double: the habit of movements, gesture, the facial configuration, the voice, the gait.
Internally, the mind is simply alterado, plain and simple, made to conform to the mind of the original.
Internally, the soul is alterado too, and like some fabricator of some Class-A imitation stuff that can be bought handily at Divisoria or Quiapo or Baclaran, the soul conforms to the original soul too, with the same habit of remembering at least the basic facts of brith.
The 'doubles' is a phenomenon that means only grief.
It is the making of the same people with the same faces, the same mind, the same soul.
It is the making of a community homogenous, with the same members of the community raising their hand at the same time, right hand on their chest where their heart, slanted to the left, beats.
It is the making of a land made up of people who cannot think for themselves, who cannot see things otherwise, who cannot have independent opinion of things because these people have been made to conform--to act as doubles, to remain as doubles, their being and becoming that of doubles.
This has come about in the Philippines since the time of Quezon.
And it continues to be so because we are never allowed to think for ourselves by thinking through about many things through the medium that critically reflects us: our very own language.
There is this widespread deception in the Philippines, and we must begin to unmask this double in us, this double among us, this double that could be us.
In this project of human freedom, we need to bold and daring and say, for once, that this fabrication of doubles must end.
And for once, we must say, education and language education have been instruments for the fabrication of doubles that could be us.
Or, re-rereading 'Nikita' and the Philippine condition.
By the time you hit Season 4 of Nikita, you grow in awareness of the capacity of people, the jerks of our lives, to become duplicitous, their very tactic in advancing their narrow, selfish ambitions.
One trope that comes out every so often is the reality of the 'double,' those entities that resemble the original.
Externally, it is the double: the habit of movements, gesture, the facial configuration, the voice, the gait.
Internally, the mind is simply alterado, plain and simple, made to conform to the mind of the original.
Internally, the soul is alterado too, and like some fabricator of some Class-A imitation stuff that can be bought handily at Divisoria or Quiapo or Baclaran, the soul conforms to the original soul too, with the same habit of remembering at least the basic facts of brith.
The 'doubles' is a phenomenon that means only grief.
It is the making of the same people with the same faces, the same mind, the same soul.
It is the making of a community homogenous, with the same members of the community raising their hand at the same time, right hand on their chest where their heart, slanted to the left, beats.
It is the making of a land made up of people who cannot think for themselves, who cannot see things otherwise, who cannot have independent opinion of things because these people have been made to conform--to act as doubles, to remain as doubles, their being and becoming that of doubles.
This has come about in the Philippines since the time of Quezon.
And it continues to be so because we are never allowed to think for ourselves by thinking through about many things through the medium that critically reflects us: our very own language.
There is this widespread deception in the Philippines, and we must begin to unmask this double in us, this double among us, this double that could be us.
In this project of human freedom, we need to bold and daring and say, for once, that this fabrication of doubles must end.
And for once, we must say, education and language education have been instruments for the fabrication of doubles that could be us.
No comments:
Post a Comment