6 - Outlines of a Non-Linear Emplotment of Philippine History

Summary

Most sensitive thinkers today regard the concept of “development” not as universl but as historically conditioned, arising from social, economic, and ideological trends in eighteenth-century Europe. The idea of progress — the belief that the growth of knowledge, capabilities and material production make human existence better — placed science at the summit of knowledge. It gave birth to high imperialism, as the West identified progress with civilization and set out to dominate the rest of the world. Ibday, the idea of progress and the developmental ideology it engendered are under attack. People are generally aware of how scientific knowledge and technique can bring disaster, how increased material production does not necessarily lead to a better life. The reality of poverty, exploitation of workers, domination of certain groups by others, and destruction of the environment, flies in the face of rational planning by technocrats.

As the awareness of what “development” really means grows, it becomes nevertheless difficult to identify and negate the features of this outlook that have been internalized for decades and continue to shape one's thinking. In the Philippines, the developmental outlook is deeply implicated in power relationships within the society as well as between the Philippines and the outside world. It shapes behaviour and thought without being fully articulated itself. The concept of development is still understood as a universal “given” - the “given”, for example, of any text emanating from the national government and its technocrats. Surprisingly enough, even the critics of government and the technocratic elite, whether of the right or left in the political spectrum, while pointing out distortions and misapplications, fail to escape the very discourse of development. It is as if to become an educated Filipino one had to internalize this central organizing concept of the age in which one lives.

From the moment the typical Filipino student begins to learn about himself, his society, history and culture in books, the mass-media and the classroom, he becomes immersed in ideas of development, emergence, linear time, scientific reason, humane pragmatism, governmental ordering, and nation-building.