Thanks for enlightening me with your insights on the definition of “the left” and “Leftists” in the Philippines. As usual, answers lead to more questions. Maybe we need to be careful with how we use the label “Leftist” especially because we have different views about what it means in the local and global context.

I took the Political Compass test as recommended by cvj and I found out that there are two kinds of leftists: left-authoritarian and left-libertarians. Left-authoritarians are those who align themselves with socialist and communist forms of government and left-libertarian are obviously less authoritative.

According to the test, I belong to the left-libertarian quadrant. So, I’m a leftist too, but the libertarian type. I was also very happy to know that left-libertarians are in good company; we have Nelson Mandela, Mohandas Gandhi, and the Dalai Lama in our group

Mabuhay ang mga kaliwete hehe!

The operative word is nominal, hehehe.

Like all living organisms, the homo sapiens philippinensis WILL evolve and survive at the very least, even at THAT condition. Survival begins with recognizing the threats, then learning to deal with them, until the menace ceases to be.

Look, half- or unparented Pinoys in the future may just be what we need after all. In your advocacy for cultural change, you have also been blaming our past for our mendicant dependency on the generosity of others. Physical separation from the providers could stimulate independence. Philosophical, spiritual, political, even financial independence. These, combined with the resiliency of the Pinoy, given his natural survival instinct, WILL promote change.

That is out-of-the-box.(wink)

Unskilled? Do you mean even nannying or “DH-ing” doesn’t require any skill? And I thought English was a skill, too. And cheap no more. If you want cheap, go Chinese or Indian. My point is, the Solidarity movement began with just a few intellectual OFWs even while they were abroad. That could be you. And that will be the day – when a DJB-clone starts calling himself Benign0ist.

Thank you for clearing that up… I kinda went overboard with it, I guess, since I think I had the right reasons for joining it and making it grow in my seemingly apathetic campus.

You say it is a belief. But you seem to shy away from categorically asserting whether you think this belief to be true or false. – Benign0

I have written about the flaws in the elitist mindset in my blog:

http://www.cvjugo.blogspot.com/2007/05/philippine-society-and-elitist-mindset.html

You say it is a belief. But you seem to shy away from categorically asserting whether you think this belief to be true or false.

What say you?

It seems that the crux of your argument against (or is it FOR — even THAT is unclear) my assertion is that said belief is “shared by many in the Middle and Upper class” from which you derive the conclusion that this is the source of “nonchalance towards electoral fraud”. Pretty slick play with words. Fortunately for you not too many people can readily pick up the utter lack of substance of what you wrote there. You should be in politics.

Whether elections are fair or rigged does not seem to matter in a society of foolish consituents. – Benign0

That belief is at the core of the Elitist mindset which is shared by many in the Middle and Upper class and explains their nonchalance towards electoral fraud.

You forget though that unlike the time of Rizal, today’s OFW’s are composed mainly of semi-skilled and unskilled workers — valued more for their cheap muscle rather than for their moon-buggy designing brains and Miss L.A.-winning bodies.

So expecting some kind of collective epiphany out of these OFWs that might usher the Philippines into some kind of imagined new era of prosperity is quite a leap of imagination.

And besides, don’t you think we’ve already had one “revolution” too many?