We had a special guest last Tuesday in Fr. David's ethics class. His name's Raul Lejano, and he's a professor from the University of California-Irvine department of planning, policy, and design. He's basically an urban planning specialist. He was supposed to give a lecture on the current research in planning theories and environmental policy, and how Foucault (bless his structuralist soul) was the unconscious core of it. He did in a sense do what he was supposed to, but more than that, he spoke forgotten truths about the world. Let me share some of these:
(note: summarizing concepts are of my authorship, and are not directly quoted from Dr. Lejano)
a. "Paradigms are the effect of institutions, not of individuals." He discussed the market system, and how this view of "me, my immediate reality, this cup of coffee, and the price tag" has instilled a deficit of concern for others into society. In Foucault's terms, the very structure of the market, or in a mini sense, the supermarket, ensures that all we really percieve is ourselves, the object, and the price tag. The paradigm then becomes self-consumerist centered.
b. "Man is at his fullest in the doing of the good." Dr. Lejano stressed that although the institution (that is market) theoretically instills self-consumerist centered ideas, the reality is that humanity is in fact, still human. He cited the "Ultimatum Game" experiment, which proved, when annexed to a bunch of prior read philosophical and theological texts, proved that intrinsically, humans still value other members of his own species. No matter how much of a stranger a person is, once an instance sees them connected even in a faint way, relationality automatically ensures they respect the other.
c. "Humanity is Relationality." Lejano gave the case study of how the turtle island deals with poachers. The people in charge of the turtle islands don't punish the offenders, but rather, they go to the community from where the offender is from, and they talk to the offender, and the offender's immediate circle. They talk to his friends and family about turtle island, the importance of it, and why they seek to protect it. They relate turtle island with the people. Then they invite the offender to help them out for a few days, so that he too can be a part of the experience. They bridge gaps between misunerstanding parties. Turtle island becomes more than a place to steal turtle eggs. It becomes a part of them as well. When you relate something to a person which was priorly totally unrelated to him, it becomes familliar. It becomes respectable.
d. "Networks are the future of the market system." What then happens if consumers get to meet the coffee farmers who grow your coffee? What happens when we see his foot hurts because of his coffee growing? Do we simply pay for our coffee and walk away? Intrinsically, no man would. Co existence requires co responsibility. There is circumstance, and there is humanity behind the product. We have to go beyond our world of "me, my immediate reality, this cup of coffee, and the price tag" to see that so much more has to be done. Relationality ensures co responsibility. We just have to see how someone, seemingly a stranger is connected to you, in order for care and co responsibility to take hold of our natural relational selves.
My basic point is this... After 20 years of living, and approximately 7 years of having Filipino economists, sociologists, and political scientists bitch to me all day in class about markets, and how the market system leads to impersonality and lack of relationality, without any of them even speaking of progress, or (dare I say) a solution, it's nice to hear that at the other end of the world, someone, a fellow Filipino, studies these problems as well, and he has come back to us if only for a brief moment to say, "There is progress. There is a change." Things do not have to be the way they are. We do not have to be what economists figure us out to be. We are more than consumers who care only for goods, services, and prices. We are people who are at our fullest at the doing of the good.
PART 2 INTELLECTUAL WHORING:
I asked Fr. Dacanay if the Theo department offers any electives aside from the required 4 core Theology subjects. He explained that there was, and he asked me...
"Are you interested in Theology Mic?"
I answered "for electives, yeah."
he asked, "What's your course?"
I answered, "Psych, Fr."
he asked, "You wish to go to med school? B.S. right?"
I answered, "Yeah, I might. It's arbitrary. I'm not sure yet."
he said, "Aaah."
a weird awkward silence followed.
Then he said, "Balimbing. Willing to sell your interests to the highest bidder."
He wasn't talking to me directly... He was talking to air really.. or maybe to someone else...No... it was probably me.
I wan't offended though. It's true. As of now, I am an intellectual whore. I sell my interests to the highest bidder.
I could have told the truth... That Theology is my LOVE. I feel that it is my calling, but that the reality of poverty hinders me.... but even in truth, I am still, since I still do fear, am an intellectual whore. I'm not offended.
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