I just got out of my POS class. We watched a flick about elections here in the philippines- with a hotchpotch of various commentaries and history(!). I really enjoy seeing these kinds of flick 'coz you can actually learn besides enjoying them. Most of the stuff shown are quite familiar- learned them back in highschool I guess- but some are new. Most of us probably know about the murders/assassinations Marcos did during election- aside his gruesome tactics during his martial rule- but the most of us probably don't know about the details of it. Do you know about the man who was shot 4 times trying to protect a balot box full of votes, embracing it and running just to protect it? Do you know about the NAMFREL volunteers who were shot dead- or those who risked their lives walking out of the COMELEC's primary chamber for counting the ballots (I forgot the name of the place)? Probably, only a few of us know about these "small things" that really counts big in its significant.
I always get this wierd feeling (shivers?) whenever I see
a people moving in the same direction. Such small acts somehow reflects what each of us should do to make our own country work. A priest in the movie said something like, "there has been a change since EDSA". That really moves me a lot. I think the zeitgeist can be be described in the same way.
And no, I'm not your usual idealist. I don't aspire for everyone to be good and be concern about the common good of this society. Heck, I've read too much of Machiavelli to be this kind of quintessential highschool psuedo-intellectual. I know the practical implications of what I've just doodled. It's not about a hero complex or anything that make myself distinct over everybody else- because then again, we usually participate in collective discourse only when it affect us- but just about the movement of ourselves as people. I really think this is something awesome- something fantastic- to put it simply, something sacred. It is, after all, the drama of becoming what we want to be. Well, maybe there a imagining of self involved whenever I think about living this particular way.
I have thought of this before- but somehow my philo Teach articulates it even better: that it is through this movement that the voice of God manifests. If you're not a Christian, better be one! No, just kidding. I think this same idea is applies to any religion. For one, when I asked my religion teacher- a buddhist monk- back in high school about how was the world created, she told me that WE created it- and I think she meant the beginning not the conception. Of course, I was perplexed. Somehow, religions view this particular movement holy. Moreover, this is not some abstract concept of something holy because it is born in human experience- which makes it even more worth celebrating.
Tell me this is happening right now...