Beyond personal reflection

It may not be easy for someone who has a greater-than-passing interest in life politics to reel out casually from the personal reflection published by mlq3 (or Manolo). mlq3 is a Pinoy top blogger, one who’s been consistently ranked between the top 3 to 6 by Pinoy Top Blogs. His (voluntary) outing therefore, given the stature he has achieved - at least in our blogosphere (his famous initials and other journalistic and writing repertoire discounted) - has the effect of de-privatizing the problem of cultural bias against adopted children, former drug addicts and gays, of which he has confessed being all.

Following the revelation, the readers or admirers of Manolo have reacted so positively as to keep and acclaim him soundly as an authoritative “insider” in his chosen profession (political analysis, speech writing and propagating agitprops, among other passions or calling) and, in the process, elevate his minorities group as proper political subjects deserving of co-equal status with the “general population.” What in a nutshell I have heard from the reactions is the following: manhood, or womanhood, (without kindness, self-respect and compassion for others) is no longer a secure and strong self-identity.

Nor that is all. Manolo, having problematized so personal a conflict into something global, has likewise engendered an ethically new awareness in largely catholic Filipino global communities of what’s essentially a private sphere.

This therefore brings to the fore, once again, the conception of blogging (as well as other forms of virtual exchanges) as a potent tool for democracy or for re-shaping political spaces and identities, in the service of people power, that defy the power of the established order.

If it hasn’t been noticed yet, aren’t we actually re-creating communities that transcend national democracies, where political participation could be global but the project goal is in fact local, participated in by neo-citizens who are spatially remote or distant?

Nonetheless, if the blogosphere and heretofore unparadigmatic communities spurred by transnational citizenship are “spontaneous order” driven by globalization, speed and connectivity so are other facts of modern life on the opposite extreme of the spectrum, such as stateless vanguard PR consultancy, borderless soldiers for hire or international lobbyists.

Right now, Filipinos are seeing in real terms the realpolitik of this tug of war between open, transparent and reflexive people-powered initiatives on the one hand and secretive and scheming elite-driven or corporate-powered contrivances on the other.

The dots that are also being connected lead to something like this: while the “middle forces” are going through the very healthy process of “doubting” their post-impeachment strategies, President Arroyo is carrying out a premeditated pre-impeachment plot to bastardize (as in to impregnate with “foreign elements”) a fundamentally national Charter change process. That would be anti-people power and globalization in the negative, won’t it?

Yet again, hasn’t the lack of purposeful, vigilant and holistic thinking chained up gay persons, reformed drug addicts or adopted children to the long-held norm of being cultural or moral negatives, the world over?