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Basic in explaining Marx�s conception of social
change is the idea that material contradictions in society move the society
forward but these material contradictions do not operate in their own right for
they presuppose the agency of collective activity. History therefore is
collectively made by the people. For Marx, what is necessary for change is for
the working class to regain their consciousness and realize the very idea of
class-for-itself � the idea that what is necessary to change their conditions
as a class is to engage in collective activity. The very structure of the
capitalist system provides the opportunity for the people in the working class
to talk about their conditions, i.e. as they work in the factories they are able
to discern their common conditions and eventually, they will desire to
change it. Even though Marx discusses the potency of
actions to move history, Marx did not come up with an over-all framework to
explain change (Craib, 1997). In contrast, Rizal�s theory of change is
primarily accounted with colonialism; the change being referred to is change in
terms of redemption from a colonial rule, the nation seeking to regain its
individuality (San Juan, 1997). As we encountered in Marx�s theory, the
contradictions within the very structure of the system provides the
preconditions in which the oppressed class will come to realize their existence
and free themselves from false consciousness. Rizal also deals with this
problematic in the sense that material conflicts inherent in the colonial system
trigger the colonized class to struggle (San Juan, 1997). For Marx, the work
setting in a capitalist society provides the ground for the realization of
class-for- itself (consciousness of class being). But for Rizal, it is the
knowledge derived from education. Rizal�s framework in theorizing change is in
terms of an evolutionary process. Rizal suggests a
gradual policy, in other words, change should not be understood as a sudden
qualitative leap from one mode of production to another. This is in line with
Rizal�s commitment in avoiding the destructive consequence of a revolution,
leading him to prescribe an itinerary progress (San Juan, 1997). Important in Rizal�s itinerary progress are the
notions of a staging ground and a trajectory. The task in the staging ground is
to educate the people, and education is juxtaposed with labor and civic virtues.
The realization of the trajectory follows � the eventual formation of
personality for the whole people, a politicized race redeemed from Western
hegemonic power (San Juan, 1997). Crudely, the trajectory is the goal and the
staging ground is the goal-attainment. In this case, Rizal again resembles
Parsonian structural functionalism�s organic systems-analysis, in the sense
that the society is conceived as a system defining and attaining its goal. This very conception of Rizal�s social change is primarily rooted in his assumption of human beings as moral beings with intellectual potentialities that could be actualized. Education is the progressive summing-up of experience through reason and in the end, there is an eventual accumulation of knowledge. But the accumulated knowledge is not to be conceived as knowledge for its own sake. Knowledge should be transformed into knowledge of reality as a tool to change the world (San Juan, 1997).Having attained consciousness through accumulated
knowledge, people who are denied of liberty will eventually seek for it, and
this will serve as the mechanism to trigger their desire to change their world.
For Rizal, people�s ethico-political awareness will lead them to struggle for
change (San Juan, 1997). To go back to the functionalist analysis, Rizal also theorized change in terms of his body politic. For Rizal, the organism (or the body politic) is confronted with numerous diseases brought about by foreign bodies and the only antidote for the diseases is the abortion of the foreign body, by freeing the organism (San Juan, 2004). It should be clear by now that what is referred to as foreign bodies are the colonizers and the organism, the colonized nation. |
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Copyright 2005.
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