On Slaves & Tyrants: One youth/slave at a time

By | Katriel Ikia B. Viloria

Inequality is deeply rooted in the nation’s history and it is still being practiced today,
considering that it is a product of laws, institutions, socio-cultural norms, and commonly,
the unequal distribution of wealth and power (Dieye, 2019). Slavery, although seemingly
far and gone by this day and age, is still quite relevant. In the Customs of the Tagalogs
by Juan de Plasencia, it revealed the lives of the Tagalogs and how class roles have been
long existing even before the colonization of the Spaniards. The reading material
demonstrated the clear social stratification between the datu or dato and the aliping sa
guiguilir (saguiguilid) even alongside the aliping namamahay. Coincidentally, perhaps
centuries after Juan de Plasencia’s work, Dr. Jose Rizal, who is considered as the
Philippines’ national hero, wrote in his revolutionary novel, that “Slaves of today are the
tyrants of tomorrow.” With this, Dr. Rizal claims or insinuates that what is independence
for when the slaves who are existing today may just be the tormentors in the future? The
statement is indeed quite applaudable however, if we consider his famed, “The youth is
the hope of our future,” it really contradicts what his beliefs are supposed to be.
So much for national hero? In this paper, I will justify why Dr. Rizal’s quote, “Slaves
of today are the tyrants of tomorrow,” is not utterly precise along with the context of the
reading material. I will be mostly substantiating my points using Sociological ideas and
theories but not straying too far from the historical context of the material.
First of all, it is worth considering the fact that Dr. Rizal’s quote is still applicable
and relevant using the idea of Social Mobility and Alternation. Social Mobility refers to the
ability of an individual to move from one level of the society to another (Berger, ). While
Alternation on the other hand, refers to the possibility to choose between systems of
meaning. For instance, current Manila mayor, Isko Moreno was once a person living
amongst the spectrum of poverty and now is deemed successful and rich. His social
mobility has long been moving upwards since then. Another example is Senator Manny
Pacquiao. These two people are not tyrants per se and delving in deep on this topic would
be too political but for the purpose of this paper, I will be justifying how these two
personalities could be soon another product of “tyrants of tomorrow.” In an incident last
November, 2019, Moreno called out the vendors along Ylaya street in Divisoria for not
properly disposing their trash and how he is continuously reminding them to be “tidy”
despite being poor (ABS-CBN News, 2019). At first, this does not seem problematic but
when looked at it, why are the poor shouldering all of the blame? Don’t the government
have shortcomings as well? Moreno was once poor and even lived at the slums, yet why
is he blaming the poor for the accumulated trash? Why is he focusing more on the
aesthetics of Manila city when there are bigger and rooted problems in the city? Is he
there for merely pleasing the middle-class and elites? These are the questions yet to be
answered and although it is not apparent now, he seems to be a “tyrant” in the making.
However, I would give him the benefit of the doubt. Besides Moreno, there is Senator
Pacquiao, who supports death penalty (CNN Philippines, 2017). Looking at the numbers,
there was a review of 907 death penalty cases from 1993 to 2004 proved that seven out
of every 10 cases reviewed did not deserve the death penalty (Roa, 2017). And it goes
without saying but the poor are the most vulnerable when it comes to injustices, since
they lack the resources and the voice to speak up. When a senator who was once poor,
vocally supportive of death penalty, it seems as though he is only supporting the potential
tyranny of the government. Now going back, these two could easily fit the statement of
Dr. Rizal on how they were once “slaves” and are “tyrants” in the making.
Moving onto the second point wherein I will be presenting the Person Selection
Theory by Hans Gerth and C. Wright Mills. This theory states that society selects the
people to fill the class. If a person is not capable anymore, society will select a person to
fill your position. In this point, I will focus more on the reading material by Plascencia. In
the reading material, it is evident how our ancestors used to set the standards on who is
free and who is not. Usually, it is the aliping saguiguilid are the ones who are deprived of
freedom. However, there are even cases where an aliping namamahay could be stripped
away of his previous privileges and freedom. This is how our society before “fills” up the
aliping saguiguilid position. Our ancestors determine on how a person could be a slave
or not by marriage and by chances at birth. According to Max Weber, class determines
the life chances in ways that go far beyond the economic in its proper sense. Additionally,
our identity is socially bestowed and socially maintained. Society gives you the identity
and the individual has to maintain that identity. In this case, an aliping saguiguilid got the
identity either by chance or from the society and in return, they have to fulfill that identity
or else, certain social control against the slave will occur. Another example that is
happening right now in the contemporary world is when a person from a company resigns
from his job, he could be easily replaced since the demand for a job is quite high.
According to Karl Marx, capitalism is a very productive process and for it to continue it
must expand or find a new market or else it will collapse. And in this sense, we can see
that capitalism continuously innovates that’s why it is hard to eradicate the classes and
the social stratification.
Speaking of social stratification and class, those two will be my last point for the
topic. According to Kingsley Davis and Wilbert E. Moore, their theory on social
stratification states that no society is classless. Usually, the class is a type of stratification
in which an individual’s general position is based on their economic standing. In this case,
both the reading material and Dr. Rizal’s quote clearly claims the apparent social
stratification occurring in the system. Going back to Dr. Rizal’s quote, one could argue
that there are people who win at life but I would like to emphasize that only a fraction of
people have the chance of getting far in life. Not all slaves win at life. Only a small
percentage of these “slaves” become what Dr. Rizal calls as “tyrants” for some has the
opportunity to get through the higher social class. In the reading material, there was no
mentioning of how an aliping saguiguilid became a “datu” instantaneously. In fact, it was
mentioned that a datu could become a tyrant and be punished or “adjudged wicked” by
the people. It’s not like I’m saying that even though the tyrants only hold a small
percentage in the society could be disregarded, what I would like to highlight is the fact
that liberating the oppressed so that they could open their eyes on the shackles that they
have would lessen and overthrow the tyrants in position.
It is true that we are no longer slaves for we are considered sovereign people under
the 1987 Constitution, even based on the meaning from the dictionary, no person is
considered as a slave anymore. Nevertheless, we are still slaves of fat capitalist
corporations and greedy tax-stealing politicians, working under them and serving them as
we continue with our own roles unconsciously. The definition of being a slave truly differs
throughout time, it’s just that we are slaves right now of tyrants who continuously fool us
with their fabricated promises while they expand on their wealth and power. It is true that
there are indeed slaves who become tyrants but again, only a few percentage of slaves
get that far in life. What we could do to reform this overdue malicious system is to provide
a stronger foundation for education, not just literacy itself but the matter on critical thinking
to be able to choose wisely for no slaves will aspire to become tyrants anymore. Another
one is to simply awaken ourselves from our social positions and roles. Revolutions usually
start by becoming aware of what is happening on the system, although I am not saying
that a revolution is the solution of it all. Society provides us a mechanism to hide from our
freedom and what we need to do is to break from the illusion and to break the tradition of
tyranny and injustice one youth/slave at a time.

REFERENCES: DON’T FORGET!!!!!!!

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