The Indolence of the Filipino Essay Example for Free

The Indolence of the Filipino EssayThe word indolence has been greatly misused in the sense of little love for create and drop of energyIn the Philippines iodines and a nonhers faults, the shortcomings of one, the misdeeds of a nonher, be attributed to indolence. And unsloped as in the Middle Ages he who sought the explanation of phenomena outside of infernal influences was persecuted, so in the Philippines worse happens to him who seeks the origin of the trouble outside of accepted beliefs. Indolence in the Philippines is a chronic malady, but non a hereditary one. The Filipinos kick in not always been what they are, witnesses whereto are all in all the historians of the first years subsequently the discovery of the Islands. All the histories of the countrys first yearsabound in long accounts about the worldufacture and agriculture of the natives mines, gold-washings, looms, f mail, barter, naval construction, raising of poultry and stock, weaving of silk and cotton , distilleries, etc. , are things encountered at every step, and considering the magazine and the conditions in the islands, prove that there was life, there was activity, there was movement.The Filipinos in spite of the climate, in spite of their hardly a(prenominal) needs (they were less thusly than now), were not the purposeless creatures of our timetheir ethics and their mode of life were not what is not complacently attributed to them. How is it strange, then, that discouragement may crap been infused into the spirit of the inhabitants of the Philippines, when in the midst of so umteen calamities they did not bonk whether they would see sprout the seed they were planting, whether their field was going to be their grave or their crop would go to feed their executioner?He who does not act freely is not prudent for his actions and the Filipino people, not being master of its liberty, is not responsible for either its misfortunes or its woes. We say this, it is true, but, as well as seen later on, we also have a large part in the sequel of such a disorder. Of no little importance were the hindrance and obstacles that from the beginning were thrown in the farmers way by the rules, who were influenced by childish fear and saw everywhere signs of conspiracies and uprisings.The natives were not allowed to go to their constancys, that is, their farms, without permission of the governor, or of his agents and officers, and even of the priests as Morga says A modern French traveler who was in the Philippines for a long time says, the governor, the foremost official of the districtmonopolizes all the business and instead of developing on his part the love of operate, instead of stimulating the too ingrained indolence of the natives, he with abuse of his powers thinks wholly of destroying all competition that may trouble him or attempts to participate in his profits.It matters little to him that the country is impoverished, without cultivation, without com merce, without industry, just so the governor is quickly enriched. All the Filipinosknow how m whatsoever documents, what comings, how valet de chambrey stamped papers, how much patience is ask to secure from the political science a permit for an enterprise.One must count upon the right-hand(a) will of this one, on the influence of that one, on a reasoned bribe to some other in order that the application be not crapeon-holedAnd in a higher place all, great patience, great knowledge of how to get along, plenty of money, a great visual modality of politics, valet de chambrey salutations, great influence, plenty of presents and complete resignation The trade with Chinawas not only detrimental to Spain but also the life of her colonies in fact, when the officials and private persons in Manila found an easy method of getting rich they neglected everything.They paid no at disco biscuittion either to cultivating the soil or to genteelness industryThe deathly use of the domin ators in surrounding themselves with servants and despising manual or corporal labor as a thing unbecoming the nobility and chivalrous pride of the heroes of so many centuries those idealistic airs, which the natives have translated into tila ka castila, and the desire of the dominated to be the equal of the dominators, if not essentially, at east in their tact all this had naturally to produce aversion to activity and fear or hatred of work. wherefore work? asked the natives. The parson says that the rich man will not go to heaven. The rich man on country is liable to all kinds of trouble, to be appointed a cabeza de barangayto be forced banker of the military chief of the town, who to come back him for favors received seizes his laborers and his stock in order to force him to beg money and thus easily holds up.Why be rich? The native, whom they pretend to regard as an imbecile, is not so much so that he does not understand that it is ridiculous to work himself to death to become worse off. A proverb of his says the pig is cooked in its own lard, and as among his bad qualities he has the good one of applying to himself all the criticisms and censures he refers to fit miserable and indolent rather than play the part of the wretched beast of burden.Along with gambling, which breeds dislike for cool off and difficult toil by its promise of sudden wealth and its appeal to the emotions, with the lotteries, with the prodigality and hospitality of the Filipinos, went also, to fop the train of misfortunes, the religious functions the great number of fiestas, the long masses for the women to spend their mornings and the novenaries to spend their afternoons, and the nights for the processions and rosaries.Remember, that lack of capital letter and absence of means paralyze all movement, and you will see how the native was perforce (unavoidably) to be indolent for if any money might remain to him from the trials, imposts and exactions, he would have to give i t to the curate for bulls, scapularies, tooshiedles, novenaries, etc.And if this does not suffice to form an indolent character recall then that the doctrine of his religion teach him to irrigate his fields in the dry season, not by means of canals but with masses and prayers to preserve his stock during an epidemic with holy water, exorcisms and benedictions that cost five dollars an animal, to drive away the locusts by a procession with the picture of St. Augustine, etcWe have noticed that the countries which believe most in miracles are the laziest, just as spoiled children are the most ill-mannered.Whether they believe in miracles to palliate their laziness or they are lazy because they believe in miracles, we cannot say but the fact is the Filipinos were much less lazy before the word miracle was introduced into their language. With the lack of office in the future, that uncertainty of reaping the reward of labor, as in a city stricken with plague, everybody yields to fate, shuts himself in his firm or goes about amusing himself in an attempt to spend the few days that remain to him in the least disagreeable way possible.The apathy of the government itself toward everything in commerce and agriculture contributes not a little to foster indolence. There is no encouragement at all for the manufacturer or for the farmer, the government furnishes no aid either when a poor crop comers, when the locusts sweep over the fields, or when cyclone destroys in its passage the wealth of the soilWhy should it do so when these similar products are burdened with taxes and imposts and have no free entry into the ports of the mother country, nor is their consumption there encouraged?And the principal and most call into questionful reason of all the education of the native. From his birth until he sinks into his grave, the training of the native is brutalizing, depressive and anti-humanThere is no doubt that the government, approximately priests like the Jesuits and some Dominicans like Padre Benavides, have done a great deal by founding colleges, schools of primary instruction, and the like. But this is not enough their efforts are neutralized.They amount to five or ten yearsduring which the youth comes in contact with books selected by those very priests who boldly proclaim that it is evil for the natives to know Castilian, that the native should not be separated from his carabao, that he should not value any further aspirations, and so on Thus while they attempt to make of the native a kind of animal, nevertheless in exchange they demand of him divine actionsDeprive a man, then, of his dignity, and you not only deprive him of his moral military strength but you also make useless for those who wish to make use of him.Every creature has its stimulus, its mainspring mans is his self-esteem. Take it away from him and he is a stiff, and he who seeks activity in a corpse will encounter only worms. Thus is explained how the natives of the presen t time are no longer the same as those of the time of the discovery, neither morally nor physically. The ancient writers, like Chirino, Morga, and Colin, take pleasure in describing them a well-featured, with good aptitudes for anything they take up, keen and susceptible and of resolute will, very clean and neat in their persons and clothing, and of good mien and bearing (Morga)In exchange, the writers of the present time, without being more than than gallant than Herman Cortez and Salcedo, nor more prudent than Legazpi, nor more manly than Morga, nor more prudent than Colin and Gaspar de San Agustin, our contemporary writers we say find that the native is a creature something more than a monkey but much less than a man, an anthropoid, dull-witted, stupe, timid, dirty, cringing, ill-clothed, indolent, lazy brainless, immoral, etc. tc. To what is this retrogression collect? Is it the delectable civilization, the religion of salvation of the friars, called of Jesus Christ by euphe mism, that has produced this miracle that has atrophied his brain, paralyzed his heart and do of the man this sort of vicious animal that the writers depict? Alas The whole misfortune of the present Filipinos consists in that they have become only half-way brutes.The Filipino is convinced that to get happiness it is necessary for him to lay diversion his dignity as a rational creature, to attend mass, to believe what is told him, to pay what is demanded of him, to pay and forever to pay to work, suffer, and be silent, without aspiring anything, without aspiring to know or even to understand Spanish, without separating himself from his carabao, as the priests shamelessly say, without protesting against any injustice, against any arbitrary action, against an assault, against an insult that is, not to have heart, brain, or spirit a creature with arms and a purse of gold. . theres the ideal native unfortunately, or because the brutalization is not yet complete and because the nature o f man is inherent in his being in spite of his condition, the native protests he still has aspirations, he thinks and strives to rise, and theres the trouble Peoples and governments are correlated and complementary a stupid government would be an anomaly among righteous people, just as a corrupt people cannot go under just rulers and wise laws. Like people, like government, we will say in paraphrase of a popular adage.The very limited training in the home, the tyrannical and sterile education of the rare centers of attainment that blind subordination of the youth to one of greater age, influence the bear in mind so that a man may not aspire to excel those who preceded him but must merely be content to go along with a march behind them. Stagnation forcibly results from this, and as he who devotes himself merely to write divests himself of other qualities suited to his own nature, he naturally becomes sterile hence decadence. Indolence is a corollary derived from the lack of stimul us and of vitality.That modesty infused into the convictions of everyone, or, to speak more clearly, that insinuated inferiority, a sort of daily and constant depreciation of the mind so that it may not be raised to the regions of life, deadens the energies, paralyzes all tendencies toward advancement, and of the least conflict a man gives up without fighting. If by one of those rare incidents, some wild spirit, that is some active one, excels, instead of his example stimulating, it only causes others to persist in their inaction. Theres one who will work for us lets sleep on say his relatives and friends. True it is that the spirit of rivalry is sometimes awakened, only that then it awakens with bad humor in the guise of envy, and instead of being a lever for helping, it is an obstacle that produces discouragement. Nurtured by the example of anchorites (monks) of a contemplative and lazy life, the natives spend theirs in giving their gold to the Church in the hope of miracles and other wonderful things.Their will is hypnotized from childhood they learned to act mechanically, without knowledge of the object, give thanks to the exercise imposed upon them from the most tender years of praying for whole hours in an unknown tongue, of venerating things that they do not understand, of accepting beliefs that are not explained to them, to having absurdities imposed upon them, while the protests of reason are repressed. Is it any wonder that with this vicious dressage of in branchigence and will the native, should now be a mass of dismal contradictions?That continual struggle between reason and duty, between his organism and his new ideals, that civil war which disturbs the peace of his conscience all his life, has the result of paralyzing all his energies, and aided by the severity of the climate, makes that eternal vacillation, of the doubts in his brain, the origin of his indolent disposition. You cant know more than this or that old man Dont aspire to be great er than the curate You belong to an inferior race You havent any energy This is what they tell the child and they repeat it so often, it has perforce to become engraved in the mind and thence chuck and pervade all his action. The child or youth who tries to be anything else is blamed with vanity and presumption the curate ridicules him with cruel sarcasm, his relatives look upon him with fear, strangers regard him with great compassion. No forward movement Get back in the ranks and keep in lineWith his spirit thus molded the native falls into the most pernicious (wicked malicious harmful) of all routines routine not planned but imposed and forcedWhat he lacks is in the first place liberty to allow expansion to his adventuresome spirit, and good examples, beautiful prospects for the future. It is necessary that his spirit, parentage up energy, seek high purposes, in order to struggle against obstacles in the midst of unfavorable natural conditions.In order that he may progress i t is necessary that a revolutionary spirit, so to speak, should fag in his veins, since progress necessarily requires the present the victory of new ideas over the ancient and accepted oneall the flattering promises of the fairest hopes will not suffice, so long as his spirit is not free, his intelligence information is not respected.Convinced by the insinuation of his inferiority, his spirit harassed by his education, if that brutalization of which we spoke above can be called education, in that exchange of usages and sentiments among different nations, the Filipino, to whom remain only his susceptibility and his oetical imagination, allows himself to be direct by his fancy and his self-love They have dazzled him with tinsel, with strings of colored glass beads, with noisy rattles, flicker mirrors and other trinkets, and he has given in return his gold, his conscience, and even his liberty. He changed his religion for the external practices of another cult the convictions and u sages derived from his climate and needs, for other convictions that developed under another sky and another inspiration.His spirit, well-disposed toward everything that looks good to him, was then transformed, at the pleasure of the nation that forced upon him its God and its law, and as the trader with whom he dealt did not bring a cargo of useful implements of iron, hoes to till the fields, but stamped papers, crucifixes, bulls and prayer-books, as he did not have for ideal and prototype the tanned and vigorous laborer, but the aristocratic Lord carried in a juicy litter, the result was that the imitative people became bookish, devout, prayerful it acquired ideas of luxury and ostentation, without thereby improving the means of its substance to a corresponding degree.