“You will not be able to stay home, brother.
You will not be able to plug in, turn on and cop out.
You will not be able to lose yourself on skag
And skip out for beer during commercials,
Because the revolution will not be televised.
The revolution will be no re-run brothers;
The revolution will be live”.
- Words and music by Gil Scott-Heron
THE STUPIDITY, irrelevance and total lack of any new ideas shown by last Friday’s supposedly “big rally” which of course turns out to be another dud prompts moi for a rerun of “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.”
It was pitiful to watch students from what is supposed to be the prime higher learning institution in the country, the University of the Philippines, acting like trendy social climber fools blindly following an obsolete ideology espoused by irrelevant old men.
“Ibagsak ang regimen US-Duterte” was a prominent message written on the placards and tarpaulins they were carrying that day. Really? Duterte has been badmouthing and pissing off the Americans since day one.
Pathetic to say the least.
There is no armed struggle that will lift the masses from their wretched and miserable lives in the clutches of capitalism. There is no “withering away of the state” that will turn the Philippines into a utopian proletariat paradise. What there is in these islands are organized armed mafia-like groups making profitable and ego-tripping livelihood of kidnapping, extortion, coercion and armed robbery in the guise of “communist insurgents” or rebels fighting to free the motherland from the evils of capitalism.
If you believe all these bullshit that the National Democratic Front – New People’s Army (NDF-NPA) are churning out then you also probably believe that Leila de Lima is a virgin and Kris Aquino was born out of “immaculate conception.”
People, we’ve been had. What started as a noble struggle for an advocacy and ideology against the Marcos dictatorship some 50 years ago has morphed into a profit-making and ego-tripping enterprise. Come to think of it, Ninoy Aquino was instrumental in the founding of the NPA so the ulterior motive is most probably not noble.
Communism is not only obsolete but dead. Even the country that started it has long abandoned it for capitalism. Russia, where the top icons of the communist movement come from i.e. Lenin and Stalin, and where Marxism became the form of government is now the top capitalist country in the world challenging the United States to be the No. 1 capitalist country. Considering the huge debts of the United States then probably Russia is the top capitalist now.
China, the home of that No. 1 communist icon in Asia Mao Zedong, is the top trading partner of the “hated capitalist” country the United States of America.
The most popular American brand of athletic shoes Nike are made in factories in China and probably all the known American brands i.e. Gap, Converse and Levis.
These sweat shops in China where these iconic brands are made are the same conditions that prompted Karl Marx to write the “Communist Manifesto” because of the exploitation and conditions of the workers during the Industrial Revolution in England in the early 19th century. The “rich and famous” in China spend money like there’s an endless source it probably for them. So much for communism and the workers’ struggles.
Meanwhile in the Philippines and the Netherlands we have a bunch of senior citizens who still dream that they will turn the country into a workers’ utopian paradise and behave like they’re still in full control of the armed bandits in the countryside a.k.a. the NPA when in reality they may even have difficulty in controlling their bladders.
In one of the media sorties of the NPA when President Rodrigo Duterte announced the ceasefire and peace talks, there were pictures of an old NPA commander wearing a Red Guard uniform, obviously his inspiration is Mao Zedong’s “cultural revolution.”
This old guy wants the Philippines to be like Mao Zedong’s China. Is he aware that China is now the one of the biggest capitalists in the world? I guess not; he’s probably not also aware that Henry Sy’s SM Shoemart has one of the biggest malls in China. Come to think of it, he might not even know what a mall is.
When President Rodrigo Duterte announced an end to the ceasefire and peace talks after time and time again the so-called NPA-NDF leadership has shown they actually have no control over the armed NPA in the countryside, most of the natives agreed with him.
Those that do not are the so-called leftists and pseudo-communists who still dream of the “withering away of the state.”
Wake up people, communism is obsolete and dead and buried in Russia and China. And Mao Zedong just a print on a t-shirt for tourists. (brotherlouie16@gmail.com/PN)
