Call to Arms

2007-08 VOL 18 NO 2

EDITOR’S NOTE: The 2007 Editorial of Scientia observed that there has been a turning of tides in the College of Science: science majors who were once active in joining mobilizations to fight the injustices of the government seem to have become deaf and apathetic about the issues in our country. But the tides must turn again and we must bring back what was once here in the College: a militancy that dissents from the tyrannical voice of the highest power in the land.

RED IS THE COLOR of blood and war, of heart and love, of passion and fire.

It is also the color of activism. There was a time not so long ago when the College of Science could boast of a politically active student population, a significant part of whom performed that which the majority branded the ultimate show of activism: donning a red shirt and marching out into the streets to rally.

Sadly and unfortunately, they are gradually being replaced.

But then again it is quite understandable why we, today’s generation of CS students, turn a deaf ear to those loud voices inviting us to take part in a mobilization. After all, we are students, first and foremost, and so prioritize our academics; this is probably why we always end up cramming the night away. We may have also been warned by our parents and teachers — people we regard with high esteem — that to pledge support in any form to these activist groups would be unsafe, and this must be the explanation why whenever classes are suspended in favor of a discussion forum, we’d rather go to the mall, where there’s just as much possibility of being bombed. Or perhaps we don’t really agree with the ideology they espouse so that whenever we’re asked about our own opinion or stand on an issue, we stutter our way through a halfbaked reply.

It might sound funny, but the irony of the situation is far too alarming for humor. Amidst all these justifications that we contradict with our own actions, it becomes apparent now that the real reason we don’t participate is because we don’t want to. It’s as simple as that. We just don’t want to.

We hide securely behind the belief that as long as we conduct our experiments and solve our classroom problems perfectly, we are fulfilling our niche in society. These are what scientists like us are supposed to do anyway— do our science. We proudly acknowledge this as our form of activism. That we carry this responsibility is irrefutable, but to apathetically do science for science’s sake is just as inconceivable. How can it be activism? How can we say we do it for the people and the country when we don’t bother concerning our science-oriented minds with political and social issues? We may not be able to solve all of them through scientific research, but at the very least, we have to know about them.

So we haven’t caught the details about the latest government scandal? So we’re tired of hearing the same old proclamations of graft and corruption and unjust fee increases from just one party that we’re not so certain what’s the truth anymore? All the better, as these barriers allow us to find out for ourselves! It isn’t an excuse to say that we have not the time nor the resources to get to the bottom, or even halfway down, of these. In the end, isn’t that what science is all about? Asking and searching for the answer until we hold it tightly in our grasp?

Unless we summon our mind, which is the most powerful weapon we have, to fight a valiant battle, we might as well allow activism — along with our social consciousness — to dwindle to its slow, painful death.

Woe befall us then.