Breaking free from our apathy

WRITTEN BY NATALIE GALIBUT

Members of the College of Science community take part in the CS Library steps mobilization against tyranny last September 21.

photo: bea panlaqui PERHAPS WE’VE HEARD some of our peers declare themselves as “apolitical thinkers.” They don’t give a damn about political discourse or are simply apathetic towards anything involving public affairs such as government issues. Perhaps you share this sentiment yourself.

Amid the noise of the gunshots of the drug war, cries of victims of ethnic cleansing, campaign jingles of corrupt families vying for next year’s elections and many other happenings that constitute the cacophony that is Philippine politics—perhaps it is time to re-evaluate our “apolitical” mindset. An apolitical disposition, especially among us scientists of tomorrow, will only weaken the foundations of the nation.

It takes a certain amount of courage to admit that sometimes, we find ourselves simply accepting that the events that transpire in the lives of others are irrelevant to our experiences — that it is simply the way things are and we cannot do anything about these things. We create our own mental prisons, in which we isolate our minds from anything outside of the walls—that is our needs and interests— and by extension, the comings and goings of the state around us but “outside” us. Despite our apathy, no one’s particular life can ever be shielded from the dynamics of society and politics.

Can apathy be excused? Consider that we, the privileged, have access to sources of information. Supposedly, we have the power to know better and yet still be blissfully unaware of the developments around us. Thus to refrain from involving ourselves in national issues, policies and the overall sociopolitical affairs of this country boils down to a choice. To be responsible for making the choice to become apathetic is to have been born with eyes yet choosing to be blind, to have been born with vocal chords yet choosing to be mute.

We formulate our insights, and we establish whose side we align ourselves to. To advocate the drug war? To call for the regularization of contractual workers? To march with landless peasants? As UP students bound to serve the people, I hope it is clear whose interests we should advocate for.

With the way the state of the politics stands now, it is only imperative that we must reassess our carefree, if not our pessimistic, stance, that “I am only an ordinary student who can’t do anything about these issues.”

Once out of our respective alma maters, the different issues that we future scientists have hitherto chose to lay by the wayside comes to the fore—contractualization, lack of research funds, and low-salary (assuming if ever we get the job we are trained for in the first place and not get relegated into becoming call center agents or doing home-based online jobs).

Clearly, the state of science and technology in the Philippines is incredibly backward, as evidenced by the 2018 budget allocation for S&T — a mere 21 billion out of a grand total of 3 trillion pesos — almost only 0.6%! — for the Science Department (DOST) alone, whereas the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) got 643 billion pesos in allocation, because it serves as a milking cow for unscrupulous politicians. See those potholes being dug out again on otherwise still decent roads? They’re not going to cultivate anything there except kickback which would have otherwise gone to the DOST. By this token, science is entrenched with the very politics of the society in which it operates.

It therefore follows that to improve science, society and politics should be improved. Science is not merely the result of a desire to improve the current condition of things, not just the technology and existing scientific theories, but the social conditions as well.

In the words of one of the most popular philosophers of all time, “Man, by social nature, is a political animal.” Aristotle emphasized that everything in the life of man is politics, and each act, each driving motivation of man contributes to either the well-being or jeopardy of the state. The political stance we adapt guides us in both the most simple and most complex aspects of our life.

As the country becomes more and more deeply mired in various problems, the need to break away from the apathetic neutral stance intensifies as these problems become increasingly more felt among us individuals. And once we’ve realized this necessity to break free from this apathy, we ask ourselves what now is our interest, what is to be done? ●