Only the elite are afraid of nationalism

By Van Ybiernas

The elite fear that nationalism will undercut their economic and social power.

In the political arena, the rich and powerful, despite their wealth and power, still have the same vote as the poor and powerless: they all have one vote each!

Thus, the elite agenda is either to subordinate the poor and the powerless to THEIR selfish and myopic leadership OR having failed to get the leadership role they think they deserve, seek to emasculate and weaken the nation.

These are the people who will "warn" you of the potentials of nationalism for abuse. But nationalism per se is not abusive; fascism is. Thus, the game plan is to obfuscate, to confuse the people to think that nationalism is the same as fascism. To call nationalists fascists in order to discredit them. Because a disunited nation will have no choice but to turn to the elite for leadership.

In order to discredit nationalism, they will use as weapons the misappropriation or the severely limited definition of liberalism and its applications, such as human rights.

Nationalists are not against human rights. But that is what they want to convince you because they seek to destroy nationalism in order to bring victory to elitism.

They will also brand you as ignorant and misinformed, in order to stifle your voices. Because in the social and economic realm, the elites dominate. It is only in the democratic political arena where our voices ---the voices of the poor and the powerless--- can match and even surpass theirs.

Beware of the garbage they spew against nationalism. A weak nationalism strengthens elitism.

We've seen it happen in the last 30 years, so I think you know what I'm talking about.

If we go back further, we will see that this is what happened to Andres Bonifacio and the Katipunan; Hermano Puli and the Cofradia de San Jose, Diego Silang, and even all the way back to Tapar in the 17th century!

Be wary of the elite, my fellow Filipinos!

Mabuhay!