Pain and the Purification of Liberty

Reported by Rhiamie Santos Ratunil

Liberalism is borderless and liberty universal, because tyranny is
universal.

By late 19th century, liberalism had sealed its alliance with the
bourgeois,

Liberals played a key role in the imperialism of this period.

Liberalism has two faces:

Its first face seeks an “ideal way of life” based on “universal
principles.”
Its second face, however, seeks “terms of peace among different
ways of life.”
Liberalism is likewise a modus vivendi.

KEY POINTS ABOUT LIBERALISM

“Genuine” liberalism, according to Rizal, was to be found in those
who were most denied their liberties.

Today, we would say that Rizal’s liberalism placed a premium on

defending civil liberties.

The main barrier to the rights Rizal sought was the colonial system
and
its most reactionary representatives, the friars.

KEY POINTS ABOUT LIBERALISM

Realizing that his early advocacy for Filipinos to be granted full rights
as Spanish citizens was impossible, he began to aspire for an
independent
nation. His writings set the stage for the revolutionaries of the
Katipunan, which called him their honorary president and used his
name as a rallying cry.

The liberal Rizal inspired the first anti-colonial revolution in Asia.

KEY POINTS ABOUT LIBERALISM

When liberalism seemed triumphant in Europe, nothing would
change in
the colony, since it served as a dumping ground for the Carlist friars
that
Rizal despised. In such a context, contradictions and even hypocrisies
become more evident. In such a context, liberalism easily fails. But in
such a context, liberalism may also be purified.

KEY POINTS ABOUT LIBERALISM

METAPHOR OF LIBERALISM
•Rizal viewed liberalism as “a plant that never dies”.
•Like a plant, liberalism grows gradually, and, given the
right conditions, it can display radiant color. Like a plant,
liberalism also has different shades, and grows atdifferent
times, in different places.
Historian Eric Hobsbawm notes
th
Late 18 century:

“Age of Revolution”—a time when the

Industrial Revolution altered methods of
production, while the French and
American revolutions shifted the tenor
of political discourse.
Historian Eric Hobsbawm notes

Late 19th century:

“Age of Capital”—a time of a “massive advance

of the world economy of industrial capitalism,
of the social order it represented, of the ideas
and beliefs which seemed to legitimize and ratify
it: in reason, science, progress and liberalism.”
Historian Eric Hobsbawm notes

At the turn of a century:

“Age of Empire” — the era’s capitalism

had
expanded to various colonies
Rizal and his generation of intellectuals

-knew that many European liberals—especially the

Spaniards in the Philippines—refused to see the need for
liberty in colonial contexts.

-articulated a liberalism for the colony

-would in turn claim the mantle of liberalism for

themselves and experiment with a new form adapted to
their political needs.
Ilustrados
by Megan C. Thomas

-“worldly colonials”
-saw themselves as superior, more cosmopolitan, than the
Spaniards who lorded over their backward country.
-“positioned themselves as modern scholars and
intellectuals in a broader field in which their colonizers, the
Spanish, often lagged behind.
Ilustrados
by Megan C. Thomas

-For them, the world of scholarship had “no political

boundaries or authority, but only the authority of reason
and evidence”
-learned multiple languages and studied in multiple
European centers of learning.
Ilustrados
by Megan C. Thomas

-For them, the world of scholarship had “no political

boundaries or authority, but only the authority of reason
and evidence”
-learned multiple languages and studied in multiple
European centers of learning.