Crisis and the Narrative

Written on Friday, May 23rd, 2008 at 4:29 pm | by Marck Ronald Rimorin

Walden Bello, in his book “The Anti-Development State,” has a good phrase for it: “permanent crisis.”  Bello’s argument is rather provoking: we are a nation controlled by a powerful elite that opposes and rejects every move to address large-scale social and economic inequalities.  Yet it is “permanent crisis” that has - and should have - a long-standing impact upon us.  Are we really a nation in permanent crisis?  If so, what is the permanent solution to it?

Students of the social sciences have a good phrase for it: “Grand Narrative.”  The “Grand Narrative” is usually used to describe an all-encompassing, totalizing explanation for social phenomena.  Over the years, the idea of a metanarrative-like solution to resolve the problems of the Philippines has been a very tantalizing prospect; “holistic” solutions, if you will.  Metanarrative-like solutions are all around us: EDSA, protracted war, revolution, federalism, Charter Change, and so on and so forth.  One can even view migration as a metanarrative-like solution.

Which begs a question: do we have a metanarrative-like problem?  Do we have a “Grand Crisis” that can be solved by a “Grand Solution?”

When you lump up all the problems of the Philippines, you basically have just that: a lump of problems.  These problems cannot be resolved or addressed by a single totalizing solution.

That doesn’t mean that we are hopeless, though.  I’m turning 23 in a couple of months, and the least I want to do is to start a whole new year of my life without hope for the better.  I think we need localized solutions outside of a metanarrative-like one.  We need smaller, localized narratives.  At the very least, a one-to-one correspondence between solutions and problems.

Don’t get me wrong: if someone comes up with a valid, convincing “Grand Solution” to our grand problems, then that’s definitely a good idea.  What I would like to see is more people participating in the construction of smaller narratives addressing problems on the basis of them being problems.  Truth be told: you can’t blame everything on Arroyo, “The System,” or the “Filipino culture.”

While there is justice and citizenship in ousting GMA on the basis of her legitimacy, this is not an assurance that we have all our problems solved by whatever or whoever replaces her.  While there is merit in a “holistic change” by turning “The System” over, it is the very vagueness and ambiguity of The System that makes this seem like not a very good idea.  The “Filipino culture” is a mélange of different cultures amalgamated into one: to me, this is the very embodiment of the (postmodern) concept of “différance.”

This is what makes dialogue, discussion, and awareness so important.  Each one of us has a voice in the noisy and chaotic “consensus.”  We need more constructs.  We need more narratives.

In a nutshell, “Make some noise.”

There are those who refuse to listen, but that’s… another story.

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About The Author: Marck Ronald Rimorin is a twenty-something blogger, "critic," and writer from Baguio City, and currently works in Metro Manila as a writer. His personal blog is at The Marocharim Experiment

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2 Responses to “Crisis and the Narrative”

  1. Nick on May 23rd, 2008 6:58 pm

    Excellent post Marck, multi-dimensional, that’s the word I’ve been using a lot lately.. The issues we face, connected, but separate.. Separate but connected..

    Poverty, corruption, health care, etc..

    I’m in agreement on this one, there’s definitely no grand solution.. only little steps, little actions, which together may form a grand solution..

    And the dialogue aspect of it all too, I guess this is why we are all so passionate about having a go at this site.

  2. A thought on BenignOism and FilipinoVoices telos | Filipino Voices on June 7th, 2008 5:48 am

    […] this could be seen as part of Marck Ronald Rimorin “localized solutions outside of a metanarrative-like” one to our “grand problems,” is […]

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