By MARIO M. TAGUIWALO

'Insolence is the new revolutionary weapon.'

During the French uprising in May 1968, the anarchists of Paris who raised this slogan grasped the value of insolence against the Gaullist rule of charisma and grand pronouncements. Although the nature, much less the principles, of the French struggle is very much different from our struggle, it is well to recognize the validity of an insolent attitude towards a seemingly formidable enemy like Marcos and his fascist minions. 

The initial insolence of the first intellectuals in the movement led them to junk the clichés of Western and American education and turn eastward for fresh truths about society. And even at this stage, when the ideological moorings of the national democratic struggle are firmly anchored, insolence of the politically conscious plays an important aspect in the tactics of the cultural revolution. The inherent decay of the culture of the ruling class, its bankruptcy and corruption, is the precondition for the birth of a revolutionary culture borne of insolence.

“Reactionaries are paper tigers” shouted in the face of a fully armed Metrocom detachment becomes a rallying cry to struggle fearlessly against the state. “Tuta” becomes not simply a statement of fact, but a blow to the self-righteous puppetry of the AFP. Knowing full well the utility and cowardice of the PC against the strength of Dante and the New People’s Army, we refuse to be intimidated, and this refusal contrasts with the state’s mounting efforts to intimidate us—a potent weapon to unmask the reactionary and bully nature of the Marcos regime.

'Audacity, audacity, and more audacity.'

Experience teaches us that the strategically correct position will triumph, even though it is tactically weak; that the emerging forces of national liberation and democracy will destroy the decaying forces of US imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucrat-capitalism. It takes a consistent and prolonged audacity to firmly grasp this ideologically, especially in the face of a seemingly static domination of reactionary forces. It is intellectual timidity to look at society and say that what is strong is strong and what is weak is weak. Audacity is a prerequisite before one can grasp the truth that what is strong slowly weakens and what is weak slowly strengthens.

This ideological audacity must be matched by such audacity in practice. The seeming strength of the three basic enemies of the Filipino people can be recognized as waning, as weakening every day with every blow that is struck against them. This truth must be manifest in the attitude of revolutionaries towards their enemies. Their insolence in the face of the enemy is the reflection of their intellectual audacity in practice.

Yet insolence alone is foolhardy. Audacity in itself is meaningless. What must link these attitudes towards struggle is the clear and unwavering sense of responsibility to the masses, and this comes only when the insolent and the audacious become politically conscious.

While it is true that the cultural revolution must teach the masses to struggle, it must also teach them to struggle effectively. The irrepressible enthusiasm of the mass movement and its correct orientation is slowly forcing the state to shed its democratic pretensions in order to try to counter the movement, but in the course the state reveals its repressive essence. The masses are thus armed with the recognition of the violent nature of the state and can make the strategic preparations for the struggle against it. 

Slowly we are succeeding in isolating the state for its puppetry to American interests, but the current line for struggle is yet to be discussed and accepted. Much remains to be done. ●

Published in print in the Collegian’s January 21, 1971 issue. 

Mario Taguiwalo was a political detainee during Martial Law. At 34, he served as undersecretary of the Department of Health in the early years of the Aquino administration. He was also involved in peace talks with armed insurrectionists at the time. Outside of civil service, Taguiwalo was an actor and writer, known for Unfaithful Wife (1986), Misteryo sa Tuwa (1984), and Hinugot sa Langit (1985), and a collaborator of his friend Peque Gallaga, a fellow Negros native. He was the brother of Judy M. Taguiwalo, former features editor for the Collegian in the 1970s and former secretary of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD). He died on April 22, 2012.