Mendicant Society....a new form of social illness ?

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Many of us ponder the factors behind the creation of corruption in our youth, our culture, our politicians, even our families. By taking a look at the issue broadly, we might query too how an entire society can lose its balance due to lack of morals, principles, discipline, hope, and other factors. Mendicant Society zeroes in on a number of societies, be it those from the Philippines, the United States, or elsewhere, which in essence have relinquished their powers to third parties and become, quite literally, mendicants--in other words acting as if unable to stand on their own without the good grace and assistance of others.

            What are some examples of mendicant societies, how do these societies come to be, and what can be done to help them help themselves? We exemplify the Philippines as a case and point because of its long history of government-sponsored human exportation which adds a great sense of calculated malignancy to this problem: 1) by creating a society at that sustains itself by way of remittances home sent to them by family members working abroad; and 2) by supporting a national government that lends itself to being mendicant to the very people it serves.

            In the case of the Philippines, its mass exportation of human labor breaks up families, leaving for instance mother and child at home while the father sends remittances home from abroad. Given the scarcity of employment opportunities in the Philippines, family members left behind often begin to self-identify as hopeless and helpless victims of circumstance. To compound this dilemma, these family members receive remittances: an at-first enticing prospect which gives them (however) very little motivation to seek employment themselves. The figurative door is thrown open as a result to sloth, greed and corruption.

            Such corruption is largely reflected in the Filipino national government, an entity that profits enormously at the expense of its own citizens--the overseas foreign workers. It may not be so far-fetched to reason that many Filipinos who stay on the Islands subconsciously, if not consciously, structure within their own minds false expectations for the world, for example that we need not sow anything to reap. By looking closely at the dynamics between parties, Mendicant Society aims to uncover some worldwide truths, not to mention deeper inquiry.

            As noted earlier however, the Philippines is of course not to be singled out as the sole proprietor of a mendicant society. In this day and age, perhaps most strikingly in the United States, the widening gap between rich and poor is reaching alarming proportions. If we take the Philippines again as a prime example, there too the huge disparity between upper and lower class is to be denounced, especially because it works to the bone those with very few possessions while stripping the wealthy few of their grasp of reality.

            This fate need not play itself out in the Philippines, in America, or elsewhere. Mendicant Society is a much-needed exploration (in the end) of the ego, of how to let go of our possessions in order to save our souls, for every one of us to embrace the value and power of work, and that in the end, now, and always, we receive exactly what we give.