Lecture of Elites in the Society

1. Eight Points in Enlightening the ELITES
A Supplementary Lecture
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Discussant:
Ferdinand Dupaya Salagan,RPT, MA,MPA,PhD Cand.
Associate Professor, Department of Social Sciences
Lecture Presented – First Sem. August 2012

2. Eight Points in Enlightening the ELITES
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MAIN QUESTION:
“ Are the elites who control the Philippines, ENLIGHTENED,
UNENLIGHTENED OR PSEUDO-ENLIGHTNED? “

3. Eight Points in Enlightening the ELITES
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Point No.1. There are no and there never will be
perfectly egalitarian societies. All societies will
always have Élites.

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Who are the ELITES?

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2. Élites will always be the source of widespread change
in society, good or bad.
The masses instinctively take their cues
from the Élite or members of the Élite.
In fact, historically, the leaders of mass
movements have often been members of
the Élite themselves.

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3.A significant majority of the Élites of a given society must be
enlightened and capable of critical reasoning for that Élite to
espouse effective positive change in society.
 If among the Élites, only a very small
minority achieve a high level of
enlightenment and ability to think things in
a critically rational way, whilst the majority
of the Élites are unenlightened or
pseudo-enlightened, then the Élites will
end up divided and will not be able to
agree on proper policy.
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3.A significant majority of the Élites of a given society must be
enlightened and capable of critical reasoning for that Élite to
espouse effective positive change in society.
 More importantly, the viewpoint of the truly
enlightened Élites ends up muted (due to their limited
numbers amidst a vast sea of ignorance) and their
proposed course of action, neglected.
Discussions, arguments, and debates on policy thus
become a matter of sophistry (trying to “appear correct”
through the use of rhetorical techniques) rather than
genuinely weighing pros and cons and studying the
feasibility of the stated options through logic and
inquisitive reasoning.
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3.A significant majority of the Élites of a given society must be
enlightened and capable of critical reasoning for that Élite to
espouse effective positive change in society.
 Point number 3 states that the difference
between good change and bad change
for society is determined by the presence
or absence of enlightenment
and rationalism among the majority of the
Élites.
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3.A significant majority of the Élites of a given society must be
enlightened and capable of critical reasoning for that Élite to
espouse effective positive change in society.
Enlightenment, more importantly, is all about
the continuous search for a high-level of
knowledge, a high-degree of common-sense
intelligence, and the continuous use of logic and
reason in order to tie common-sense and vast
amounts of knowledge together in order to come
up with a fairly accurate understanding of
various relevant phenomena and formulate
suitable courses of action in order to solve
problems that may be perceived.
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3.A significant majority of the Élites of a given society must be
enlightened and capable of critical reasoning for that Élite to
espouse effective positive change in society.
“ It is not considered enlightenment if after
achieving a high-level of knowledge in one or
more fields, a person decides that he/she has
reached the end point of knowledge and thus
refuses to learn anything new and no longer
considers it necessary to update his/her
knowledge in the fields in which he/she has
achieved a degree of expertise.
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3.A significant majority of the Élites of a given society must be
enlightened and capable of critical reasoning for that Élite to
espouse effective positive change in society.
Enlightened people will always
seek to provide well thought-
out and highly informed opinions,
rather than opinions that are purely
based on sentiment, emotional
attachment, or other flimsy or
arbitrarily concocted reasons.
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12. 4.Bigger potential dangers are likely to arise from
the pseudo-enlightened or “half-enlightened” Élites.
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Who are the Pseudo-
Enlightened?
1.They are often of the impression that they are
“enlightened” often because they believe that society
needs to be improved, as most enlightened thinkers in the
past had often advocated improved social and economic
conditions for society.

13. 4.Bigger potential dangers are likely to arise from
the pseudo-enlightened or “half-enlightened” Élites.
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Who are the Pseudo-
Enlightened?
2. They are also likely to think of themselves as being
“enlightened” if the point of view and/or course of action
they advocate is unconventional, controversial,
revolutionary, and not necessarily popular, due to the fact
that historically, many important figures of the
Enlightenment espoused unconventional, controversial,
and unpopular views.

14. 4.Bigger potential dangers are likely to arise from
the pseudo-enlightened or “half-enlightened” Élites.
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Who are the Pseudo-
Enlightened?
3. But because Élites of society who are pseudo-
enlightened have effectively deluded themselves to think
that they are “enlightened”, they will think that “they
already have all the answers”, and will often oppose the
aims, views, and actions of the truly enlightened
members of society. If the truly enlightened are too few in
number, they will effectively be overwhelmed by the more
numerous pseudo-enlightened ones.

15. 4.Bigger potential dangers are likely to arise from
the pseudo-enlightened or “half-enlightened” Élites.
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Who are the Pseudo-
Enlightened?
4. Most pseudo-enlightened intellectuals often require
that their followers take their information from the same
source, interpret it in the same way, and believe in the
same things. There is an element of imposing a common
subjectivity on the whole group, just so that the entire
group can be united and unanimous. Strict adherence to
the “orthodox view” is necessary, lest a purge be done to
rid the group of deviant “heretics.”

16. 4.Bigger potential dangers are likely to arise from
the pseudo-enlightened or “half-enlightened” Élites.
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Who are the Pseudo-
Enlightened?
5. Pseudo-enlightened intellectuals and their followers
can be somewhat described as subscribing to a form of
Messianism, where they believe that the author of an
ideology is a kind of Messiah and his ideology and
writings, his “Holy Scriptures.” Far from merely taking the
author’s “advice” with a grain of salt, pseudo-enlightened
intellectuals and their followers unquestioningly swallow
the author’s entire work as “Gospel Truth” and often
refuse to acknowledge overwhelming real-world evidence
that refutes the basic tenets of their ‘religion.’

17. 5. History is full of Elite Leadership in Social Change.
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5. There are, in fact, much more people among the Élite
who are unenlightened and half-enlightened. The
unenlightened ones are busy fitting spoilers on their
daddies’ cars, going to bars/discos, partying, while the
pseudo-enlightened ones chant repetitive mantras in
street rallies, get indoctrinated in extremist cadres, and
some even join armed movements. These are all
members of the Élite, yet they are not enlightened. (Yes,
even student leaders in leftist groups are members of the
Élite. They are relatively better off than the rest of the
masses. Labor & Union leaders are Élites because of the
influence they wield.)

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5. History is full of Elite Leadership in Social
Change
Group
Meetings
One-to-One
Meetings
Salary
Illustration
& Benefit
Statements
Until the vast majority of the Philippine Élite are
capable of discussing issues rationally in a calm, cold,
detached, critically objective, and scientific manner, as
opposed to discussions based on fervently-held
fanatical beliefs and religio-ideological convictions,
the Élite will be considered far from being enlightened.
If the majority of the Élite is far from being enlightened,
then the future of the society it heads cannot be said to
be headed in a positive direction.

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6 Whereas it is next to impossible, given the enormity of the task,
to effectively enlighten the masses, it should at least be possible to
Enlighten the Élites.
.
Group
Meetings
One-to-One
Meetings
Salary
Illustration
& Benefit
Statements
Resources are scarce, not over-abundant. While it would
be ideal to educate and enlighten the masses, we know
that given the dearth of resources and the fact that
extremely good (enlightened & rationalist) teachers are not
easy to come by, the first step should be to first
concentrate the effort of enlightenment and teaching the
values of Rationalism on the relatively small Élite sector of
society that has the power and influence to fan out this
enlightenment to the rest of society.

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6 Whereas it is next to impossible, given the enormity of the task,
to effectively enlighten the masses, it should at least be possible to
Enlighten the Élites.
.
Group
Meetings
One-to-One
Meetings
Salary
Illustration
& Benefit
Statements
Enlighten the Élites first, then once a majority of the Élites
are enlightened, the policies these enlightened Élites will
pursue within society will likewise be enlightened.
When the policies the Élites pursue are “enlightened”,
they will naturally seek to enlighten the Masses and seek to
uplift them.
Put another way, if you enlighten all the Élites then these
Élites, being enlightened, will seek to enlighten the
masses.
From there, we must realize that not all of the masses will
be enlightened…

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7. The Enlightenment of the Élites must be thorough and
not half-baked.
This is a corollary to point number 4, since as
mentioned, the worst enemies of the
enlightened Élite are not the unenlightened
Élite nor even the unenlightened masses, but
rather, the pseudo-enlightened (or half-
enlightened) sector of the Élite. Being Élites,
they too will have some measure of power
and influence.
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7. The Enlightenment of the Élites must be thorough and
not half-baked.
Being partially-enlightened, they’ll think
they know the answers on what needs to
be done.
Being partially-unenlightened, they’ll
pursue the wrong aims, use the wrong
means, and cause more damage instead
of fixing things.
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7. The Enlightenment of the Élites must be thorough and
not half-baked.
When the level of enlightenment among the
Élites is uneven, and a huge sector is only
partially enlightened, you end up with a divided
Élite.
Partial enlightenment often leads people to seek
answers from ideologies rather than through
critical rationalism. When this happens, those
who flirt with ideologies will end up becoming
pseudo-enlightened.
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7. The Enlightenment of the Élites must be thorough and
not half-baked.
To reiterate what was mentioned in point number
3, having a divided Élite where the enlightened
Élites form a small minority and the rest of the
unenlightened and pseudo-enlightened Élite is
factionalized into so many splinter-groups that
are antagonistic to one another presents more
problems than having a “rich-poor” or “Élite-
masses” divide.
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7. The Enlightenment of the Élites must be thorough and
not half-baked.
A divided and highly factionalized Élite will
constantly squabble amongst themselves and
will, in the long run, spell out a directionless
society that is in a constant state of “virtual civil
war.” This was partly the situation in former
President Corazon Aquino’s “rainbow coalition” in
which various mutually-antagonistic pseudo-
enlightened factions of the Élite (yes, even the
leaders of the Left are part of the Élite) were all
brought together into one government. The result
was the lack of direction, stagnation, and hence,
the lack of progress.
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. 8.Entry to the Élite must not be closed to aspirants.
Upward mobility and accepting qualified entrants
into the Élite is of utmost importance. In many
developed societies, many members of the “Élite”
did not necessarily descend from members of a
hereditary Élite. Many had humble parental
origins. The key, in improving society, is in
allowing the Élite group to expand and continually
grow.
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. 8.Entry to the Élite must not be closed to aspirants.
The development of society, particularly the
history of the First World, is founded on
allowing the Élite group to grow and expand
by creating opportunities for members of the
masses to improve themselves and become
new members of the Élite. The expansion and
creation of a strong and large middle class is
precisely what this is all about. Without this,
the ideals of true representative Democracy
will never come into fruition in the
Philippines.
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