From his accidental entry into the world of activism at the height of the Indo-China Wars to his decade-long engagement with the anti-Marcos resistance movement, and, ultimately, pivotal role in various anti-globalization movements across much of the post-colonial world, Bello’s soulful memoir is a peerless panoramic view of our contemporary world and its discontents. Arguably, the most trenchant element of the book, and Bello’s overall oeuvre, is his pioneering analysis of the reactionary side of the middle class, beginning with his doctoral work on the tragic demise of the Allende administration in Chile. Comparative empirical evidence shows how “middle classes were not necessarily forces for democratization” but instead a “Janus-faced class,” which could be a force for good when “fighting elites defending their power and privileges” but also a reactionary force “when confronted with lower classes seeking a revolutionary transformation of society.” Throughout the book, Bello repeatedly returns to this theme, since it explains both the failures of the Philippine Left and, crucially, the rise of what my fellow columnist Randy David has described as “Dutertismo.” The facts speak for themselves. During both the 2016 and 2022 elections, pre-election surveys and exit polls clearly show that a far larger share of the “ABC” voters fell for the “strongman” rhetoric of the victorious candidates than the most marginalized sections of the society. The reactionary sections of the Philippine middle class not only supported oligarchic ”liberals” who supplanted the Marcos regime, Bello observes, but also served as the most eloquent apologists of the Duterte dynasty in the past decade. Read Full Story
