Jonathan Leo B.

Loscos Geotheology

1st Sem SY 2011-2012 Prof. George Buenaventura

Reaction to Slavery of our times Chapter 1to 3 by Leo Tolstoy as read from UGAT Quarterly Journal April to June 2011 The writing was a reflection infused by narratives of personal experiences. This is an account of the reduced quality of life of workers in Moskow. To earn a living on I forced to force his/her own body to be under submission of the task of the work. The body is submitted to work more than what is humane. The owner of the body, as a person chooses to do so probably with the thought that personal gain is worth the overly hard work to reason such as need and opportunity to earn. However, the time lost of a life and the quality it has went through is not compensated in the sense that they are lost! The dimension of human wholeness is reduced, yet there is no explicit crime but the crime of treating human life lesser than it ought to due to the given conditions. The society where one is supposed to be nurtured becomes the culprit of draining life from the individual. This could probably why Marxism has taken root in Russia and the religious reaction become focused on redemption as economic dimension of reaching to the individual as a means to affirm one hope, dignity, sentiment and dreams to enjoy the pleasures of life while there is still living time, not in a flawed or overly pleasure seeking sense, but in the sense that every being deserves a treatment where the value of personhood is not diminished. I appreciate the fortitude of the workers yet I felt sad that they seem to be unaware of their life being spent for something less than the dignity of their being. Probably that is the only opportunity for them to continue life. Such an irony to work for the sustenance of life through their earnings yet, the life as life itself is reduced! Their fortitude betrays their bodily care, their body submitted to such conditions removes what is designed for proper living and the worker perpetuates the system. The conditions test the human capacity but this perpetuation in the system is only as good as no one would dare to change it. The system, according to the reading was also backed up by some principles during that time, - thoughts that seem to give a proper basis not to disturb the status quo. This only indicates that permeating principles are strong enough to keep people to be stable on the system, so information is crucial. There wee instance that life of another especially of children of mother-workers were exchanged as an adaptive means for the continuance of their work. So the work itself seems to be addictive for just a handful reward. Men also take a little wine as a means to gain strength.

Now, in relation to society, society seems to have apathy about the situation, so not only the work but also about how they are accommodated. The evil of society cannot be separated from oneself as a probable part of solution or further degradation. Humans though we need material as a means for proper living must not be viewed as equivalent to a material worth of production. There are humans factors that cant be converted to have mechanical equivalents. In this condition, truly it is a form of slavery and the slaved person must be freed. How can freedom be achieved when the slaved persons seems to have an indirect addition to their predicament!? Well they only seem addicted since there were no immediate options. But his troy tells us something I about. People as people will become discontent and through the unity of arms, things could be overturned, systems could be remodeled and long sought innovations would come. This would come through the acceptance that there is a possible alternative, and this alternative can be sought and put into reality through the exhaustions of humane means to do away with what is to be excluded for the propagation of the better. The power of pervading teachings must be used as an arsenal to lead and not mislead, on different classes of society. The upper class need to be exposed to egalitarian principle under God, to have awareness and be moved in regards to the experiences of their fellow man - about the inhumanity of the production processes and also for the workers to let out their voice, to have an avenue not only due to discomfort but due to a violated human principle. However, it is more acceptable if change would come from the ones who are in power. It is hard for the powerless under class to struggle with those who are in power, but, it seems harder for those who have power to innovate their ways in favor of human dignity than for the production of wealth, compared to the powerless to struggle with them. Why is it so hard? The quest for social transformation is as hard as transforming an an individual being multiplied several time. The human conviction must be touched on the personal level through what is truky human as it abides abnd develop humane principles for his/her co-human being as both are involved in the social context. Economic systems reducing human for profits is not enough a reason to bargain for human time and human life and at the same time human life cannot be holistically redeemed by it.