Hacienda is a musical play that I first drafted in 1986 as an allegory
about the clash of value systems that came to a boil during the
now famous People's Power revolution in the Philippines.
I've
always been interested in why people tend to follow or tolerate
authority even to the point of engaging in hideous atrocities. Fear
of reprisal is an obvious reason. Selfishness is another. But I
think we, as human beings, often do not see our own ultimate accountability.
It takes imagination -- moral imagination -- to do so, and without
which dictatorships of any kind - whether manifested politically
out in the world or emotionally inside of us -- will thrive.
A people would need imagination
of the highest order to see the fetters, and with courage, break
them. In many societies, poets and artists usually have been among
the first to reject official realities. And the EDSA revolution
is a shining affirmation of a people's poetry and courage.
I've
always been interested in why people tend to follow or tolerate
authority even to the point of engaging in hideous atrocities. Fear
of reprisal is an obvious reason. Selfishness is another. But I
think we, as human beings, often do not see our own ultimate accountability.
It takes imagination -- moral imagination -- to do so, and without
which dictatorships of any kind - whether manifested politically
out in the world or emotionally inside of us -- will thrive.