Yet it was during that century that Karl Marx gained prominence by publishing the The Communist Manifesto in 1848. Furthermore, when I was arguing with another Catholic here about the (in)effectiveness of hellfire and brimstone preaching because of the ideas promoted during that period, he bemoaned the Enlightenment as “the beginning of the end”.
Seriously. Why do we even call it the ‘Enlightenment’ anyway? What are we exactly ‘enlightened’ of?
All in all I’m not fond of it as I am fond of the medieval age before it and the urban era we live in today.
In the former, it inspires settings filled with magic and adventure. Stories of knights, ogres, wizards, and dragons. It makes me fantasize of being part of an adventuring party on yet another epic quest to the different parts of the world. It also makes for a nice DnD campaign.
The latter makes me think of leather-clad protagonists, school girls, and shounen heroes with stories of drama, angst, friendship, and hot-blooded action. (I might wanna warn you about the fan service though. XD)
I’m with you in the first one about liking the so-called ‘Age of Faith’ (ah, those times when people still had the patience to walk long distances just to get to Rome, Jerusalem, or Santiago de Compostela). But let me ask: why is it that the Middle Ages have become so entwined with RPG’s and the fantasy genre? Is it actually Professor Tolkien’s fault!?
I’m a bit divided about the modern age though: we are technically advanced. TOO advanced, I must say. The world’s getting smaller and smaller by the minute.
The 1800s on the other hand? Well the only cool things that pop up into mind are steampunk, gothic lolitas, and bishounen vampires. >_>;;
The rest is all just pomp and empty etiquette. :\
And here in Japan, the latter 1800’s are the time when
sakoku was finally abolished and the country opened its doors fully once more. So when you say 1800’s, the images of
shinsengumi or samurai coming to grips with Westernization and modernization also appear in my head (uh, no, I’m not specifically talking about
THAT or even
THAT).
Finally, let’s not forget that my country was still under Spanish rule at that time and possibly at the height of its tyranny. As much as I’m grateful for them Christianizing us, I loathed everything else about what they did more than what our American or even Japanese colonizers have done. At least the Americans eventually helped us gain independence and my history book says the Japanese actually promoted literature in our native language.
Hmm, this fellow Filipino says thar you make a good point.
Which reminds me though. A number of our (Filipino) historians often have had a tendency to exalt, almost deify our heroes (in the case of Jose Rizal, some actually do literally
worship him!) and demonize our ‘enemies’, that when you see the way the lives of such people as Rizal or Bonifacio are usually presented, you’ll think they’re something like saints who could do no wrong*: you’d feel that any criticism directed toward them or showing them in a less flattering light somehow makes you ‘anti-patriotic’, an enemy of the whole nation.
All this of course at the cost of the Spaniards, usually stereotyped as being obese, money-grubbing clerics who like to preach the stereotypical fire-and-brimstone sermon from the pulpit in a language only the elite can understand, abuse the
indios and rape women. Rizal so criticized them (for the most part, he was right; still, could there be a possibility that he overdid it in a few areas though?) and Bonifacio and his men fought against them, but the words and acts of both sides are a mixed blessing: they unfortunately obscured all those good stuff which came with the Spaniards.
Kind of like Marcos’ Martial Law: many people today are so caught up in the (unjust) atrocities and abuses done during that era, especially in the latter half, that they do not see some of the actually good stuff which happened then.
Of course, if we’re going to recount the atrocities done by foreign countries here, we might as well include those who fought during the tumultous period that is Philippine-American war (even after Miguel Malvar surrendered, officially becoming one of the last generals to surrender to American forces) such as Macario Sakay, Julian Montalan or Luciano San Miguel. Their names were blackened for quite a long time due to the ‘brainwashing’ that many in the country was subjected to after their deaths or lapse into obscurity: officially they were reckoned as mere
bandoleros or
bandidos who caused trouble and who got their well-deserved punishment.
*Of course, this is not a Filipino-only phenomenon: we humans in general often paint a rose-tinted picture of the people we admire that we often think they’re incapable of fault.
) have left me in despair, and I mean that in a good way. 