Technological Domination and the Transformation of the Filipino Mind: Americanization and the Erosion of Filipino Critical Consciousness
Jeffry Ocay
Abstract
There were more than two hundred revolts of uneven scope that had perpetually, yet sporadically, threatened the three hundred thirty-three years of Spanish colonial regime in the Philippines. In fact, even before the establishment of the Spanish colonial government in 1565, some native Filipinos had already shown “resistance” to this colonial domination. The famous Battle of Mactan in 1521 is a classic example, one which also marked the start of the development of Filipino critical consciousness that climaxed in the 1896 Revolution. During American colonial and postcolonial period, however, when the Philippines entered the age of “consumerism,” resistance had been steadily vitiated and the Filipino people became increasingly complacent, a condition which leads to the erosion of Filipino critical consciousness. My main goal in this paper is to demonstrate the emergence of these phenomenon. Here, I will argue that they resulted from “technological domination” construed in this paper as a deliberate imposition of the American way of life on Philippine society.
