A
s
the minute hand of the clock above the wall of the living room inched toward
twelve o’clock midnight, each ticking of the sound of the clock signals that another
brand new day will start. Writing again in my blog after the long hiatus is
quite exciting as it leads one’s minds towards self-discovery and reflection on
the cheerfulness and promise of tomorrow. It is indeed quite good to think
deeper during the silence of the night under the silver clear moonlight and twinkling
little shiny stars above the night sky. While I am having my random thoughts in
front of my laptop about some stuff on the different things around us, I cannot
help but think of the wonders of the technological revolution our present generation
is living through.
We
are lucky because in this fast-paced age of modern technology and information
superhighway, everything would be just one mouse click away. Indeed, the world
has changed for it successfully passed through the three different stages of
revolution – from the agricultural phase to the information age, which is a full-proof
of Alvin Toffler’s Third Wave. The
transition from the agricultural to industrial based economy which puts primacy
importance to land, capital and other physical assets or factors of production
paved the way to information age where there is an increasingly free flow and
exchange of ideas in the marketplace.
In
the advent of electronic age and internet revolution, there was a considerable
anxiety that the sweeping change in this modern-day era would lead to the end
of human freedom, abolition of individual’s right to privacy, and perhaps state
disintegration. Nonetheless, these predictions subside as the digital and
electronic information superhighway transcends boundaries across time and space
by demonstrating the opposite of the aforementioned anticipations. It has,
instead, been an effective tool in espousing the libertarian spirit and
leveling of the democratic space where each individual has the right to speak
one’s mind and thoughts on issues that greatly affect them by using different
platforms and social media. Globalization and the concomitant effects of
internet revolution has propelled the worldwide recognition and promotion of
human rights and strengthening of the international human rights’ laws as well
as cooperation between and among state parties, international organizations and
other similar institutions in the delivery of borderless justice. The recent
concurrence of the Senate of the Philippines on the Rome Statute of the
International Criminal Court of Justice was a development for the strengthening
of human rights and the supremacy of the rule of law.
In
all cases, the Third Wave which we currently experiencing undoubtedly gives
rise to the so-called e-governance never before been deciphered by our great
political thinkers a long, long, time ago. The decentralization and the
opportunity of our leaders to reach out for their constituents at the
grassroots level through innovative ways of doing things facilitates the two-way
street of communication between the central and the periphery as well as
responding to the needs and demands of the governed. I just wonder if we have
Time Machine that could transport us to and from the past, present and future and
share the bountiful wonders of Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Multiply and other
social networking sites to our great, great forefathers. If there could have been
other platforms of communication during World War I and II, leaders of great
nations would be able see themselves in the sea of understanding. Indeed, if
only we can see the future, we can be much happier and feel more fulfilled
because we can do something to make things better.
The
freedom of expression guaranteed under the 1987 Philippine Constitution which springs
from our natural inherent right as an individual is indeed priceless. John Stuart Mill,[1]
however, reminds in his Liberty, that the liberty of the individual must be,
thus, far, limited; he must not make himself a nuisance to other people. Pope
Leo XIII[2]
Libertas Praestantissimum (1888) on Human Liberty emphasizes that true
liberty of human society does not consist in every man doing what he pleases,
for this would simply end in turmoil and confusion and bring on the overthrow
of the state. He espoused then the necessity of obedience to the supreme and
eternal law, which is on the authority of God, commanding good and forbidding
evil.
As we
reap the wonders of technological revolution brought about by the Third Wave, the foregoing principles
from our great political thinkers reverberate continuously. It echoes the same
reflection that in the exercise of our fundamental human rights as citizens of
a democratic and republican state we have always the social responsibility to
obey and respect the supremacy of the rule of law.
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