So why should we study Rizal?

I was able to stumble upon a very interesting piece about our National Hero Jose Rizal, the author begs the question on Why Filipinos should study Rizal?

The answer as I see it is a no-brainer, you don’t have to like Rizal to study him, you don’t have to be in school to like Rizal or be an intellectual to appreciate him.

The simplest answer I could come up with is because you’re a Filipino.

I mean other peoples and nationalities appreciate the hero more than we do, isn’t it more reason enough for us to open our minds to what this great person has to offer?

I think the problem doesn’t lie with why we should study Rizal instead the problem lies on where we should find Rizal and who’s to tell us about him or if we should take a historians word for it.

You see Rizal is like religion, sometimes you have to find your own truth by yourself and not from the mouths of so-called history gurus.

Rizal will remain as Rizal but Rizal as an idea is an ever evolving one, because not only does it make you ask questions about the veracity of your past or his past or the taking into context the power of his conviction, or his complete contradiction to what he writes.

Perhaps thats the problem why we don’t want to study Rizal or why people find it difficult to associate with him, it is because in every little way we see a part of ourselves in his characters and his person.  That it is a very difficult task to categorize his ideas while not looking at the prism that he holds in front of a mirror that is our nation.

Rizal weaved a complex intangible representation of what we are and what we will be and what we are doomed and destined to be as a people and a nation.

He literally didn’t just gave the solution to the problems facing his time but he also offered it as a problem for us to face in the coming times when we can really call ourselves as Filipinos and not as Indios.

So why should we study Rizal other than the reason that we are Filipinos? Other than it is the law and we need it to get a friggin diploma out of every University?

What is Rizals’ relevance in our everyday life?

In the psychological perspective there is the belief that we make sense of anything presented to us even if in thought and reality there really is no sense at all, so we’ll narrow down the question to if Rizal really has a sense to be studied? If he is worth studying or if we just create that seeming false sense of meaning to his persona?

I think even if you ask Rizal right now he’ll tell you straight away that even he don’t know why you should study him or why his works and teachings were made into a law to be studied, perhaps he’ll look at you in the eye and ask you why you NEED to study him.

So I’m offering you this, If you were Rizal why do you think you should be studied?

Answers anyone?

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