Days are so fast. Looking back, I missed only two months on this HIVE Power Up Day activity. Today is my tenth time participating in HIVE PUD.

Since this is the last month, I just want to make a brief commentary about an important event that happened yesterday in our country before proceeding to the details of my growth in HIVE power.

30 November 2022 was a holiday here in the Philippines commemorating the 159th birth anniversary of Andres Bonifacio. As expected, the occasion was taken advantage of by Statists on both sides from the right-leaning nationalist group and the left-leaning activist group.

The Nationalists

The theme of this year’s celebration is “Courage and Reputation in the Modern Age.” The President of the country delivered a message emphasizing “a stronger sense of nationhood” “inspired by Bonifacio’s patriotism, bravery, and sense of camaraderie.” Source

I would like to comment on two things:

First, the discrepancy in understanding the modern age between the academe and the public space. Writers of news articles don’t hesitate to describe our time as “modern” whereas people in academic institutions consider the modern age as thing of the past and we are now transitioning into what they call “postmodern.” They are convinced that the foundations built on the scientific project and the superiority of reason in the advent of the modern age are now crumbling in at least four areas of life: response to the basic questions of life, failure to provide the foundation for morality and society, view of inevitable progress, and the idea of the inherent goodness of knowledge.

Second, the distinction between nationalism and patriotism. Historically, to use these two terms as synonymous is inaccurate. The ethos of nationalism is to promote national welfare by inflicting harm on foreigners. Its outstanding method is discrimination against foreigners in the economic sphere. Foreign products are excluded from the domestic market or admitted only after the payment of import duty. Foreign labor is prohibited from competing in the local labor market. Foreign capital too is liable to confiscation. Such an ideology will inevitably result in hostility and even war.

Patriotism on the other hand is about the “zeal for one’s own nation’s welfare, flowering, and freedom” (Ludwig von Mises, Omnipotent Government, 1944, p.2). Patriots “recommend free trade, the international division of labor, goodwill, and peace among the nations, not for the sake of foreigners but for the promotion of the happiness of their nation" (ibid.).

That is why though I have a huge collection of nationalist literature, I no longer see myself as one. As a patriot, I cannot respond positively to the President’s call without harming the interest of the nation. Though I don’t suspect the sincerity of the nationalists’ intention, their chosen means to achieve such a goal is contrary to what they want to achieve.

The Progressives

As for the left-leaning activists, they described Bonifacio as “the most proletarian of all Filipino heroes.” Such an outlook implies a prejudice against the bourgeois who is perceived as the capitalist who owns “the means of production and most of the wealth in the society.” Source

Confining the social classes into just two will give us difficulty to locate the membership of both the elite and the middle class. If by the term, “bourgeois,” both the capitalist elite and middle class are included, how about the middle class that doesn’t own any means of production and also struggling economically?

True to their principles, the activists (now they prefer the term “progressives”) celebrated the day by calling for higher wages, lower prices, and labor rights. They see these as the continuation of Bonifacio’s struggle for independence and social justice. Source

Just like the nationalists, the progressives are misguided in their chosen method to achieve their goal of a higher standard of living. They resort to political pressure to achieve an economic end. Instead of gathering people on the street crying for “social justice” and thereby disturbing others in their economic activity, they should instead promote entrepreneurial innovations. That’s the only way to increase capital investment per capita that will lead to a higher standard of living, which is their main concern.

Activism is misguided if all the progressives can do is shout in the streets about their demands for change. Such courage is just a disguise for the absence of a concrete program. All their “revolutionary radicalism” are doomed to fail because they are looking for political means and thereby cannot liberate themselves from the dominance of government control. Source

And besides, if the demand for higher wages, lower prices, and labor rights will be realized apart from capital growth, laborers will be employed only by those industries prepared to suffer loss. When businesses could no longer afford losses, they will shut down resulting in more unemployment.

Progressives don’t see saving, investing, and doing business as concrete implementations of real activism. They see these as more barriers to be demolished than the actual means to achieve a higher standard of living. That’s the danger in embracing such an ideology for it blinds you to distinguishing wishful thinking from reality.

PUM and Increase in HIVE Power

Enough with my political and economic commentary. Time to shift to today's activity, the HIVEPUD!

Just this morning, I received a notification from #hivebuzz that I succeeded in powering up HIVE every day for the whole month of November.

I still have this month of December to complete this daily task of powering up HIVE.

As for the growth of my HIVE power, I was able to add 145 HP, a 13.24% increase in one month. So far, since 01 September, I have achieved a cumulative growth of 96.82%. That to me what sets apart HIVE from all other blockchain and layer 1 tokens out there. When almost everyone freaks out in this extended crypto winter, HIVE PUD is an actual demonstration that growth is achievable even in the midst of a ferocious Bear Market.

I am grateful for such growth. Though small and it will take a long time to reach the 2,000 mark, still this achievement contributes a lot toward that Dolphin goal with 5,500 HIVE power!

Grace and peace!