Mission's Framework for Achieving a Sustainable Society - Framework 6

The battle for hearts and minds is the mother of all battles, and will deeply affect what happens in the economic and political arenas. This is also why the peaceful societal revolution of MISSION requires an inner revolution in order to succeed in transforming Philippine society.

Ask the U.S. troops in Iraq how it felt to win military battles and lose the war of hearts and minds. Cultural power is the major power in any society and it is organized citizens and cultural institutions that wield it for good or for bad. This is the reason why MISSION will start first as a cultural revolution, and from this vantage point, it will influence the direction of politics and economics in the Philippines.

Lasting change thus will come only when we mobilize concerned citizens in ALL realms of society – economic, political, and cultural (especially civil society organizations). We need to build strategic alliances with citizens in all realms of society to successfully undertake the kind of radical societal change we want for the country.

Our call for transformation is therefore society-centered, and not state-focused as has usually been the case. We call this a societal threefolding revolution, referring to the peaceful radical transformation of all spheres of society. This does not mean shying away from political advocacy. Rather it means broadening the arena of struggle to include not only the political arena, but also the economic and cultural ones as well.

In this regard, MISSION will encourage, as a priority, the sprouting of thousands of visionary civil society initiatives and green businesses to begin the arduous but exciting journey of cultural and economic renewal. MISSION will also have a supportive but critical relationship with PANGMASA, Partidong Marangal na Sambayanan, a political party that focuses on mainstreaming new politics. (See www.nicanorperlas.com for more details on new politics and PANGMASA.)