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In this chapter I will employ a manifold, oblique approach to describing the cultures of Philippine sugar in order to “triangulate ” on my subject. Early on in my research I was struck by how frequently three words—“rationalization,” “group,” and “Chinese” —were articulated by individuals in the sugar industry and foodprocessing industry, and I have come to feel that each of these in its way is capable of shedding powerful insight on how sugar producers think about their worlds and the changes therein. Separate discussions of those three terms will comprise the first sections of this chapter. In the last section I will describe the inner conflicts felt by one particular sugar planter whose “bi-culturalism” afforded him the special ability to view planter life from a comparative perspective and whose interactions with me forced him to voice some things that caused him anxiety and discomfort. Given my affinity to the ideas of Max Weber, I was quite astonished by the frequent use of the term “rationalization,” a term so intimately associated with Weber and so widely debated among social scientists since his death. It became quite clear, however, that this word as used in the Philippines bore little relation to the Weberian ideal types. In fact, it had no precise meaning, or rather, it had highly diverse, even contradictory, meanings. It is a battleground word and a key diagnostic concept, the struggle over which sheds abundant light on the different values and meanings that competing elites attach to the issues facing the sugar industry and the nation’s political and economic life. I began to make specific notes about “rationalization ” in my field notebooks with the intention of focusing on the different usages of that term in order to explicate some of those competing values and meanings. My reaction to the word “group,” on the other hand, had nothing to do with the diversity or ambiguity of its meaning as I heard it used in the Philippines. Its meaning seemed to me quite consistent, but it was narrower and more specifically referential than the typical American meaning; so much so that at first I could not grasp it. Later Rationalization, Groupism, and the Chinese 201 6 on, when sugar planters or food-processing executives talked about “my group,” I was immediately able to understand the nuances of the term in its idiosyncratic Filipino sense. While an explication of that meaning does not shed light on specific conflicts or contestations , it does convey a powerful sense of the way many Filipino elites think about collective and individual action, and it provides insight into the institutional stasis that prevails in many sectors of the sugar industry. While there is still a great deal of animosity toward “Chinese” traders and “Chinese values” within the sugar industry, it is clear that the industry is becoming increasingly dominated by “Chinese” capital and business practices. The Chinese are increasingly held up as the example of positive virtues—hard work, thrift, and focus on the bottom line, and the children of planters are more often being encouraged by their parents to major in commerce, start businesses, and “be more like the Chinese.” The days in which the ownership of land was the only path to respectability in sugar producing areas are over. As urban industrial, commercial, and financial interests gain power and become culturally dominant, emulation of “the Chinese” becomes the way to success. Finally, I will discuss one of my key informants who is also one of my best friends in the Philippines. That he is a sugar planter who spent much of his life in America and was particularly interested in helping me understand the views of planters created a classic “double hermeneutic” that proved useful to my own interpretations of planter culture. But at the same time it forced my friend to confront some painful contradictions that he might have been happier not having to confront. Rationalization The term “rationalization” implies a process of moving from a current or past “irrational” state or condition to a present or future condition that is more rational, reasonable, and modern. But, of course, the specific content of each of these terms or conditions varies according to one’s values, opinions, and (dare I say) interests. For many, the term “rationalization” means that only “economic” factors should be used in making decisions, organizing industries and firms, apportioning property rights, and dealing with customers and suppliers. In this view, there is little or no role for government “interference...

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