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This article explores the disparities in the seafaring industry of the Philippines through the alternative notion of social imaginaries. Modern theories still rely on the pseudo-rationality, or the pretension of giving answers to all problems of societies only through rationality. Instead, the elucidation of Castoriadis considers common knowledge or social imaginaries, instituted through real facts, generalizations, dreams and desires of common individuals as fundamental to understand social dynamics. The capitalist imaginary of today’s society succeeds in the adherence of people to this dominant institution of society as individuals seek to reach the promise of progress. However, the same capacity of imagination leads individuals, in this case Filipino maritime students and seafarers, to face their problems, and in doing so, they defy the dominant imaginary and create better possibilities for their lives through social conceptions and practices otherwise dismissed as nonsense or deviant. These social practices lean on indigenous imaginaries and are normally despised by rationality, yet, they are considered a social therapy that humanizes the brutality of neoliberal capitalism.
