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3281

by what do we mean today, in our modern times, to
say, “He is an atheist” does that mean he doesn’t believe in God?

No, in our modern times, to be an atheist means to hold disbelief in
our “Modern ism’s” of capitalism, to deny nationalism, to speak
disparaging of America, these Modern beliefs is what people
believe in today…

and so I am a true atheist… it doesn’t matter what I say about god,
the belief in god doesn’t even matter today, the real convictions,
the modern convictions are our modern ism’s and ideologies…

So I deny the true convictions of people today,

I deny the truth of capitalism and I deny the truth of nationalism
and I deny the truth of Americanism…and I deny our pursuit of
material goods and money… and this is the real atheism of our
modern times…

Kropotkin

3282

According to Kaufmann, Nietzsche greatest and most persistent problem,
was this…

“To escape nihilism–which seems involved both in asserting the
existence of god and thus robbing THIS world of ultimate significance,
and also in denying god and thus robbing everything of meaning and
value…”

so which horns of dilemma is Nietzsche going to get gored upon,
asserting god and thus taking away this world significance or
denying god and taking away everything of meaning and value?

for without a god to give us meaning, value or significance,
upon what do we now base our meaning, value or significance upon?

if we don’t derive meaning from god, then where or how do we
derive the significance of human existence?

what values is human existence based upon without god?

that is our modern question…and Nietzsche question…hence his value
to us “moderns”…he faced these questions before anyone even knew
they were questions and not just answers…

Kropotkin

3283

Nietzsche asked before it was even a problem,
about the values we hold to be true…about capitalism for example…

“we hold these truths to be self-evident, that capitalism is the truth”…

and here is what Kaufmann says

“Kant moral philosophy appeared to him, (Nietzsche) a prime
instance of the finding of bad reasons for what one believes
on instinct…”

to hold bad reasons why capitalism is the greatest thing since slice bread
but one really hold to capitalism by one’s instinct, greed for example,
or hate or lust…not by some actual well thought out examples of
the greatness of capitalism…

Kropotkin

3284

who holds to the theology of justice…
that justice is an “eye for an eye”…

the justice of an “eye for an eye” is really an instinct pretending
to be rational, logical, judicial…

but who has taken the time to understand what an “eye for
an eye” actually means?

who has had the wisdom to see that our theology of justice is
really nothing more then the need to hurt people who oppose us in
some fashion…

the judicial belief in an “eye for an eye” isn’t justice in any way, shape or form…
and never has been about “true justice”

an “eye for an eye” is about punishment, about taking our pound of flesh for
actions taken…

what is “true justice” is really about educational…

what does it mean to be a “just” person?

but our education system isn’t interested in teaching us in how to
be a better person…so our judicial system is about punishment which
is because we are too lazy to actually look into what justice really is…

if we see that most people who go into prison and recidivism
is the main result of going to prison, then our prison/judicial system
has failed…

either we educate or we imprison… and I for one, would rather
educate instead of imprison because clearly going to prison hasn’t
work on turning people into "good " people…if most people who go
to prison, at some point return to prison…

if we are going to “punish” people, let us truly punish them…

if one takes my leg, let us take his leg… if one takes money, take his money,
if one kills, then kill him… let us punish if we are going to punish…

But Kropotkin, that is cruel and inhuman punishment…
but sending them to prison isn’t somehow cruel or inhuman…

to remove people to protect society somehow means that society is innocent
of the creation of man’s inhumanity to man?

I say, that the very educational system helps create man’s inhumanity to man…

because we exists in a society that makes the pursuit of wealth and
power and material goods and titles has being more important then
people and their values… we practice nihilism in our modern age
and this means we punish those who harm private goods with more seriousness
then we do those who actually kill… property is more important then
people’s lives and that nihilism creates the conditions that allow
people to accept or understand that their lives have less value
then money or property… it is easy to kill when you have been
taught that money or property or material goods has more value then
you do or has more value then the people you see or know…

until we take seriously the concept that “all lives matter” we cannot
ever escape the devaluation or nihilism of our modern age…

either lives matter or property/material goods matter?

and our educational system, right now, teaches that property/material
goods matter more then people and their values…

if it teaches that jobs and job skills have more value then being a person,
we see the nihilism of the modern age…

we pray to the justice system because it is a theology, not a rational,
logical process we pretend it is…and because our justice system is
theological instead of rational, it will continue to fail…

as long as we accept the notion of justice as being an “eye for an eye”…

we shall continue to devalue and negate human beings…

Kropotkin

3285

in the modern philosophy of existentialism, we find
that one of the criteria of becoming modern, is to
become “authentic” to rid ourselves of the “masks” that
we wear to fit into modern society…

as a husband, as a worker, as a citizen, as a consumer,
as a producer, I wear several different mask, as required by
society…

but the question of existence ask, “what does it mean to be human?”

and the answer we have, and right now the only answer we have, is
to point out the mask we wear…the mask of being a consumer,
the mask of being a producer, the mask of being a “good” citizen,
the mask of being a husband…

we cannot get to who we really are because of all the masks we are forced
to wear to get by in society…

we cannot be honest in modern society… because honesty, true honesty,
means we can approach the question of the values of our society and it various
branches…the state, the media, the culture, the church, the social…

if one shouts, “America: love it or leave it” they have accepted
that ism, that ideology without question… that there is not
any possibility of examination of that ism… we accept that ism without
any evaluation or reevalution… it is the “TRUTH”…

The point of existence isn’t to confirm the truth of “America: love it
or leave it” the point is to examine it and see if it is really of value,
does it have some value to us? I call for a reevaluation of values which
means we examine our values including “America: love it or leave it.”
and see if it is true for us…and what if it isn’t our values?

to hold to “America: love it or leave it” means we cannot engage in some
understanding of what it really means, to say or to hold to “America: love it
or leave it.”

should I engage in a honest understanding of “what it means to be human” and
ignore the entire question of what “America: love it or leave it” because to
engage with that question might endanger the hold of this ism or ideology people
have with this value?

in any engagement with who I am and what it means to be human,
all questions must be available to inquire into…

we cannot hold back on some questions because it might be uncomfortable
for some people…or it might damage the functioning of the state…

either we engage in all questions of existence or we simply don’t bother…

we can’t go part way into an investigation into what it means to be human…

it is an all or nothing question…

are you all in, in an investigation into what it means to be human?

Kropotkin

3286

Good analogy , Peter.

How about fine tuning the masks, from a retro visual quality that can easily be grasped, easily , -as interpreted by Nietzche .

In the Birth of Tragedy, every role was represented by different masks , and there was this literal sense of understanding above as what and what they did, and who they became on account of what they did.

The point is, that wearing masks have become overly based on quantitative assessment, rather then based on formally arranged qualities.

It appears far more chaotic and haphazard to qualify by masks worn by the increasing quantitative changes that are becoming much more obvious as they contrive to undermine the trust and faith implicit in these roles. (masks)

3287

thanks meno…

The question remains… where are we going to find
our meaning or purpose or goal in life?

do we find it in religion? do we find it in the values of
the state? do we find meaning in Art or aesthetics?
do we find meaning/goal in hedonism? or in stoicism?
or in some other ism or ideology like communism or
capitalism or catholicism, or Buddhism?

where will we find our meaning, our purpose in existence…
where will we find our goal in life?

or perhaps we find our meaning/purpose in the nihilism, the negation of
man in our modern age?

perhaps we might find our meaning/purpose in life by the values
we live by and maintain in our lives…

so that means we don’t just study or think about our values…

no, we actually live our lives based on our values…

couldn’t that be our meaning or purpose in life?

to have values as our way of life…

so, as the Christian is supposed, supposed to live their lives
by Christian values…actually live their lives by the values
and decrees of god…

we live our lives by the values we ourselves have found for ourselves…

this is actually the point of being autonomous…

create our own values and then live by those values…
live our life by the values we have created for ourselves…

that is exactly what being autonomous means…

so let us say, we choose freedom as our value that we have created
and now live our lives by?

so, we engage in freedom as the value we live our life by…
it isn’t speculation nor is it something we study and then forget while
we live our lives…no… a thousand times, no…

how do we determine what values should we live our life by?

are these values individual values? or are these values collective values,
values that everyone must engage in?

can we have individual values which we alone can engage in and still
have collective values that we all live by?

how do we have morality when we are individually autonomous?

when morality is about our collective being, our collective actions or
behavior…

seeking that by which we can live our life by isn’t easy…

how do we select how, by what values we are to live our life by?

individually or collectively?

do we select the declaration of independence as our guide of
actions, the way to live our life’s or do we select the communist
manifesto as our guide for the way we live our life?

do we select anarchism or do we select democracy or do
we select some other political systems such as dictatorship?

or do we select some economic system such as Marxism or
capitalism or even the hunter-gatherer economic system…
as the values we live by?

do we use instinct which means we select that which matches
our own feelings or emotional understanding of what it means of
being human?

or are we to choose our values via rationality or logic?

so, who, what, when, where, why and how becomes the question
of why or why we don’t pick any given, specific value system or
the values themselves?

so many possibilities… and that is kinda the point… we must seek out
our possibilities and explore all of them… even if they are on the icky side…
and yes, icky is the technical term for it…

we can’t be afraid to explore that which is not existence, human existence
at our best… sometimes humans are greedy and full of lust and hate and violence,
that is part of the human experience and the only way we are going to overcome that
is by acknowledging our less glories side of human existence…

we have to understand human existence in both the good and in the
evil side of what is possible for us…

why did ordinary people agree to work with and indeed operate the
Nazi’s death chambers? were they inherently evil? or were they
ordinary people who convinced themselves that what they did wasn’t
really evil but simple kindness? we know, know that by rationalizations,
people can convince themselves of anything, including that operating
a death chamber wasn’t really evil…

what made the holocaust possible?

what in the mind and hearts of human beings allowed themselves
to be part of Nazi evil?

and clearly millions of people became involved in it…

so why?

so, not only must we be able to explain the good in human beings,
but we must be able to explain evil at the same time…

and do we find that in religion or in the political or in the values or
in the aesthetics of existence?

if we can find the source of evil as well as the source of good, we
might find a way to overcome evil and even a way to overcome good?

so we not only need to find out our meaning and purpose but
we need to find out why evil is a possible choice for human beings?

what allows us to be good as well as evil?

so, meaning and purpose and goal and finding out what makes us
good as well as evil… dam, we have a whole to find out about
what is, or what makes us human… what does it mean to be human?

does being human mean we are good or that we are evil or are we something
else altogether?

Kropotkin

3288

might we think of art, the aesthetic as being an attempt to
encompass both the good in human existence and, and the evil
in human existence… in other words, art is an attempt to
overcome both good and evil and become something new…

we think of art as the conclusion of some belief or thought or action,
whereas we really should think of art as the beginning, the start of
something, not the end… end isn’t something we can just look at
and then forget… we must think about it and we must engage with
the questions that art raises for us…

what is beauty? what is ugly? what is truth? for the Greeks thought
that the truth and beauty were the same thing… if you found beauty,
you found truth…and within the truth, you found beauty…

we have no such beliefs… but it wouldn’t be such a bad thing
if we did think/believe that truth and beauty were the same thing…

what if we were to live our lives within the confines of art and beauty and
truth?

if we seek beauty within the confines of the values that we hold
and attempt to become… what if we live our lives by the values
of beauty?

it can’t be any worse the living our lives by the values of the religious
or the political or the economic values that we live our lives now…

live your life as a act of creating beauty…
what would your life look like if we use beauty
as our guide to living out our lives?

if we were to use our lives to create beauty, then we can’t use
such values as hate or anger or lust or greed to be the beauty values
we use because hate and lust and anger and greed are fairly ugly
and mundane values by which to live out our lives…

we would use hope and peace and love to create a life full
of the aesthetic… for they are far more beautiful, more aesthetically pleasing,
then the values of hate or violence or fear or anger or lust or greed…

to live our lives by the aesthetic, means we would live our lives
within the act of the beauty… of love and peace and charity
and hope and honesty for these are the values of the beautiful…

so, do you wish to live your life according to the aesthetic?

do you wish to live your life according to what is beautiful in being
human?

that is certainly one set of values we can consider for us when
we consider what values we should live our life’s under…

Kropotkin

3289

so let us turn to the state in regards to
“becoming who you are”

Nietzsche argues against the state because he feels
that the state by its insistence on conformity, prevents
human beings from discovering who they are…

the state says, thou shall not…

and that is in following Christian ethics…

but “how am I to become who I am” if I am force to follow
a series of edicts from the state that prevents me from
“becoming who I am”

the state demands, demands obedience to its rules and if you
fail to follow the rules, commit the act of insubordination against
the all powerful state, you are going to be punished…

how am I to achieve the ability to become who I am, if
my every step is marked out by the state in its need for conformity?

for example, my values are of love and peace, but the state demands
conformity to its rules and drafts me to go to war…

my needs are secondary, at best, to the needs and demands of
the state…I must conform to the state needs or be punished…

how do I follow the path of my values when the state demands compliance to
its values of violence and hate and anger? the State, our country
of America, holds to martial, military values… in America
more then 90% of its history has been involved in wars of some nature…

who is the highest representative of America’s ideals?

the soldier, the Veteran…that is an example of America’s acceptance
of martial values…

but I hold differently, I don’t hold the vet, the soldier to be the highest value
of America…I hold that those who serve, be it a teacher or a fireman or
an honest policeman, or even the streetsweeper… they are the ones
we should be celebrating, not just the vet or the soldier…

the state insistence on martial values instead of the values of love
and peace and hope and justice, to me, the state’s values are wrong…

but at that point, I am committing insubordination to the state…

how do I become who I am if I am condemned by the state
for my failure to commit to the values of the state…

I do not believe in nor pursue Martial values, values of war, violence, brutality…

I believe the highest values are justice, freedom, peace, love and tolerance …

and I want to engage in those values, but the state, the state requires, demand
that I obey and engage in martial values, values of war, violence,
brutality…

why should I conform to the state, to values that are against my own
values?

hence I am stopped from “becoming who I am” by the state and its insistence
on values I am opposed to…

so, who is right?

Kropotkin

3290

Nietzsche wrote:

“the goal of humanity cannot lie in the end, but
only in it highest specimens”

Hence for Nietzsche, the highest goal or purpose of humanity cannot
lie with the mass, the “herd” as he called it, but the highest possibility
lies with the highest specimens… those who we fondly speak of,
Socrates, Goethe, Shakespeare, Gandhi, MLK, and for Nietzsche, he thought
himself too…

I say unto you, we can get the herd, the common man, the masses to
reach higher levels if, if we get them to see their possibilities of existence…

we can engage with the herd, the common man and attempt to get them
to go from animal to animal/human to finally human…

most people lie in the animal range of existence, and if we offer them
the the possibility of a higher existence, I believe they will take it…

it isn’t enough to get the higher specimens to go higher, we must get the
the mass of people to reach up higher…

take the herd to go from animal to animal/human and then onto being fully human…

that is my reason for the emphasis on democracies and other community efforts…

I want to raise man to reach the stars… and as it took a million years for us to
reach our level where some are at the animal/human phase and a few are at
the human level, I can see where are going to need a long, long, long time to
become our highest possibilities…

which is why I have emphasize the Icarus parable… I want to get people to
think about reaching for the stars… that is the only way we can begin the
process of becoming human…

playing it safe, being cautious, being conservative isn’t going to get us to
becoming human… that path is designed for failure…

it is only in reaching for the impossible can we hope to reach our
possibilities of becoming human…

if we were to take ships to the promised land, I would happily burn the ships
to force us to take the less traveled road…to begin the long road of going
from animal to animal/human and then finally human… and then beyond…

we might fail, we might succeed, but at least we tried to reach beyond who
we are right now… we tried to reach up to our possibilities …

instead of what we are doing now, which is holding steady and firm
and not going up or down…we are not taking any risk or any chances
in our becoming fully human… and until we try, we cannot hope to
achieve…

I may not be the highest specimen of human, but I can help humanity
begin the long road into all of us becoming the highest specimens,
the highest possibility of being human…and it is not a solo journey,
but it is a collective journey to becoming… You and I, together, we can help
each other in making the long possibility into becoming human…

all it takes is a recognition from all of us, that we are not the final answer,
but we are in the middle of what it means about finding out what it
means to be human…at no point, are we set and final in who we are…

we are simply on the road to becoming and the sooner people realize that,
the better off we will be…

for all of us… it isn’t the highest possibility, to become a Goethe that we search for,
it is the highest possibility for each of us, that we search for…

Kropotkin

3291

we want, we need to know our meaning, our purpose in existence…

“what am I to do?” for example…

and I offer up this hope…

to become something more…

instead of reaching for such meaningless and pointless goals
of wealth or power or fame or titles…reach for
something of value…

seek your possibilities… use someone like Goethe to be
your example…Goethe possibilities were of being a poet
and a writer and a thinker and a playwright …
and he pursued his possibilities and became one of the greatest human
being to ever lived… because he overcome and through hard word
and effort, he worked very hard at his possibilities…

a writer for example, doesn’t just show up and write great books, no,
a writer spends every waking moment becoming a better writer…
he writes and writes and then writes some more…
he practices his craft every day… and the same for us seeking
our possibilities…we must practice it every single day…

if my possibilities were to create art, to be a painter, I would then
spend my waking hours, painting or learning how to be a better painter…
anything that took away from my discovering my possibilities was taken
as wasted time…anything that prevented me from becoming a great painter,
was dismissed as wasted time…

now note the above use of “becoming” in becoming a great painter…

one doesn’t just wake up and be a great painter… it takes time, effort,
money, all of one’s strength to become a great painter…

and that effort is what separates the common person from the
person who achieves their possibilities …for the person who achieves
their possibilities, they have spent every waking hour working at it…

the average person won’t or refuses to work that hard at becoming something…

to achieve greatness or your possibilities requires work and effort,
a great deal of work and effort…

but the next step is to identify what possibilities we may or may not have…

Socrates said as the great statement of humanity, “Know thyself”

what possibilities should we seek? unless we “Know thyself” we cannot
know what possibilities or what greatness we should be seeking…

I am aware enough of who I am to know that I am not a painter or an Artist
of any kind…I can’t paint a picture to save my life…
but luckily I found my possibilities in philosophy and history
and political science… I am seeking to become the best philosopher
I can become…to achieve my possibilities as philosopher…

this is how I rise from animal to animal/human to becoming fully human…

philosophy is my path of engagement with the journey I must take into
becoming…

to be animal means we are engaged with simple animals instincts
and needs…we are just looking at the basic needs of existence…
food, water, shelter, education, health care… but I am more then
just my basic needs…and I seek other things above my basic needs
and thus I am animal/human… if I seek love and safety/security,
and esteem and belonging… I am seeking the higher possibilities of being
human… but I am not, as yet, fully human because I am still
held hostage by my animal nature…I still am driven by hormones
to need sex and power and lust and greed… I am driven to
engage with these animal needs… I have yet to rise where I
am in control over my animal instincts… where my decisions
are made without the animal instincts driving me…

when I finally become human, I am fully in control of my animal
needs and instincts… where I am engaged with the rational part
of me… where I am autonomous in my engagement with
values that I hold, not values that I have been indoctrinated with…
values that I have overcome to come to the values that I actually
hold and honor…Americans grow up with Martial values, values of
violence and military and combative and aggressive values…

I hold to other values, peace and love and hope and charity…
other much more modest values of human existence…

“what am I to do?” given martial values means I am hostile
and belligerent and warlike and aggressive…
I seek to live and engage and create hostile environments
where those Martial values are used in…

to become human, fully human means I rise above such animal like
instincts of fight or flight…

I seek peace and love and hope because they are values that forces us to
rise to our better/higher possibilities…

violence and hate and other martial values are lower/minor values
of the animals…

so I offer up as our meaning or purpose the seeking of what is possible for
us as human beings…to become something better then just an animal

to become human…

that is what is our meaning and purpose… to seek the better/higher possibilities
that we have as human beings…

to overcome the animal or animal/human part of us and become something better

to overcome our instincts, our lower nature, our values which is based
on a false account of what it means to be human…we aren’t beings who
basic nature is to be dominated by stronger, more powerful humans,
but we are suppose to reach what is possible within us and become that
possibility… be it philosopher or artist or painter or by travel or the study
of such possibilities as history or political science or math or languages
social science or science itself…

the purpose of existence is to seek that which is above or higher then you
are right now…

Kropotkin

3292

to reiterate… Maslow’s pyramid or hierarchy of needs…

the lowest level of the pyramid is the physiological needs…
food, water, warmth, rest, educational, health care, the basic
bodily needs…

next level is the safety needs, security/safety

the first two levels are bodily needs
the next three levels are more psychological needs

next is belongingness and love needs

the next level is esteem needs…

and the last level is the self-actualization, which is no longer a need, but is
really about self-fulfillment

so, my question is this, where does Art fit into this hierarchy of needs?

it seems to me that Art comes from the last level of self-actualization…

Goethe for example, he was an excellent painter by the way, he created
his writings, plays and novels and poems, from the overflow of energy
from himself… he didn’t create art from depravation, or from a need to
create art, he created art from his outgrowth of his emotions…
art for Goethe was an active, positive… Art for Goethe is from strength.

where as for some, art is created from a negative place,
Art isn’t created from strength like Goethe, but
for some, Art is created from weakness…

is Art the act of creation, an act of strength for you or
is Art an act of weakness for you?

so where does Art fit into our lives?

Kropotkin

3293

Nietzsche “will to power” or as Nietzsche also refers to it,
“instinct to freedom” they are basically the same thing for Nietzsche…

I find the problem is the word “instinct” I find that animals have
instinct, Humans have rationality, reason,…

so this “will to power” or the “instinct to freedom” is really an instinct…

perhaps we can rise above even this… we can overcome even our
“will to power” or our “instinct to freedom”

to overcome even the highest possibility… that is what is human…

Kropotkin

3294

to pursue Happiness/pleasure…

Most people assume, assume that to gain happiness, one
must engage in life the way others portray it…

for example to find happiness, one must play the game of
following the rules, be a good citizen, be a good consumer,
be a good producer, don’t cause any waves, and follow the
course, go to school, work, marry, have kids, buy a house
with a white picket fence with two cars and two kids
and a dog name rover…

that is the standard ideal of “finding” happiness…

but I say unto you, that the path to unhappiness lies following
this path…

happiness is found in following one’s own desires and needs…

to play the game that the society or state or the culture wants isn’t
necessarily going to find one happiness… in fact, as I said, I think
unhappiness lies down the path of following the course as it is laid
out by society…but why?

as I said, the path that society lays out is to work for 40 years to make
others people wealthy while you wind up with nothing…
to buy a house is to become so in debt that you can never get out of it…
that means you are forced to follow the society’s path regardless of how
you feel about it…

you have only one path when engaging society demands…
you are in debt for life and you must work until the you can retire
which is at the point you now longer have any value to the society/state
as a worker…they allow you to retire because you can no longer
be effective as a worker… it isn’t about you, but about your value
as a worker that they created the age of retirement as being 65 or 72, depending…

you spend your life working for the state/society and what do you get in return?

Nothing… because the state/society is set up as if you fail to find happiness,
it is your fault and if you fail in spending your life working for us, it is your fault
and we will punish you…the state/society takes no responsibility for you at all…
and yet you are forced to engaged for the state your entire life…

think about it, the only happiness you can have is by state sanction happiness…
the schooling, marriage, working, retirement when you are allowed to,
every aspect of our lives is done with an eye toward aiding or abeting
a society/state that doesn’t give a shit about you…

must our goal of happiness be decided by state sanction rules?

can we achieve happiness by other means then the state sanction means?

can our happiness only be defined by its being approval by the society/state?

what if our happiness is outside of the approval of the state/society?

then we are punished in some fashioned…

at work, I am not considered a team player because I only think
of what benefits me… I will not work overtime nor on my day off…
why? because I have spent 40 years being abused by work/society
when I was told I had to work 50 plus hours and the corporation
had my nuts by the left one… I was completely and totally at
the mercy of the corporation… and I was totally miserable and
unhappy… but did the corporation give a shit or even notice?

no, I was told to work harder and longer or be fired…

my life was about making profits for the corporation…
I had no other value… but I believe that human beings
have value outside of the creation of profits/money…

but that notion is against everything the corporation/state
holds to be true…

today, I still hold a job but that is secondary, at best, to my real
being, which is my study and my reading and my writing…
that is my happiness, my engagement with what is important
in my life…

I don’t see my life in terms of making money or making the corporation
profits or even in terms of being a good citizen…

I engage with my studies… and that is it…

that the only engagement that I care about…

so what do you see as your happiness?

and how does your engagement with society/state impact
your attempt do achieve happiness?

Kropotkin

3295

now one may recall that I have said, on multiple occasions,
that the pursuit of human beings shouldn’t be the pursuit of
happiness…let us return the the concept of the state/society…

I hold that because the state/society forces us to engage in
matters of the highest priority to the state/society…
and those affairs of the highest priority is to force people
to believe that their happiness is engaging in working for
40 years… and it isn’t…to buy a house and live in the suburbs
and to have a car and a second vacation home… all of which
has no intention to benefit you… it only exists to benefit
society/state…

so what engagement should we have instead of spending 40
years working to benefit society/state and others, but sure
the hell not benefit us…

as I have noted before, we should engage in our higher understanding
of what it means to be human…

to be free and autonomous and rational…

so, does working for 40 years to benefit everyone but us, does
that working help us get to our goal of being free, autonomous
or rational…No…

No, in fact, our working 40 years because we have bought a bill of goods
about the American dream has nothing to do with being free, in fact,
by going into debt and engaging in the American dream, one is about
as far away from being free as possible…

to engage in the American dream means to be held hostage by the
American dream…working for 40 years with nothing to show for it
isn’t going to make one free or autonomous or rational…

it doesn’t even allow one to seek that which is higher or above
oneself… we have two possibilities, to rise above or sink below…
you can’t ever stay in the same place… a simple understanding
of entropy tells us that…

our engagement should be with making us better human beings,
not with improving the GDP because improving the GDP doesn’t
help us personally… it forces us to submit to the needs and demands
of the society/state which wants a higher GDP because that
will make the state and those who own the means of production
wealthier…

helping us become, become better human beings doesn’t raise
the GDP and thus is denied by those who have a vested interest
in improving their own private wealth…

what is important?

the increase in the GDP or the higher standard of living or, or
the improvement of what it means to be human?

I can tell you my answer… can you tell me your answer?

Kropotkin

3296

so we have man/human beings traveling from
animal to animal/human to becoming, becoming fully human…

few of us human beings, Goethe and Davinci and other polymaths have
reached becoming human… they are above the animal needs
and instincts that make animals, animals…

animals cannot reach beyond their instincts…
their passions and desires cannot wait or be
denied…a animal cannot wait or push off their
desires or passions or needs…

animals are held captive by their instincts and desires and needs…

animal/humans are also held captive by their instincts and desires
and needs but animal/human have begun to overcome their
instincts, desires and needs… animal/human are beginning to
to control their instincts, their desires, their needs…
their instincts and desires and needs don’t totally drive the life
of animal/human…animal/human begin to have choice and freedom
in their instincts and desires and needs… animal/human aren’t always held
captive by their instincts, desires and needs…and here is where the state/
society forces us to stay… as animal/humans…because the state/society
offers us little freedom and choice, they force us to remain in that
state of animal/human… we cannot grow or become in a society
that makes profits and money to be the only goal of both individuals
and the collective…

to remain a capitalistic society means to remain a animal/human place
forever…we cannot grow or become within a capitalistic society…
we must always remain animal/human… because we don’t have freedom
or autonomy in a capitalistic society… we must work without choice to
maintain the capitalistic structure…we have no choice…

and the steps to becoming human, fully human lies with becoming free
and autonomous… which isn’t possible in our current society/state…

so what is your choice? be free and autonomous or be captive by
capitalism for your lifetime at least?

Kropotkin

3297

Peter,

Compared to me, you are a huge animal still.

I’m not animal anymore, and it just goes from there…

Look at this post and tell me I’m less an animal than you.

ilovephilosophy.com/viewtop … 1&t=195902

Think about that. Am I after you for being a douchbag married person … not really. But know what the fuck you’re talking about before you post.

You’re an asshole rapist. You shouldn’t take any offense to that because everyone besides monks are!

You have the gall though to distinguish yourself as less mammal than others ?!?!

3298

came across this line in Kaufmann’s, Nietzsche,

"…he had, (Nietzsche) inquired as to how the individual might
be able to give meaning to his life, lest his “existence” remain
“a thoughtless accident.”

and here it is… how do we, as individuals, give meaning to our lives,
lest our “existence” remains a “thoughtless accident?”

we can, by connecting our lives to various ism’s or ideologies,
we can also connect our lives to the larger whole, by connecting to
our community, our being part of a larger whole via the state/culture/
society… we are part of a much larger whole that is the state, the nation,
the world and also includes the human species… we are connected in various
ways to much larger then us organizations… people always want to connect to
something bigger then themselves…

it seems to me connecting to the entire human race is one such way to connect
to something bigger then yourself…

we can also give our lives meaning by going from one to two…
living together with someone or being married or having children…
are all ways we become connected to the world…

we can join clubs or engage in activities like joining the YMCA or
some other group activity… like traveling or hiking groups…
that are a vast number of ways we can become connected to
each other…that we can give meaning to our lives by our connection to
others, isn’t a new observation…

the upcoming election where we have broken into tribes who hold certain
beliefs is another way to connect with others…and thus give
meaning to our lives…

so tell me… how do you give your life meaning?

lest it become a “thoughtless accident”…

Kropotkin

3299

I’m reading some essays about Nietzsche right now…

I see that Nietzsche is really the first philosopher of the 20th century…

nearly every philosopher for the next 50 years had to come to some
terms with Nietzsche… he influenced writers like Rilke, Hesse, Mann
and GB Shaw and Kazantzakis for example…and he was an major influence
on Freud also…He was considered one of the forerunners of Existentialism
and was a part of continental philosophy… you can’t even account for
20the century philosophy without some accounting of Nietzsche…

so what does Nietzsche tell us about 20th century philosophy?

first of all, you can’t have a “system” like Hegel or Spinoza…

Philosophy in the 20th century was atomized, which means it was broken up
into pieces…you can’t cover all of philosophy, so you covered pieces of it…
you specialized and you covered small bits of philosophy…
hence you get the specialization of philosophy in the 20th century philosophy…

you have such specialization of philosophy in the various schools that were
created in the 20th century… Logical positivism, analytic philosophy,
phenomenology, existentialism, poststructuralism… to name a few
philosophical schools that arose in the 20th century because of the
specialization in philosophy…

I personally have little interest in such specialization in philosophy…

I consider philosophy of value because it speaks to the larger picture then
the schools do…

I hold to continental philosophy because it speaks to the real
issues and problems facing people…

“what does it mean to be human?” “what am I to do?” “what should I believe in?”

these questions that are greater then the analytical school will admit to…

I hold that among the questions that afflict modern man is the question
of hypocrisy and being authentic… we are in trouble as a people because
we practice on a daily basis, the art of hypocrisy and inauthenticity…

the Christian of today is the leading practitioner of hypocrisy and being
inauthentic…the modern Christian practices Kabuki as a mans of
engagement with religion… very predictable and stylized form
of religion… with their set responses and inability to hold to
Christianity as a way of life… Christianity today is really playacting…

it doesn’t get any deeper then a paper cut on people…

and the modern Christian isn’t alone in their playacting…

we have conservatives who play act their allegiance to America…

when ten of thousands were dying, they wouldn’t do anything to
help protect other Americans by such thing as wearing mask and
social distancing… and they cheered when it was liberals
who were dying in the East coast and the West coast…

and what exactly are conservatives conserving if they are actively
undermining the constitution and the values that America has stood for
for over 200 years?

Kropotkin

3300

our problem, one of the many our modern age must face,
is one of understanding who we are…

but let us ask, we discover who we are and then what?

what is the next step? where do we go from here?

we have three, for a lack of a better word, time periods
we deal with, the past, the present and the future…

we spend far too much time on the past, not really that much
time on the present and virtually no time on the future…

I say unto you, that is the wrong order of thing…
we should spend little or no time in the past,
we need to concentrate more effort on the present,
and we need to work toward a future which means we
need to spend a great deal more time on the future…

it isn’t enough to know where we have been, it isn’t even enough
to see where we are, we must know what it is we are attempting to
achieve or accomplish.

I recall the question people would ask me as a child, “what do you
want to be when you grow up?”

and so I ask you now, “what do you want to be when you grow up?”

and just as important is the question, “what are we going to be
when we grow up?”…

every single question has a person, individual aspect and every single question
as a community, communal aspect…

“what am I…” and “what are we…”

the problem with conservatives is that they are focused exclusively on the past,
and they show little interest in the present or the future…

we have no allegiance to the past…no sacred duty to uphold or to fulfill
to the past…

it is nothing more then a dead memory and nothing we need to hold sacred…

the search for becoming, that is what should hold us to the fire…

becoming something different then what we are today…that is
the goal… and that is the agenda that we must partake in…

change our focus and attention to the future and away from the
past…

individually and collectively…

our every thought should be, what have I done to reach the future?

what are my future possibilities? "What have I done today to
become who I am? which is all about reaching our possibilities…

individually and collectively…

so in reaching our possibilities includes reaching what is possible
for us, all of us, in the future…

should we end poverty? yes, that is easily possible if, if we make
it a priority… or perhaps to reach the stars and that again is possible
if we make it a priority… we can even do both at the same time…
if we just make it priority…

but we allow our focus and energy and time to be spent on
unimportant crap like reaching wealth or fame or titles or
material goods…

to chose capitalism is to choose to focus on the past instead of
the future…for capitalism is the past… it cannot take us where
we need or want to be…it is another dead end…

why? one might ask…

because it is unsustainable… it cannot be used for a very long period of time
before it reaps a total disaster for everyone… look at the crisis
of American today…a large part of that crisis was caused by capitalism…

global warming, income inequality, widespread poverty, pollution,
damage to the earth… on land, air and sea…widespread animal extinction,
reduced resources like food, water, minerals, trees…

and for what? so you can have a nice couch and a large screen TV?

and while the 1% gather to them, a vast amount of the wealth and resources
of planet earth… and why do they get it instead of the large majority of
the inhabitants of earth? Ownership? does that mean the 1% own the earth?

I don’t think so…

modern capitalism is modern day slavery…nothing more, nothing less…

defenders of modern day slavery only think of their own toys or more likely
the possibility of owning more toys…sheer folly and sheer ego, the same thing…

I hold to the political institution of democracy… if only we practice that in
American today…and I hold to the right and freedom of every one to
become who they are… which means that we don’t attempt any longer
to reach some false and dangerous goal like increasing the GDP…

reaching greatness isn’t about reaching some economic wealth…

no, reaching greatness is about seeking a goal worth pursuing…

and it is greatness we should be seeking, not wealth or fame or
titles…

and we can achieve this greatness in our becoming…

but the first step, the very first step is thinking about what it
means to be human… I believe that every single human being
alive right now has the possibility of greatness within them…

but the greatness I speak of is achieved by them reaching their
possibilities… becoming the possibilities that lie within each of us…

I am not very good, ok, I am actually really bad at drawing or painting…
I just suck at it…I cannot reach heights by that particular method…

but I can achieve greatness by my potential of pursuing philosophy
and history and political science…

I am a pretty good actor, but I can’t sing to save my life…

we must know ourselves to know what possibilities we can achieve…

and I don’t seek the past or even the present…

I don’t care about the past… but I can use the past to show me
the various possibilities I can achieve… I can use someone like
Gandhi or Hume or Socrates to guide my understanding of what it means
to be human… I can use their spirit and actions to guide my spirit and actions
they can be an example of what is possible and that is the value of the past…

the knowledge to achieve greatness by following their past…

but my situation and Gandhi’s is quite different, the historical possibilities
of me leading India from England doesn’t exists for me, so I must adapt
his historical situation to my historical situation…

I can lead America to the promised land… which is something no one even
thinks about in America today… what is possible for America?

and what will it take for us to reach some sort of promised land?

it is about reaching some goal instead of our focus on the dead past
that we should be thinking about…

what goal do you think we should reach?

both individually and collectively?

what is possible for us?

Kropotkin