a new understanding of today, time and space.

at this point, we should perhaps understand or engage with the
concept of freedom…

it is often said that human beings are free, but are we?

it is understood that we cannot shout fire in a crowded theater,
we have a limited notion of being free, but have failed to completely
understand freedom if we leave it here…

we are free to act, yes, but there are clear limits to our actions…
as much as I want to, I am limited by my nature to act freely…
in other words, we are not free to engage in certain actions because
we are limited by our nature… we must eat and we must sleep
and we must engage in certain actions if we are to continue to exist…
we have no freedom in this regard…we are not free when we cannot
make a free choice and we must have food and water and air… we have no choice…
we are not free in this aspect…

we know of people who have addictions, they must have certain
things, they are addicted to food, sex, gambling, drugs…
they become so addicted they have no choice and that means
they are not free either… freedom requires choice…

if we can choose to eat food then walk away, if we can gamble or not,
if we can do drugs or not, we are free, we are making choices and thus
we are free…the man who cannot control his addictions is not free…
what about the man who cannot control his passions… he hates
and cannot do anything else, he is not free. his passions control him
and he cannot make a choice, he is not free… this is the stoics
idea and Spinoza’s idea… that to be free, truly free, we must be
in control of our choices… we can act or not act and by freely choosing
we are free…is hate a choice? if you can freely choose to hate or not,
then you are free… so those who hate and have anger and they cannot control
that hate or anger, they are not free because they cannot freely choose some
other action… they must hate, they can do no other… they must have anger,
they can do no other… they are not free…

so we are free or not free by internal actions… we can decide within us,
to act freely or we can be controlled to act and not be free…
much of ancient philosophy and those like Spinoza are aspects
of this type of philosophy…

we also have external actions that we can or cannot control…
if we can choose, we are free and if we cannot, we are not free…

I mentioned one aspect, environmental aspects like air, food, water
that we must have to survive, we have no choice… one aspect of this
choice is the choice of clean drinkable water and healthy food and clean air…
these choices are choices that help us live better, longer lives… I don’t
necessarily want to live a long life but I do want a quality life and clean
air and clean water and healthy food will allow me to do that and because
I live where I do, in a modern industrial country, I can have clean air and clean
water and healthy food… I have a choice… but those who don’t have a choice
in clean air and clean water and healthy food, they aren’t free because they
must exist with dirty water and air and unhealthy food, they have no choice…
they are not free… external options force them without choices…

must I live in a capitalist society… yes, I have no choice, I am not free…
every single corporation I can work at, exist within the capitalist
society and they must, without a choice, exploit their workers for
the capitalist society must operate in a certain way and that means
you must create profits for without profits, a corporation cannot exist…
I have no choice but to exist within the capitalist society… I am not free
and neither are you… if we have no choices, we are not free… simple as that…

so to call America the freest country on earth, is to say, we are free within
very confined limits… we have very limited choices both personally and
in regards to the work we can choose… we must choose the capitalism system,
we have no other choice…as we must choose to eat and we must drink water
and have air, we have no choice…and we exists within very limited parameters
as given by our own bodies and by our economic system…is this freedom?

Kropotkin

why am I misunderstood… you look down at the ground,
I look up at the sky…

Kropotkin

now we can try to connect these two idea’s, freedom and justice/morality…

freedom is simply choices, the more choices you have, the freer you are…

and justice/morality is if we are a just people, we are a moral people…

and to have justice/morality, we must treat people equal…
equality is justice…if we treat people different because they
have accidental properties, we are not acting morally or being just…

to have a just/ moral society, we must treat people equally in their
pursuit of freedoms and freedom means choices…
so we are being just by allowing people greater freedoms…

if we limit civil rights to a certain class of people, we
are being unjust/immoral… if we use laws to prevent the poor or
the minorities or the young to vote, we are unjust, immoral…
because we are limiting their freedoms and treating them
unequally…so we have a beginning of a standard we can use
to understand if we are being just or unjust, moral or immoral…

but why does it matter if we are just or unjust, moral or immoral?
who cares? because as we can limit other people choices, limit
their freedom, by treating them unequal, it can be done the same way to you…
by encouraging freedom and justice, you are helping ensure you will be treated
equally and justly…if a society is harmed by an action, every member of that
society is harmed and if part of a society is harmed by lack of freedom and/or
lack of justice, then every single member of that society is harmed…
for we are connected… you and I, we belong to the same society and if you
are harmed, I am harmed… and if I am harmed, you are harmed…
to have justice, we must be treated equally or we don’t have a just society…

if the arm on your body is harmed, it does harm the body at large…
every tooth ache, every tummy ache, every act done to your body, does
harm to the whole body… trauma affects the whole body, not just the injured
part… and the same thing with a society, trauma affects the whole society,
not just the injured part…Hurricane Harvey hit Texas and damaged Texas
but it harmed all of us… for we are a whole, connected together…

to have a just society, we must have equality, to have a free society, we must
have choices and to have a just, free society, we must be equally treated
and have choices to make…

Kropotkin

the other day at that hellhole I call work, I was thinking about
about how people become moral/ just people… I recalled the
many messengers of morality and justice… From the bible, the sermon
on the mount through the ages to the new calls for a moral and just society…

people have heard this call, for not just decades or centuries but
for a couple of millennium, people have heard the call…and yet
it call hasn’t been answered by the people… they still need to be
coax and reminded to engage in morality and justice, even after the centuries…
but why, why hasn’t the call been answered by the people?

for those of you who proclaim the herd mentality, it isn’t because
people are sheep and belong in the herd… that is lazy thinking…
and not becoming of a philosopher…

why don’t people engage in becoming moral, in becoming just?

why is it so hard to become moral, just?

what keeps us in this trap of human existence, this day to day living, that
prevents us from engaging in our improvement?

we know the path to follow, we have heard it all our lives…
become who you are… the sermon on the mount is not just words
from an alien but words we have heard all our lives and yet, and yet,
we still don’t follow it, we still don’t obey it… we don’t have to follow god
to become better people, we just need a better reason to become engaged in
in finding our better angel…following god is not enough any more to become
engage… we need other reasons, stronger reasons to become our higher angels…

and that is the failure of our age… we don’t have any reason to become
moral, to become just… we are cared for, we have enough food, we have
a limited but apparently enough freedom to sate our soul, but it isn’t enough…
we want more and suppose that more is material… cars and houses and TV’s set…
but the more we want is not material and we just haven’t seen that yet…
we are searching for more and that more is about who we are, not what we own…
it isn’t about god, but about finding out who we are and engaging in morality…
for engaging in who we are is about finding the moral inside of us, it doesn’t need
god for that engagement… we are about finding out about what is the just life
and that doesn’t need god…is there more? of course but we have to set a course
somewhere and finding out who we are morally and who we are in terms of justice
is as good of a course as any…some might say, why not find out our soul in terms
of hate and anger and greed but that means searching for our lower, worse angels…
our lower passions that are of instinct… I want to go higher and reach for the stars
to become/to find our better angels…am I in the stars? NO, but I am reaching and
I am climbing the long and winding road of discovering my higher angels…
it is not necessarily about getting to our goal as much as beginning the journey
and becoming…we might not become, but we are always in the state of becoming…
I would rather become something better then myself, then go down to the
lower angels of instinct…I want to be the driver of my journey instead of
reacting to outside forces that drive me…I want to be in control of my journey to
become that higher angel instead of being driven by my instincts…

so I must become aware of that journey and what drives that journey into
a becoming…it is not new age mumble jumble that drives me, but
an engagement into becoming my higher angel…

the day to day forces that eat up my time and take me away from
finding out who I am… I must fight through those and the journey is
more important then just putting food on the table…the higher road
requires higher commitment… the low road to instinct takes no time,
no effort to reach… but the high road is hard and takes sacrifice and
that is why people have ignored the many voices since the sermon on the mount…
people just don’t want to make the effort, to make the sacrifice to become better…

and that is a shame…

Kropotkin

why is good preferred over bad…

non-metaphysical reasons for standing for love, good,
and all those other values of our higher angels instead of
bad, hate, anger, greed the lower instincts of the human creature…

look at our solar system…we have the planets circling around the sun
in picture perfect harmony…the solar system is stable, uncluttered, without
chaos and instability… it has lasted for billions of years in stability…
the reason is those things that create instability and chaos don’t exist
in the solar system… we don’t have roving planets causing chaos or
instability in the solar system… we don’t have any large nearby stars causing
us any instability and as long as nothing changes, we shall continue to have harmony
and stability and that is a very, very good thing as it allows us humans on our third
planet to continue our existence… chaos and instability in anything, threatens
that thing to remain stable and continued existence…to exist, to have anything
exist, it must have stability…the more stable objects have less chaos and less instability
and less random actions around it…think of bridges… the more they are able to
withstand chaos, randomness, instability, they better able they are to stand…
the chaotic events like earthquakes, storms, temperature changes, these random events
threaten the stability of bridges and the bridge must be built in such a way to resist
those random and instable events…we want our bridges to be stable and to continue
existence and that means being able to withstand chaos and instability and randomness…

now a storms or another random chaotic events is not good or evil or any other
such human designation… those events are just events without any human
qualities to them…

now think of human relationships like marriage… I have been married for
21 years now…how did our relationship last? how did our relationship
survive? we stay away from chaotic events that threaten the stability
of our relationships… I have never cheated… that type of random, chaotic
event threaten the stability of a relationship…I have worked during our
entire relationship… that helps the stability of our relationship…
any random, chaotic event threatens the stability of a relationship…
birth, death, losing a job, cheating on a spouse… if you want a relationship
to last, one needs stability within and around the relationship…

so what builds a relationship and allows it stability? love, hope, honesty,
those higher angels of our nature allows a relationship stability…
and what destroys a relationship by allowing instability? those
lower angels of our human nature, hate, anger, greed…
these emotions create instability and chaos and randomness
into a relationship…

the positive attributes like good, love, integrity, hope help maintains
stability within any relationship we have…

hate, anger greed are unstable attributes that bring chaos and
randomness into any relationship…

it is about the stability of a thing that allows it to exists that is important…
and to have stability, one must avoid chaos and randomness and hate,
as all of those thing contribute to instability which can lead to
the loss of stability which threatens to destroy any object…

to exists, for anything to exists, it must have stability and anything that
threatens that stability must be avoided… thus we have
reasons for behavior that might be listed as good vs any behavior
that might be listed as evil… for “good” behavior helps bring about
stability and “evil” behavior brings about instability…we can
work for such things as love and hope and any number of the higher
nature of our angels behavior because they promotes stability
and the lower nature of our angels promotes instability and thus
threatens our existence… it is about stability that we must fight for
and the higher angel of our nature helps bring about that stability…

this is a non-metaphysical reason to promote “good” actions and avoid
“bad” or “evil” actions… good actions promote stability which allows
something to exist longer and “bad” actions allow instability which
can bring about the end of something…

Kropotkin

Are we fully human? No, because we are still governed by
our lower angels, our lower instincts, hate, anger, greed among others…
we haven’t reached our full potential which is about the higher angels,
about the realization of being human which is love, hope, faith, generosity…

we are not fully human until we become those higher values…
we are a work in progress… we think of ourselves as being, but
we are not… we are becoming… becoming fully human…

and the tools we use on our path to becoming is freedom as I have
defined it and justice as I have defined it…

to become fully human, we must become freedom and be justice…
we must be about our choices, not just what we can buy, but in what
we can be… and justice which is about equality… we must treat everyone equal…
and that means not just politically, but economically…on our road to becoming,
we use our tools which are the means in which we become fully human which is
the higher values of being human… justice denied and freedom denied means
we have stopped on our path to becoming fully human…humans are always on the road
of becoming… the question is, what is it that we are becoming?

answer this and we are well on the path to becoming…are we a victim of
our lower instincts, or do we follow the path of our higher qualities…

choose and then we begin our rise or our descent… to the higher values or to the
lower ones…choose…for we cannot exist as being… we are always in the midst
of becoming… what should we become…

Kropotkin

I was exhausted yesterday from work and didn’t get anything done
and it got me thinking… we are so busy with life, we don’t have time
to think about who we are and who we are becoming…

how can we practice becoming when we are too busy to even think…

becoming is about understanding who we are, we have to understand who we are,
before we can think about this question about becoming… being must happen before
becoming and for us, we are too involved in our modern life to think of being, little
less becoming…it is not about the destination because there is no destination,
there is only the journey for we are constantly changing, body, mind and soul…
the question is, are we in control of the change or do we just let the change
happen…people never stand still… ever single person is changing all the time…
even you… so what are you to changing to?

Kropotkin

so given the tools I have mentioned… what would a society
with my tools look like?

I have mentioned justice which is simply the act of equality…
we must treat everyone equally, legally and morally…

and freedom which is about choices… the more choices we have the freer
we are and I don’t mean choices as to what kind of car to buy or any other
material goods, I would argue that buying material goods actually LIMIT
one’s choices… buying material goods limit one because it ties one
with society because materialism ties one down… once you begin to buy
you are trapped into society because you are a cog in the system…
you want a car and you need the money to buy that car… you
must become part of the capitalist system and every purchase
entwines you deeper and deeper into the capitalist system…
soon, you are materially invested into a system that only wants
you has as labor and being a consumer… that is your only value
in the capitalist system… you must produce something in which
you get paid and then you spend that payment on material goods
which is the other function you have… you are deep into a system
that only values money… that is not freedom… but dependency…
you have no choices in a capitalist system… just merchandise to buy…

and the second thing you need is freedom which is choice…

so every action needs to be address in these two terms…
justice and freedom… if you treat everyone equally, then
you must treat them equal in terms of both the political and
the economic… we cannot have the massive income inequality that
we have… this is a justice problem… massive inequality means
we are treating people different and that isn’t justice…

freedom means we allow choices and that means every action is taking
in terms of how does that action create choice and how does that action
increase justice=equality… so we have a template of how we approach
problems… we do we do that will increase justice and/or freedom in
that problem… every single action has increasing justice/freedom
as it goal…so by increasing justice/freedom, we become more just,
a more free society… equality and choices… that is the template
we follow for a better society…every single problem is looked at
in terms of equality or freedom… does this action increase equality or does this
action decrease equality… does this action increase freedom or does this
action/law decrease freedom… if we always choose equality and if we always
choose freedom, we will be making a better society, a freer society, a
more just society…and individually, if we choose freedom and if
individually we choose equality, we will be choosing to become better
people…

Kropotkin

so, we have being and becoming…
where does art fit into this?

Art is about the possibilities and becoming is about possibilities

we can use art to understand what is possible for us… to see where
becoming can lead us…so becoming is really just another word
for possibilities… we can become something else and art show us
what that something else might look like…

we use movies like fatal attraction to show us what the possibility
of an affair might look like… becoming in terms of having an affair
in light of a movie like fatal attraction can show us how wrong an affair
can be… we can use art like fatal attraction to show us the possibilities,
both good and bad… stuff like Star wars and Star Trek can show us
possibilities… they can show us what choices we have and what our
possibilities are… with art, we can see becoming and possibilities are
the same thing…for good and bad…

that can be one function of art… there are of course several different functions
of art…

Kropotkin

you wake up…
you brush your truth and take a shower…
eat some breakfast…
you head out to your job or to school…
you drive or take public transportation…
you arrive there and begin your day…
work or school last until lunch…
you grab a bit to eat…
depending on your work or school schedule… you might head home now…
or you might stay while longer …
work/school being over, you head home…
if you are like me… you take some time to wind down…
you take some time to cook dinner…
you eat dinner…
you watch TV or read for a bit…
the long day ends and
you go to bed…

for most people that is an accurate description of their day…
for every 24 hours,
we devote 6-8 hours sleeping…
another 6-8 hours working or school…
we spend about 3 hours engage in preparing or eating food…
we spend an hour day, at least, engaged in transportation to and from…
if we have kids, we spend 2 hours engaging with them…
the entertainment aspect can last from 1 hour to 4 hours a day…TV, movies, computer…
so for most people, at least 20 hours of the day is accounted for between work, sleep,
eating, and commuting…this doesn’t account for the day to day chores we have like
cleaning, taking out the garbage, doing the dishes, laundry which might take another
hour per day…so our days are spent in perpetual busyness from waking to sleep…

so when do we have time to discover who we are…
when do we have time to understand our being and what
we should do in becoming…to know thyself takes time and effort,
when is that suppose to happen? take a look at the time spent in your life
and tell me when is it a good time to discover who you are?

look at the time spent in your day and tell me…
when is it a good time to explore freedom and justice?
freedom is about choices and justice is about equality…
when do you time to explore your choices…

look at our days, full of busyness and action…

“Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player,
that struts and frets his hour upon the stage
and then is heard no more. it is a tale,
told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
signifying nothing”

are you that poor player?

Kropotkin

I have written about freedom and justice, but the questions comes at
some point, freedom for what? justice for what? what is the value of
freedom and what is the value of justice? I have argued that we have
a limited amount of freedom and let us say, that we reach the
biggest expansion of freedom we are going to get… the most freedom
we are going to get and then, then we must ask ourselves, ok, we have
this freedom, what are we going to do with it?

let us say, we have the most justice we are going to find in society, we ask ourselves,
ok, now what? we have this justice, what are we going to do with it?

what is the point of getting freedom or justice if, if we don’t know
what to do with it…that is part of our modern problem, we don’t
know what to do with freedom or justice if we actually have it…

so, you have as much freedom or as much justice as you are ever going to
get, so what do you do with it?

Kropotkin

how do we think of this freedom?
how do we think of this justice?

is freedom or justice an individual concept
or, or is it a culture, political concept?

we seem to have muddled the idea of freedom
and justice by not clearly defined it individually and
by not defining it culturally or politically… or perhaps
the real problem is the idea of freedom and justice, both
individual and politically within the society is confused and muddled…

and we don’t know what to do with either, individually or societally…
much of our confusion lies with the fact, we really haven’t clearly
stated and worked out many different concepts… an example of this
is punishment… are we punishing people or are we rehabilitating
people… we as a people have never really answered this question…
what is the point of punishment? if we are punishing, then hell’s bells,
let us punish… if we are rehabilitating then let us rehabilitate…
but we have never decided… as a people…

we have this freedom and we as a people have never decided
what we are going to do with this freedom…
freedom and justice are not just individual concepts, but
cultural and societally…so as a people, what are we going to do
with freedom and with justice?

Kropotkin

the question of philosophy is not just what is freedom but
what are we going to do with that freedom?

so along with understanding what a concept is, we must then decide what
we are going to do with that concept…

Kropotkin

so we have this concept of private property…
and we must not only understand what is private property,
but what is its value… what are going to do with private property?

one of our muddled concepts is private property…
private property makes sense when there are only a few
people in a certain location, but when you have millions
of people on limited land, private property no longer makes as
much sense…think of New York city… what sense does
having private property makes in a location like NYC…

take a piece of land in, Montana for example, and given its location,
land isn’t as pricey as land in NYC, but it might be the exact same piece
of land and in NYC, the cost of that land could be worth millions
and in Montana, it might be worth $500 bucks… the same land, just different
locations and worth vastly different amount… this shows us the artificial nature
of land and private property is no different…we have a small, two bedroom condo,
roughly 1700 square feet, and it is worth over $800,000 just because it is on the
San Francisco Peninsula… put that condo almost anywhere else and it is
a couple of hundred thousand, at best…every single house in my little city is
worth over a million bucks, no matter how bad of shape it is in because of where
it is… put that same house anywhere else and it is maybe 200,000 or 250,000 bucks,
maybe… this show us the artificial value we put on private property…
given the nature of housing prices, we might as well be growing tulips
and selling them… that is an historical reference… see the Dutch…

it isn’t real… so what is the point of private property? to feel safe from
the government? well that ship sailed a long, long time ago…
we have no reason for private property outside of ego, vanity drives
our quest for private property and for no other reason…it isn’t real…

yet much of our laws and our ideologies are driven by this ego driven
quest for property…this property we can’t even explain why we want…

Desiderius Erasmus once said, home is wherever my books are…I actually
agree… so why is private property so important to you?

Kropotkin

ok, we have written about private property, but what
about the other concepts we have written about like justice?

Justice is the act of equality… either bringing someone up to be equal,
like rules that give the handicap equal access that others have or
to treat others equal either politically or legally…

so let us discuss justice and private property…

justice is the act of treating equally and private property is just
the opposite…there are those who can never be able to afford
property in my city and yet others who by no other reason then being
born rich can afford it… I have heard it said, that life isn’t fair…
which is another way of saying life isn’t just… but why not?
what is stopping us from having a just, equal, society?
simple greed would be one answer…also that the fact that
we accept the idea of political equality but we don’t accept the
idea of economic equality… economic justice is no different then
political justice and just as important…we don’t require someone to
accomplish something before we give them political equality…
someone gets political equality by virtue of birth… you get all the rights
and privileges just by being born an American… a privilege offer just
by being born within certain artificial lines… lines that have been changeable
in the past and are easily changed in the future because they don’t really exist…

How can we rationalize political equality without accepting economic equality?

now one may make the argument that by equalizing everyone economically,
we take away their incentive to work… as if work was the thing we live for…
the battle is not to posses material goods or buy a bigger TV… the battle
is to become human… the march in mankind is not in technology or in GDP,
but in becoming better human beings and in creating a better society…

better human being and better society can be one whereas
there is more order and unity and a worse human being and a worse
society is a disorder society and a disorder human being…

the sign of a functional society and a functional human being is
tending toward order and unity… look at functional societies
and functional individuals… they are ordered and have unity
and there is less chaos and randomness…that is a sign of
a functional society and a sign of a functional human being…

Sweden is a far more functional society then Kenya and that is
a sign that there is order and unity in Sweden and more chaos and randomness
in Kenya… look at history… the societies that lasted are the ones that
have more order then disorder… think of systems and systems that
function better are ones that hold their order better… think of a car…
a car that functions better is one that has order and runs when you want it
to run and works the way it supposed to… a disorder car, one that doesn’t run
when you want to and is chaotic is a less functional car…is less likely
to last…order and unity are partly the reason for systems lasting longer…
the reason our cars and our solar system and the human body last
is because there is order and unity… when there is disorder and chaos
and randomness… the system is in danger of failing…be it a car or a body
or a solar system…

justice is a form of order and unity… the amount of justice in a political system
will help decide how long that system, be it Rome or Egypt or China or Sweden,
will decide how long that system will last… because without justice there is
disorder and chaos and randomness in the system…and that will decrease the
length of time a system, a political system for example will last…

so if we allow injustice in the economic system, we increase disorder and chaos
and that threaten the structure of society which means the system may fail…

we must have justice or the system might fail from chaos and randomness
caused by the lack of equality…think of inequality as a scale… put too much
weight on one side and it is no longer in balance and that balance is needed for
any system, be it a car or a solar system or a political or an economic system
to survive…justice and equality and balance are all the same thing…
and all are needed to make a system work, any system…

so we must have political equality as well as economic equality
for our system to work, to be balanced, to last…

private property threatens that balance of equality
and must be addressed…

Kropotkin

The Buddha said that suffering was being sick and aged and death…
those aren’t suffering, they are just natural events in our lives…

Real suffering is what humans do to other humans…if you want to end
the suffering of people, be kind to human beings…follow the path
of love instead of hate and anger…suffering, real suffering is caused
by humans acting on other humans…be the person who helps end suffering…

Kropotkin

as I wrote, the Buddha felt that we must escape suffering
and that suffering was growing old and being sick and dying…
but these things are normal and expected… how can they be
suffering if everyone becomes sick or grows old or dies?
I have been sick, I needed three operations to heal, did I suffer?
hell yah, the pain was overwhelming at times, but I, eventually,
became healthy…but that kind of suffering is part and parcel of the
human experience… I suffer from pain from a bad back and have for
years and will suffer until the day I die… and yet, I realize it is what it is…
and as for growing old, I am 58 and I grow older every single day and yet
it is what it is and nothing I can do will stop that process… I just consider
it being part of the price of being alive and as for death, I have no choice, no freedom
in the matter, so how can that be suffering?
I will die… it doesn’t matter how I feel about the matter, I will die…
I just don’t know when…

all of these are natural occurring event in life we all go through… it is
what it is and that there is nothing I can do about it. period. end of discussion…
why lament that which I have no control over… I cannot control that “suffering”
even if it isn’t really suffering, it is just part of the gig of being human…
deal with it…

but what about the suffering of millions who don’t have the necessities of life?
while some have billions of dollars, in fact the top 10 wealthiest people
on planet earth have as much wealth as the bottom half of the population or
have as much wealth as 3 billion people… how is that just? how is that equality?
by having the economic system we have, we have billions, BILLIONS, of people who
lack the basic necessities of life…they are suffering, not from age or sickness or death,
but from the actions of their fellow human beings…

Justice demands that we treat people equally but if we don’t do that due to economic
reasons, we are engaged in injustice… a society cannot last engaging in injustice…
it becomes unbalanced, unstable, it becomes threatened… so where is the justice
for those who suffer from lack of resources? if all men are created equal, then we
need justice, equality, for everyone regardless of their politics or their religion or
their race or their color… equality is the answer for suffering… you want to end
suffering… end injustice, end inequality…to follow the Buddha and end suffering,
you must end the suffering of our fellow human beings… who suffer under a unequal
political and economic system…every single reformer since before Jesus has had
the same message…to heal thyself… one must begin by healing those who suffer…
because their suffering is your suffering because we humans… we are
of that universal classification… HUMAN BEING…we are one and the same…
individually and collectively…we have an economic system that demands suffering as
a price for our couch and our TV and our nice car and house… we can go with less
and end the suffering for others… equality… is justice for all…

Kropotkin

I am reading a book called: History of Philosophical Systems…
it is edited by Ferm… Published in 1965…
a group of writers write about various Philosophical systems from
the earliest times, it begins with the “Story of Indian Philosophy”
and works it way through various systems up to recent events like Pragmatism
and Logical Positivism and into recent events in Philosophy, well recent as
of 1965…

I thought about our American system and what is in that system…

we have a representative democracy and we have capitalism as our economic system
and we have three distinct and equal branches of government and we have as our basis
a equal justice system, whereas the symbol is the women wearing blindfold and
using a scale which means she judges blindly and without discrimination or benefit
to anyone…this is our American system writ large and not getting into the weeds
with all the other stuff that our system will entail…

now our system like any other system must be balanced, to work it must
be equal and fair and honest… the failure of our American system lies in the
fact that it has introduced chaos and uncertainty into our system and within
that chaos lies the means to threaten our American system…

think of our political system like the solar system… it works smoothly
and easily until something throw the system into chaos like for example,
let us say a planet comes into our solar system or a nearby sun has some
gravitational influence on our system that would throw our solar system into
chaos and make it unbalanced and threaten its equilibrium…

we have caused chaos and unbalanced into our system with rulings like
hobby lobby and citizens united and thus we have a system that is out of
balanced and we have justice that is no longer blind but she sees exactly
which people are on trial and money talks and justice walks…

we have threaten the system in large part by our own actions
and it is by our own actions we must save our system…
when politicians make millions of dollars from campaign contributions
and then get a small salary from American’s, who do you think the
politicians will listen to…the millions of dollars or the citizens
who put them there… there is no doubt who the politicians listen
to and answer to and it ain’t their constituents, that’s for sure…

the bottom line seems to be money and there where the danger of,
and the threat comes from, money influencing and changing
the dynamics of justice and the dynamics of democracy…

money makes the blindfolded lady see and makes justice becomes
a system of money, justice is simply the person with the most money,
and thus threatens the balance of the American system…

justice is no longer equal and justice is no longer practiced
from a position of blindness…

want to know how America is being threaten, it is money that
has unbalanced the American system

this morning it was reported that a homeless man asked a woman
to move her Porsche… and she shot him…how much you want to bet she
gets off scott free…better then even money, she doesn’t spend a day in jail…and
that is the new American justice system…money talks and justice walks…
you want to rail against something, try this inside of dumb discussions of
liberals and their alleged hatred of America… you want to fix America,
help fix the systems that have become corrupt and unbalanced, thus
threating American stability…

Kropotkin

most people approach philosophy with
such seriousness that is entirely unwarranted…

becoming who you are, isn’t about drama and seriousness
that drains all the life out of the process…

Nietzsche was right, we can dance and laugh and cry
on the path to becoming…

Philosophy isn’t about a set series of exercises like
studying the verb “to be” in another language…

I am
you are
he/she/it is
we are
you are
they are

Ich bin
du bist
er/sie/es ist
wir sind
ihr seid
sie/Sie sind…

philosophy exists in both the joy and terror of discovering
who we are and who we might become…
it is about finding out what is possible
and singing a song about that…

we can become… all we have to do is understand that…
I can become something better then I am today and that
something is to be found in the study of life of which philosophy
is part of…I have learned things about myself lately, at my advance
age of 58, that has surprised me and frankly, has brought shame to my
heart, but that is part of the journey… not to learn safe and comfortable
things but to learn everything, not just the fun and safe stuff and that
sometimes leads us to feel shame and terror and joy about who we are
and then who we can become, and that can bring us the same feelings of shame and
terror and joy… if we don’t feel something about our journey, it isn’t much
of a journey…we are simply engaged in a very safe exploration of who we are…
it is like thinking that traveling is going to a safe place and thinking you are really
traveling, but real traveling is about stretching who you are by going beyond
what is safe and going beyond your comfort zone… going to the local, nearby street
is safe and predictable, but going to some new country and going out of your comfort
zone is really what traveling and philosophy is about the same thing… go beyond
your comfort zone and challenge yourself just like you would if you were
traveling…

safe and boring is Kant and Hegel, stretch who you are by engaging in
Nietzsche or engage in your own exploration of who you are and challenge
who you are and who you are becoming…

Kropotkin

in my journey of being and becoming…
I have discovered I have a mean streak a mile long…
and that is my being… but do I simply accept that or
do I try to become, becoming, something better…

I can simply accept that I can be mean but that is not
a choice, that is simply accepting or I can make a choice,
which is freedom, choices means freedom, and I can choice
to become something better, which is not being mean and being
nicer and a kinder Kropotkin… what I choose defines me as
a person and I choose to be a nicer, kinder person…

so, I just have to practice being nice and being kind,
every single day… and it will be hard because
being is easier then trying to become something else,
being is easier then becoming…so what route do I take?

the easy path of being or the hard path of becoming?

Kropotkin