a new understanding of today, time and space.

I have commented on myths, habits, prejudices and superstitions as
being chains which tie us down because those myths, habits, prejudices
and superstitions are left over from our childhood training and those
chains prevent us from leading authentic lives because those myths,
and habits are someone else’s myths and someone else’s habit and someone
else prejudice and someone else’s superstition… they are chains upon
our idea’s, our thought, our beliefs, our feelings…

what other chains do we have?

that America is the greatest country on earth…
that we are the freest people on earth… that capitalism is the only economic
system of value… that we have a democracy… there is a god…there
is a heaven and hell and angels and the devil…

myths, habits, prejudices and superstitions… all of them…
how do we become free of these chains that tie us to the past…
that tie us to live an inauthentic life because they aren’t
real or true beliefs… those chains are simply holdovers from
our childhood and are best left behind in childhood with our beliefs
in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny and the tooth fairy…

modern myths and habits and prejudices and superstitions exist
today, just as they have always existed… and we must fight them to
become… we must engage with those myths and habits and prejudices
to become more human… to fight the lower level/animal side of the
human existence… to become who we are, we must leave behind
those myths and habits and prejudices and superstitions that
tie us down, that chain us to our childhood, that prevent us from
living our true lives… we are adults and it is time to leave
our childhood myths and habits behind… to be free, to be truly
free means we must break our chains, our myths and prejudices…
and to do so means we must become aware of those chains to our
childhood… the myths and habits and prejudices and superstitions…

to ask, is America the greatest country on earth? is to engage in
one of the myths of our time…

a better question is to ask, if I want to become human, fully human…
what must I do? the path into the future lies first, in becoming
aware of our collective, social and personal myths and lies and habits and prejudices
and superstitions… the chains that tie one down into the society at large…
and after we become aware, then we must engage with those myths and habits
and decide, is that truly who I am, is that who I want to be… is that a place
that I want to exist in…questions one must ask if one is truly to be free of
the chains of habits and myths…

who are you? are you the collection of myths and habits and prejudices and
superstitions that society tells you or are you something free of, engage with
the search for the truth…

now this truth, this truth becomes the new myths and habits and prejudices
and superstition both personally and collectively… we are never free of our chains…
the best we can do is understand the chains exists and this is by becoming aware…
the battle to become human is to free ourselves of our chains…
and then build truer, more honest chains… chains that match the reality that
exists, not the chains of the past which reflect the understanding of reality back then…
we live in different times and so we need a different understanding of the universe…
and that becomes the new reality until the situation changes and we need a
another new understanding of reality and when that time comes and people are
still stuck in the old reality, they are chained by the myths and habits and prejudices
and superstition we created and that they need to update…

this is how it works… every generation creates a new understanding of the world
and that understanding is how the universe works until it doesn’t understand anymore…
and then we must change our understanding… and with each new understanding,
people get left behind, stuck in the old understandings, the old myths and the old
habits and the old prejudices and the old superstitions…we must change our theories
with the changing environment and if we don’t change our theories with the new changing
evolving environment, we become stuck in the old, past understanding of our environment…
those are chains because they don’t help us understand our new, current environment…
those chains are meant for the last understanding of the universe… they are not up to date…
and behind our current understanding of how the universe works and who we are…
those who get stuck in and caught by the chains of the past understandings of the universe
are dinosaurs and we all know what happened to the dinosaurs…

we do not understand our role in the universe with the hunter/gatherer method
of economics and the political, with their myths and habits and prejudices and
superstitions, but why not? why can’t we understand the universe with the idea’s and thoughts of the
the hunter/gatherer? because that environment/that time period, no longer exists…
we cannot go back… we can only go forward… into new myths and habits and
prejudices and superstitions that fit our ever changing environment and new environment…

we must adapt, not only physically, but with new idea’s and thoughts and technologies
that fit our new and changing environment…

that is why the chains of childhood must be broken… to fit into the new and changing
environment…

Kropotkin

it has been said that because of “frailties” of the senses,
we receive inperfect and inprecise information from our
senses which leads us to make faulty judgements/decisions…
but I suggest something else is at work…

recall earlier, I brought up the point of observational bias…
now let us connect these two points…

we are born, we, from various sources, learn many things…
these things we learn are both useful, the stove is hot, and many things
that are more along the lines of indoctrination… these are the myths,
habits, prejudices and superstitions we learn as children…
America is the greatest country on earth… there is a god…
capitalism is the greatest system ever and the only system…

now we learn these myths and habits and prejudices and superstitions
and we see the world through them…these myths influence how we see
the world… if we are taught to only see hate in the world, that is all
we will look for and that is all we will find, we will not see anything else but hate…

this is the observational bias I refer to…the teachings of youth, these myths
and otherwise, prevent us from clearly seeing the world…it is not just
a failure of senses that prevent us from getting a clear understanding of the
world but our childhood indoctrination… the myths and habits and prejudices
and superstitions that we were taught… prevent us from getting a clear
picture of the world and thus prevents us from getting a clear and concise
plan of action going from the past to the future…our myths and habits and
prejudices and superstitions prevent us from making a clear plan of action going
into the future, because we are chained to a specific and wrong
idea of who we are and what are our possibilities…

to become free of our chains means to become free of the indoctrination
of myths and habits and prejudices and superstitions of our youth…
the training of our parents and schools and church and state…
all meant to indoctrinate us with a certain viewpoint meant to make
us “good” citizens and more importantly, “good” workers… for that is the
current function of education… to make people good workers and pliable
citizens…whether we become good human beings is not important and
not relevant to modern education and modern indoctrination… we
are meant to have a certain function and that is to be unquestioning
citizens and workers… “don’t rock the boat” is the modern
lesson we learn as children… go with the flow and do what you are told…
that is some of the chains we are taught in childhood…

and because we are so formed, we cannot truly see clearly, that is not
because of failure of our senses but a failure of our becoming free of the
chains of childhood… we cannot see clearly until we free ourselves of
our myths and habits and prejudices and superstitions of the indoctrination
of our childhood…

want to become fully human… break the chains of your indoctrination…
want to become a functional human being, break the chains…
want to be free… break the chains…

Kropotkin

now those who attack liberal idea’s, often call liberals,
“a mental illness” and yet these fools, never put forward
an opposing ideal… they are just saying no, without ever
saying yes…

the enlightenment ideal of toleration is one such “liberal” ideal…
but the full scope of this idea hasn’t really been fleshed out…
let us do so…

what is Justice? as I have defined it before, it is equality…
everyone is treated equally… regardless of position, wealth,
race, creed, color or sex… justice is blind and thus cannot see
who justice is judging… that is the point… being treated equally…

what is toleration? it is the idea that we treat equally, regardless
of position, wealth, race, creed, color and sex, people…
we don’t judge people based on accidental qualities like race or color…
and we certainly don’t judge people based on such things like
religion or nationality or other basis…

so we can connect toleration and justice…for to have justice,
one must have toleration for, equality for all people, all idea’s,
all colors, all creeds, all religions, all nationalities, all sexes…

so for the person who is against “liberal” idea’s is really against
justice for all, toleration for all, for they are the same thing…
equality for those who hold those beliefs…

justice and toleration is really about treating everyone exactly the same
regardless of who they are or what they are or what they believe in…

now another step in this idea of toleration is not only justice, but
democracy… for democracy to be a democracy, it must include
everyone regardless of race, creed, color… etc…
you cannot exclude people, for whatever reason, and still call
it a democracy…for democracy and justice and toleration are
all the same thing… equality for those who participate…
justice for those who exists regardless of …

to be intolerant is to hold that injustice and inequality and undemocratic
is the ideal that we follow…so to oppose “liberal” ideals is to be in favor
of injustice and inequality and being undemocratic…

so how say you?

Kropotkin

let us follow one such myth, habit, prejudice and superstition
from beginning to end…

God exists… that is one such habit that is taught from childhood…
but why this habit, this superstition? and how did it begin?

think of millions of years ago, when hominids like Homo sapiens and
Homo erectus lived on the earth…

think of the living conditions of those who lived in caves and in small groups,
eking out a precarious existence… for hominids, “life was solitary, poor,
nasty, brutish and short”…

and in such times, hominids would use anything, try anything to extend
existence…and that would include, hoping for a longer life, hoping
for food/game to appear… this hoping would after centuries,
would go from a hope to a god… and this god would take the place
of hoping for things to go right…

and after hundreds of thousand of years, this hoping, this idea of god,
was inplanted into the minds of human beings… almost like an instinct,
that became second nature to us after many generations of being taught
it… myth, habit, prejudice and superstition are all taught by generation
after generation after generation of human/hominids…
and after so long, it becomes part of us… but it doesn’t make it true…
just makes it ingrained in us…

and today, we still hold to this myth and habit and prejudice and superstition…
and why?

let us change gears for a moment…

we have in Europe, a clash of idea’s that has resulted in violence…
we have refuges from the middle east carrying their myths, habits,
prejudices and superstitions meeting European myths, habits, prejudices
and superstitions…but we know, know that Europe has the least
number of people who believe in the world…in Europe, the idea of
god has been dying… the prominent ideal is toleration…
but, we have those coming into Europe who don’t believe in
toleration… who still believe in outmoded and out of date ideals…
like god and heaven and hell…this clash of idea’s comes from
the believers who don’t practice toleration… they are intolerant…
they don’t believe in the liberal idea of toleration for all, even the
non-believers…the clash arises from a practice of intolerance from one side…

and from this intolerance, we see the violence and emotions of the modern age…
which stems from intolerance and that leads to injustice and inequality and
undemocratic practices… we can connect the “illiberal” idea of intolerance
with injustice and inequality and undemocratic ideals…

if you want peace and love and hope and charity in the world,
one must practice toleration which helps lead to justice and equality
and democratic practices…

the fight remains and will always remain to become fully human
and that road leads us to practice love, hope, charity, peace
for the one road to justice and equality and democracy is
via toleration… another words, liberal ideals are the path into the future…

Kropotkin

part of the problem today is that we have these notions that
are myths, habits, prejudice and superstitions and we think that
they are a accurate and complete understanding of the world…
but they ae myths and habits and prejudice and superstitions that
stand in place of our true understanding of the world…
we have these myths, habits and prejudices that we think, think
are the true representations of the world when in fact, they are not…
so we have to reach some true understanding of the world…
so how do we know? for example, someone may believe that
the moon is made up of green cheese… that is a myth or habit or
prejudice or superstition that a person believes… does that false
understanding really harm a person? Not really because how can you
turn this false idea of the moon being made of green cheese into action?
you can’t… you just have a false belief about reality… the belief is
different then the reality of the situation… think of beliefs as a guide,
a map of reality… and the map that you have is some representation of
the actual reality…is belief in capitalism actually capitalism?
is a map actually the terrain? no, it is a map of the ground…
now maps can be accurate or not accurate depending on how
close to reality they show what is actually on the ground…
if your map shows us a lake and there is no lake, then the map
you have is a very bad representation of reality… to be accurate,
the map must show us the lakes that exists and the rivers and the hills
and the roads… if your map doesn’t show us that, it is a very bad map
and won’t allow you to traverse the reality of the land… this idea
of a map is the same for our idea’s and the reality of the situation…
if your own personal map, which can be about love or hate or ideologies like
capitalism or communism or a career… is wrong, then you don’t have an
accurate map of reality…now let us return to our idea of myths and
habits and prejudices and superstitions… those myths and habits and
prejudices and superstitions you have, are they close to the reality of life
or are they totally different then reality? in other words, let us take a common
myth, the myth of rugged individualism… we have this myth that one man
created his universe… for example, an example of rugged individualism
is that Bill Gates built Microsoft all by himself… Microsoft exist because
he did all the work and he deserves all the money/profit from Microsoft because
he did build it himself… that is one myth… and a false myth…for Gates
himself will tell you, he had help from thousands to build Microsoft…

another myth is America is the greatest country on earth… and anyone who
actually investigates this can quickly discover that this is not true…
but and this is important… how we operate or act upon this myth decides or
determines how close to reality we actually are…if we act on the idea that
America is not the greatest country in the world, we are closer to the truth,
then those who operate on the thought that America is the greatest country in the world…
in other words, if we act as if we are the greatest country in the world and makes
decisions based on this, our map as it were, then we are not operating with real
or true facts… our vision of reality is wrong because
our map, that this is the greatest in the world, is wrong…
people go wrong when they act upon their map which is wrong…
in other words, if your map, your myths and habits are wrong,
then your actions are going to be wrong…

and we face this all the time… we have false information about the world,
that is it mean or cruel and if we act upon this at all times, we are acting
on false information and our actions are the wrong actions and create difficulties for us…

if the reality is different then our map of reality, we are lead wrong…
that is the danger of myths and habits and prejudices and superstitions…
that people mistake those myths and habits and prejudices and superstitions
as the truth, the reality of a situation… whereas they are a map and a wrong map
of the truth and reality…and thus we are lead to make mistakes in actions because
we are acting upon a map that is wrong…

Kropotkin

so what does Pascal, Newton, Descartes, Plato, Marx, Aristotle,
Augustine, Einstein and the bible have in common?

ummmm, they do have something in common…

they, each of them have created a map… a map of reality…
some maps are scientific in nature and some are theological and
some are philosophical in nature… each map has a different starting point…
Einstein and Newton from a scientific starting point, Descartes and Plato
from a philosophical starting point and Pascal and Augustine from a theological
starting point… thus each one is different…

let us go for our maps again… I take a map and I use that map to
find my way… the starting point makes a huge difference…

a map that starts in Detroit is different from a map that starts from New York
which is different from a map that starts from L.A…and thus each
will end in a different place…and each map is a map of reality…
but because they start from different places will be different maps…

what if the map starts from a imaginary point… say, El Dorado, the myth
of the golden city that the Spanish followed for many, many miles…
El Dorado doesn’t exist and the Spanish were lead many miles away
from pretty much everything… in following this myth…

so if we start from the wrong place… we have a good chance of ending up
in the wrong place… that is the trouble with theological maps…
they start from the wrong premise and take us far away from reality…
their map insist that there is a god and heaven and hell and angels and
the devil… that is a map of their reality… but what if god doesn’t exists
and that means there is no heaven and no hell and no angels and no devil…
their map is completely wrong and following a map that is completely wrong
will lead one on the wrong path…

scientist have a different map…and their map of reality is closer to reality
then the theologian…scientist don’t need faith for their map to be right,
and by science, the map is self correcting… leading scientist toward a
destination… but that is the problem with science… it doesn’t have a
destination, just a method to keep one on track but on track toward what?

Philosophers have their map… a map of reality… and Descartes and Spinoza
and Plato and Kant and Hegel all have a different map of reality…
so who do you follow? the person or the map which seems to be closes to
reality for you…so for me, the person whose map seems to be closes to reality
for me is Hume and Nietzsche… but for you, it might be Kant and Descartes…
and for someone else it might be Plato and Husserl…you never know…
but that is the point… we each follow a philosopher because their map
seems to be the closes to reality that we can see…

as mentioned, some maps are tainted because they are corrupted by
myths and habits and prejudices and superstitions… these corruptions
make the map unreliable and not very trustworthy …would you follow
a map that seems to be unreliable? I wouldn’t… and you shouldn’t either…
this is the point of having myths and habits and prejudices and superstitions
that they corrupt our personal map… and that corruption will lead us the wrong
way… but how do we find out what is the right destination?
ah, that is the trick isn’t it, finding out what is the right destination
and thus finding out what is the right map for us to use…

is my destination to be an righteous man? then a theological map is the
right one… is my destination to be a accurate man? then science seems
to have the right map…is my destination to be a wise man?
then philosophy or a philosophic map, would seem to be the right one…

the destination it seems help us understand which map to use…
are we creating an equal and just world? then Marx has the right map…
are we creating a democratic world? then the enlightenment ideals seem
to be the right map… and that is a very interesting thing about maps…
it can lead us individually or it can lead us collectively…
and the map can tell us our place in the world… both individually and
collectively…some maps tell us that we exist individually and collectively
and we can be both, individual and part of something… those maps are
very popular maps… because we can learn who we are and what is our
place in the universe, both individually and collectively… theological
maps are popular for this and the communism map is also popular for this…

so whose map do you follow and why?

Kropotkin

we seem to act as if we are done with the evolution
of society/government and us… as if there is no where
else to go because we have capitalism and representative democracy,
as our systems and that is it… we’re done… we have our political
system and we have our economic system and nothing else needs to be done…
we have reached the final place of history… that’s all folks…

and yet, we aren’t done… for us to adapt, we must change our
systems, both political and economic to adapt the changing conditions…
a system that is perfect at one time, becomes totally disastrous at a later date…

even our current political system has change dramatically since the days of
the founding fathers because of changes in demographics and population growth
and technology among other changes… the government must change and adapt
to changing conditions like any other system in order to adapt, to function
well…

if we came back in a hundred years, the government we will see, will be
dramatically different then the one we see today and it should change…
it should adapt to the changing conditions…

we must not think that we are at the end of the journey…
we are on a never ending path, a journey…one that will conclude
with an entirely different set of people… just not us…

understand that we are not only in the process of change, we are change…

Kropotkin

I have written about myths and habits and prejudices and superstitions
that we have… these myths and so on, are programs written into us
by our families and church and media and state…we are programmed
from childhood to hold certain beliefs… America is the greatest country on earth…
with myths like this, we indoctrinate our youth to hold certain beliefs
that we want to passed down from generation to generation…

but what current myths and habits and prejudices and superstitions
exist today?

for example, the fake news impression from IQ45…but other myths also
inhabit our world… for example, the myth that the landings on the moon.
were somehow faked…the reason for these fake landings are never really made
clear, but that is the point…

the rise of the conspiracy world is no less about myths and habits and prejudices
and superstition then in the past when people believed in spirits and angels and
god and heaven and hell… how is the believe in such myths and habits
any different then the conspiracy theory of the faked moon landing or in
the other urban myths of today…the Jews run the world type of myth…
or the secret cabal that runs the world, somehow or the illuminati that runs the world…
how are these modern myths any different then the age old myths of witches
and demons and angels and god, heaven and hell?

I for one, don’t see any difference between the long ago old myths and the new myths/
conspiracies of today… the fake news of today is no different then the fake news of
yesterday… it has just changed in the type of myths and habits and prejudices and
superstition we see today, it doesn’t change the hold that these myths and habits
have on people…

and the value that society has in the people having these myths is a rather interesting one…
if people are hung up on these fake news/myths, then they are not paying attention
to what is happening today…the real crimes of anti-democratic actions such as
inequality and injustice and intolerance are being committed…

fake news is perpetuated because it keeps people from seeing what is going on or
to get people to say, the hell with it, pox on both houses and I am just not going
to pay any attention of any kind…it allows people permission to just tune
out the news of the world and not pay attention…

I know people who hold these conspiracy theory’s and they are always
going on about the media is just fake news and the moon landing is fake
and about government conspiracies to take over the nation…
these people are no different then those who hold views about
angels and the devil and witches and demons… there is no difference in
the need to hold these myths and habits and prejudices and superstitions…
for that is what they are, these modern urban lies are myths
and habits and prejudices and superstitions…

we cannot grow as a people until we learn to live without these myths
and habits and prejudices and superstitions…

Kropotkin

what is the point of being a “Christian” if you don’t follow Christian ethics?

the original Christian thought of being Christian as a way of life…
it wasn’t meant and wasn’t thought of as an intellectual or theoretical
exercise, it was meant to be a complete and total way of life…
you didn’t just show how Christian you were by occasionally attending
church for one hour a week…no, you vowed to live your life in
accordance to the teachings of Christ…

it is the same for philosophy… Plato and Aristotle thought of philosophy
as a way of life, not as a theoretical devise to create philosophy but to live
philosophy… as a way of life…

this understanding is lost in today’s world…
why don’t use theories or ism’s as a way of life…
capitalism today is not a way of life, but a tool to
enslave millions of people, but it is not a way of life…
communism of stalin/lenin was used to enslave millions of lives,
but it was a false and failed understanding of Marx’s communism
that drove this version of communism… but it wasn’t meant
to be a way of life…

and that is the failure of today… we hold theoretical views,
though shall not lie… though shall not kill… but
we don’t practice what we preach, we don’t want to
have a way of life… we want easy answers to the question,
how shall we live our lives? certainly no one today, even suggests
that we turn believe into a way of life… if you are truly an
Christian, then make that a way of life…

be what you believe in…

become that person…

oh no, that is way too hard to even suggest…
most people would rather have simple, answers that require no
commitment… why work to be a Christian? it is easier to
just pretend… be a CINO…Christian in name only…

and you CINO who approve of IQ45 depriving the poor and working poor
of much needed aid and assistance… you hold your Christianity lightly
and in name only if you don’t work to improve the lot of the poor…
for didn’t Christ himself work to help and aid the poor and needy…

it is an easy thing to proclaim one Christianity if it means you don’t have to do
anything… a Cino would say, let the poor suffer because they brought it on themselves…
we, we work for everything we have and so should they…
it is easy to proclaim ones superiority when there is food on the table and a roof
over one’s head…it is easy to think the world is alright when you
know where your next meal is coming from…

Millionaire congressmen think the world has no problem because they
are millionaires and they have food on the table and a roof over their head…
it is easy to dismiss the poor and needy if you have no want…
if I am fine… the rest of the world can go to hell… I have mine…
the thoughts of Christians? no, the thought of CINO’s…

It is easy to be a Christian if one doesn’t actually have to practice Christianity…
if one doesn’t actually use Christianity as a way of life… just occasionally and
whenever it is convenient to be a Christian…that is the CINO way…
call yourself Christian when it suits you and when it is convenient…
but don’t use it as a way of life… just once a week for an hour a day…

Kropotkin

if as suggested that Christianity (and other religions) and Patriotism
are simply myths and habits and prejudice and superstition,
then what should we believe in?

remove such myths and habits and prejudices and superstitions
from our belief system and what is left?

what is left?

Kropotkin

if we tell our life story, we certainly don’t
comment on the forces that impacted our lives…
I was born in 1959 in Minnesota,
move to a city outside of Chicago in 1963
moved in 1969 to Florida…

this short list of my first ten years doesn’t cover the forces that
shaped those years… schooling and the media, the state, events like
the assassination of JFK and Martin Luther King, plus the turbulent 60’s…
I remember watching Walter Cronkite and listening to how many American
soldiers dies that week in Vietnam… and not really understanding what that
meant…I remember my father coming home in the summer of 1968, with
blood on his white dress shirt… blood from protesters of the Democratic
national convention which was in Chicago that year…he was a newspaperman…

like a small ship on the sea, during a large storm… we are buffeted by
forces quite beyond our ability to manage and often beyond our ability to
understand… an corporate executive somewhere gets a hankering for
a house in Italy and to make his bonus, he must cut 100,000 jobs…
and then you are out of work…simple as that… he gets his bonus and you get…

how do we find certainty in such a world where if someone gets a hard on for
a house in Italy and thousands lose their job…

or congress to give massive tax cuts to their donors, cut people
off of Medicare or WIC programs… how do we find certainty in a world
like that?

perhaps the answer or the goal may not be certainty… we can never be certain
about anything… so why make certainty a goal, when it is not possible to obtain
any kind of certainty…work with the goals that are possible, so take out the search
for certainty as being a goal of philosophy, so what is left?

Kropotkin

what we are facing, our malaise, is simply this,
we have science on one side and religion on the other side, but
and this is important, neither one will answer our questions…
science can’t answer our question because we do not understand science…
modern technology which is based on science is incomprehensible to most
people… even such science as evolution which is pretty easy, is incomprehensible
to most people…we cannot use science to understand what life is and
what life is about… there is no why in science and so we can’t use science
to create some ends or goals to our life…

and religion, on the other side has been thoroughly destroyed…
the why that exists in religion no longer is applied by people…
the miracles of religions no longer resonate with people…
they no longer matter to people…

if we cannot find comfort in religion and
understanding in science, then what?

what is left?

Kropotkin

so on one side we have science and 99% of all people
who have no understanding of science, what it is or how it works…

and we have the religious, where in light of science and the enlightenment
ideals of toleration and freedom have reduce the religious to once
a week on Sunday and absolutely no religious thoughts during the rest
of the week… the vast majority of people in America are CINO’S,
Christians in name only…

so we have the medieval time period which was the religious
and then we have the reawaking, the Renaissance, from which build
into the age of science and then the age of the enlightenment…and for
400 years slowly we have gone from the religious age to a science age…

but as I have noted, few understand science… and we have seen the uses
of science and have noted the dangers… but dangers not from the science itself,
but how it is used… science is neutral, it isn’t good or bad… it just is…
but depending on how it is used, it can be good or evil…

and we have seen enough science being used for evil that we don’t
trust science but the danger is with the use of science, not the science itself…

and few trust the religious…if you actually trusted god, would
you need to kill others in his name? no, the ones who prattle on
about others being irreligious or blasphemous, those people are the
ones with weak faith… the noisy ones about faith are the ones who
lack faith… real faith that god is in charge and you are just along for
the ride…few, very few have real faith… and the same can be
said about science, few trust science, really trust science…

so, what about the rest of us? we cannot turn toward the religious,
but we don’t trust science mostly because we don’t understand it…
you can’t trust something you don’t understand…

so where is the third way? perhaps, perhaps that is what
existentialism is all about… finding that third way…
not the path of science and not the path of religion…
but a new path into the future… and we still are working
out that path…

Kropotkin

the evolution of belief has us going from a
“universal” belief in god and angels and demons
and the devil, heaven and hell…

today, few have a real belief in any of those things…
reading about the enlightenment is the point that the
enlightenment was about freeing us from myths, habits,
prejudices and superstitions of the time…for each time
has its own myths and habits and prejudices and superstitions…

one of our myths is that we live in a democracy… we don’t…
another habit/myth is we are that the U.S is the freest country on earth…
another myth/habit is that we even have freedom, we don’t…
sure you are free to select your car and your cereal and the shoes
you wear, but so what? freedom of this type is limited because
you have only 4 companies making all that cereal on the shelf’s
and you only have 5 companies making all those models of car’s…

the freedom to buy merchandise is not freedom… just crass materialism…
true freedom is the ability to make choices, choices
of who we are and what are our possibilities?..to believe we are free
to choose god is simply not true because you have one choice,
pick god or spend eternity in hell… and that is not a choice, but a threat…
you do not have choice politically because we have no choices politically…
one might claim we can vote out our politicians but the fact is, most
politicians are lock into their positions by gerrymandering…the politicians
choose their voters and not the voters choosing the politicians…
gerrymandering is one of the greatest threats to democracy that exists…
and as long as gerrymandering exists, we shall not have a viable democracy…

another myth/habit is the idea that the politicians are working for us…
how can they be, when they get millions of dollars from corporations and
individuals? Politicians simply follow the money and do the bidding of
those who pay for their influence…

so we have several myths and habits that plague us, we live in a
democracy and that we have economic freedom, because we don’t…
if you only have one choice, you don’t have a choice… and if we only have
capitalism as our only choice, then we don’t have a choice…

so we exists in a two part tyranny,
both political (lack of democracy and our representatives being bought and sold)
and economic (lack of economic choices and the tyranny of the profit margin/the pursuit
of profit which is nihilism)

the path to freedom, real political and economic freedom must be
our goal, our destination…how are we to free ourselves of these
tyrannies, economic and political?

the path into the future is really a path into real and true freedom,
which means real and immediate freedom of choice… not just a pretend
economic or political fantasy about our freedom of choices…we have
no choice if we only have one choice…

the choices available must also includes choices that we don’t even
approve of… choices must include all choices, not just ones
we happen to approve of…

politically, today we have two and only two choices…
pretend democracies or dictatorships like Putin’s Russia…
those aren’t choices if you only have one choice,
the pretend democracy or the dictatorship…

and as both of them are fundamentally flawed, it doesn’t leave us
much choice, now does it?

so how do we escape our dilemma?

by first becoming aware of our situation and then second,
understanding what our possibilities are…what are our choices?

indeed, what our are choices?

Kropotkin

in reading about the enlightenment, one argument against
“freethinkers” “Spinozist” “Radicals” “Atheist” was that to believe
in such things, was a path to the destruction of civilization,
of the loss in belief in god lead to people being free to commit
acts of violence and destruction and crimes against society because
this “atheism” lead to a loss of values… and this loss meant
people were free to act in any way possible to the determent
of society and yet, it is clear that the continued march in the loss
of belief did not lead to such crisis in society… in fact, if we know our
history, we know that society is safer today, then it was 200 or 300 years ago…
and this loss of belief had no impact on the safety or security of society…
we have less belief cannot be denied and yet, we are demonstrable safer
and more secure today then we were, when belief in god and the bible
was consider essential for the safety and survival of society…

one hears the argument that we must, must believe in the
dogmas of state and society to be able to maintain a safe and secure
society and yet, we have heard this for the last 300 year and it still
hasn’t been shown to be true…we have a America being full of CINO’S
and yet America still hasn’t fallen victim to the violence and insecurity
of lacking respect for the dogmas/myths/habits/prejudices of
America today…in other words, the loss of belief in god and
religion hasn’t degraded America in any noticeable way but the loss
of belief in the American way of life has degraded America…but not
in the anticipated way of the violence and mayhem that was predicted…
but in the crisis of belief that has created a malaise in America and the west…
part of this malaise is from the fact we can’t release the old, harmful beliefs
of the past but we can’t fully accept the new idea’s of the present or future…
we are trapped in a circle of our own making…a circle that cannot be broken
until we release the past and accept the oncoming future…
and part of breaking that circle lies in rejecting the current myths,
habits, prejudices and superstitions of the modern age…
you can’t go into the future until you have released the past…

a child cannot grow into being a teenager and then a young adult,
until he/she grows and learns to adapt to new beliefs and idea’s…
the old idea’s of their being a Santa Claus for example…
and moving past the idea that our parents are the end all, be all
of all knowledge and wisdom…the growth of children into
teenagers and young adults mirrors our growth into releasing
our beliefs in the myths and habits of our time and our
society…

Kropotkin

we have 6 media corporations owning 95% of ALL media
in this country… Walt Disney, News Corp,
Time Warner, GE, Viacom, CBS

the big 4 record companies: universal music group, Sony music entertainment,
Warner music group, iTunes…they own 80% of all record labels…

Car companies: we have 7 major companies in the U.S,
GM, Ford, Fiat Chrysler, Toyota, Daimler, Hyundai, Honda, Nissan…
basically they make most of the cars in the world…

the breakfast cereals are General Mills, Kellogg, Post and Quaker…
so all those breakfast cereals you see in the aisle are made by
4 companies…

in other words, we all eat food made by the same companies,
we watch TV and movies made by the same people,
we listen to the same music and the same radio stations…
we read the same books and we download the same music…
on the same computers made by the same usual suspects, Dell, HP,
Apple, Lenovo, Asus,

in other words, there might be some regional differences but the truth
is we are impacted by the same forces because the sameness of the
companies that own our lives…

we bank at the same banks and have 401k plans with the same people…

our news, music, TV, movies, food, cars and banking all come from the
same 5 or 6 companies that dominate the specific industries…

can you think of a more insidious tyranny then having the
same companies give you your news or food or cars or movies
or TV?

this is why I deny that we have freedom today, because material freedom
means buying from the same 5 or 6 companies for our needs…
and political freedom doesn’t exist because those same companies that
that provide our services also buy and sell politicians to
promote the companies, not work for the citizens of the U.S…
for example, days after the tax cut passed, the KOCK brothers
sent a 500,000 check to Ryan to thank him for the massive tax cuts
they got… he got paid for services rendered…and that is how Washington
works today… you get paid for services rendered… and it doesn’t matter
what you do for the average citizens because they can’t pay the equal
amounts to get equal treatment… the politicians work for corporations
today… the same corporations that own the food and media and car and
banking industries…

so if you keep hearing the U.S is number one or that we are the greatest
country on earth, its because the same 6 corporations that own the media
want you to believe that the US is number one or that we are the
greatest country on earth…it is in their best financial interest to make
you believe that… whether its true or not, is irrelevant…

so what is the answer to this corporate tyranny?
simple, stop buying things, don’t buy things…
the corporate world survives and thrives because you and I
keep buying things…so don’t…live below your means and starve
the corporate interests that own and tyrannize this country…

Kropotkin

now let us tie this together…

if we don’t live in a democracy and we don’t, then we have
something else…if your elected representative only follow
the money and do as the corporate interest want, then they don’t
representative you… they represent those corporate interest…
you have no representation in congress and if the president does the same
thing as IQ45 does, then you have no one representing you in Washington DC…
we are no longer a democracy if you have no representation in the political
sphere…the idea of democracy is that the power flows from the people to
places like Washington but that is no longer true…you have no power
and the corporations have all the power to do what they want, hence we
get massive tax cuts for corporations and individual within those corporations…
we get lobbyist writing laws for congressmen who then simply take the
laws written by lobbyist and hand it straight into the basket for approval
in congress…and then the congressman gets his pay like Paul Ryan got his
payment in the form of a check from the Kock brothers for 500,000 after
passing the tax bill…

and we don’t have economic freedom if the only economic system is
capitalism which is built upon the theft of wages from it employee’s…
how do you think corporation and individuals build up such wealth?
it comes from wage theft of its employee’s… if you create $5 dollars of
goods or effort and the company sells that good or effort for more then $5
dollars, then your creation of goods or effort is sold for more then they pay you…
for example, if you wage is say, for convenience sake, $5 dollars an hour,
the company to make a profit must sell your work for more, say, $10 dollars
an hour and who profits from this extra profit? certainly not you… the company
pockets the creation of the extra $5 bucks and thus from your work, pay
the enormous salaries and bonuses of CEO’s… not their work, your work creates
the profit they use to create their enormous pay…so economically,
we are certainly not free, not a consumers as I showed by the few companies
that own the media and car industry and food industry and banking and
breakfast cereals… you don’t have freedom in any economic sense because
of the small number of companies that control the various markets…and you don’t
have any freedoms as an employee… remember the right to work states, which
can fire you for anything at anytime… without cause… you are at the mercy of
corporations, both in terms of what you can buy and how you can work…

so we don’t have any political freedom and we don’t have any economic freedom,
so what freedom do we have? free speech? try trashing the company you work for
on social media and you will get fired… you have a very limited free speech…
do you freedom of actions? no, government intrusion into social aspects of life,
like preventing abortions… you have a very limited free actions…

so lf you lost your myths and habits and prejudices and superstitions,
you would see and thus know, that you are no longer living in a democratic
society with freedom of actions and speech limited… you live in a world
where it is a political system called Corporatcracy…
a society or system that is governed or controlled by corporations…

do you want to continue this course where you have no rights and no freedoms?

say nothing, do nothing and your life will be controlled for you by
corporations… the battle for who you are has already been decided
in corporate boardrooms all over the world… do you want your fate to be
decided for you? if you are ok with that, then do nothing, say nothing…
don’t march or protest, just sit on your couch watching spoonfed
media, designed to keep you passive and silent…

make a choice…become who you are… by your choice, not some corporate
choice make for you…

Kropotkin

and what does this have to do with my constant call
for people to become who they and find their possibilities?

why everything… you don’t exist independent of society or what
happens in society…the tide of forces beyond our control
and forcing up to become passive and silent worker bee’s with
no rights and no freedoms and no possible course of actions…

you have two choices, one is be a worker bee and two, become
engaged with your own garden… don’t become involved…
disengage in society and work on your stuff…

but you are not given the third choice… fight back…
engage in what has been a 40 year class warfare against the
poor, minorities, working and middle class driven by
the ultra rich…they have been engaged in class warfare
since the earlier 1980’s… fight back…this is war…
defend yourself against those who have taken your political
rights away and the same people who have taken your economic rights away…

or just give and say, pox on both houses… let the revolution begin without
actually defining who we are fighting and what is our mission statement is…

“We the people, in order to form a more perfect union…”

this is one such mission statement… and we need another, newer
mission statement that fits our new and ever changing environment…
where we are no longer subject to the old tyrannies but subject to
new tyrannies of economic domination of our lives by our corporate
overlords…

I can now see why the French had a revolution and the Romans did not,
the French monarchy didn’t even care enough to offer up “bread and circus”
whereas at least the Romans did so and so went without a major revolt
the last 500 years of Roman existence…Years that went very badly for
the Roman Peasants but they had their “bread and circus” to keep them
amused… the French revolution is one such example we must keep in mind
in plotting our new revolution… the Russian revolution is another example…
when you have nothing, not even hope, where your life no longer makes
any type of difference, you have nothing to lose in engaging in revolution…
we have nothing to lose, we don’t have any political freedom and we don’t have
any economic freedom, but we do have our “bread and circus” and perhaps
that will be enough to avoid revolution in our country…
such flimsy excuse to avoid reclaiming your life…
I can’t fight for who I am because I have to watch the Kardashians tonight…

and we return to the chains of our myths and habits and prejudices and
superstitions… these chains hold us from acting upon what is in our best
interest which is overthrowing the corporate overlords… and recovering
our lives, being saved as it were… you want salvation, here is your chance
to find salvation and be saved… save yourself from the chains that keep
you tied up in our corporate political system…discover what myths and
habits and prejudices and superstitions you hold onto, that allows
the corporate overlords to keep and maintain power over our lives

that is the true meaning of salvation, the true meaning of being saved…
saving yourself and your children from the tyrannies that hold us hostage…
using outdated myths and habits and prejudices and superstitions that allow
them to keep power… America is the greatest country on earth…
that myth helps keep them in power… America is the freest country on
earth, that habit and prejudice helps keep them in power…

the mantra that I have preached over these last 2 years come into play
now… become who you are by taking control of your life, economically
and politically and socially… walk away from the current religion of America,
commercialism…materialism, the fetish of buying goods for the sake of
buying goods and not for the betterment of you or your society…
you buy crap because that is what keeps the system up and running…
so shut it down… literally by not buying what they are selling,
both as an ideology, a religion and as a system…
stop buying goods and material to fuel your materialist lifestyle…
and in doing so, we damage the system… we have to crash the house
around our ears to regain control of our lives…

but if you want to be a slave to the corporations, please do nothing,
say nothing, be silent and passive…

your corporate masters thank you…

Kropotkin

words to remember: reasonable, moderate, judicious, measured,
average, compromising, gentle, soft, temperate, disciplined, sober…

now in regards to my last post calling for a revolution because we
have a tyranny in this country, a tyranny of the economic and political…

one might say, Kropotkin, you have been talking about self and finding
our possiblities and other such philosophical issues, now you are calling for
a revolution to overthrow the so called tyranny in America…that calling
for a revolution is extreme and radical, illadvised and intemperate…
there is no such need for such radical action… moderate actions are needed
and required… be patiant and measured and moderate and judicious in words
and actions… don’t be a radical…moderate solutions are what is called for,
not such radicalism…

I say look at France circa, 1787…after years, indeed decades of
fiscial mismangement begining with the building of Versailles…and going for the next
100 years… the people were suffering and there were even famines…
due to some crop failures… the people had enough… there millions who
were in extreme poverty and millions more were barely making it…

and what moderate solution would have fixed that extreme poverty?
what reasonable solution would have brought millions out of barely surviving?

no, extreme times calls for extreme solutions…

recall Russia circa, 1917…the first World War has brought Russia to
ruin… after decades of mismanagment, Russia was on the brink of complete
collapse…it was an extreme situation and what moderate and sensible and
temperate solution would have save Russia from collapse?
extreme time calls for extreme solutions…

so we today, we exists in extreme times, what moderate and reasonable
solutions would you have us do to fight the extreme radicalism of the right…
who deny the basic and fundamental rights of people to have food and shelter
and schooling and basic protections of the law and live in fear
of the police and being deported…

the radical extremism of the right forcing people to choose between food
and medicine, my mother who is 83 must make this choice as the price
of her medicine has grown to the point where she must make a choice
between food and her medicine and millions upon millions of people must
make the same choice…why should she face a retirement where
she can barely exist and then is threaten with the reduction of social security checks
and increase cost of medicare and Medicaid… or mothers who because of the
reduction of such programs like chip and WIC must choose who gets to eat because
of these reductions in needed services for children…

and what does the radical right offer in place of people facing starvation?

tax cuts! and not for the poor, noooooo, massive tax cuts for the wealthy and
powerful…and what moderate and sober and reasonable solution do you offer
for millions facing such horrible choices between food and needed medicine?

a tax cut? for the wealthy? if you offer such a thing, you are without a soul…

and what reasonable and moderate solution would you offer to
help feed children who have very little to eat as it is?

and how do we educate such children when we reduce
the money going to schools and offer vouchers? vouchers to
get kids into schools when they can’t afford to eat, little
less be able to get into a charter school or some other type
of private school…

these are radical times, extreme times and radical times call for,
demand radical and extreme solutions… when a man is starving,
do you offer him a tax cut? if you are a soulless republican, yes,
you offer a starving man, a tax cut… a rich person solution to
a poor person problem…and that is what is wrong with America…

the GOP offers a rich man solution to a poor person problem…
a tax cut won’t feed your children and a tax cut won’t solve
the problem of a older person choosing between
food and medicine and a tax cut won’t pay for your heat during
the winter months and won’t pay for an education for a child…

why? because a tax cut is a reimbursement for expenses made
and these people are too poor to have the expenses in the first place…
they can’t get a tax cut for an expense they can’t afford… that is why
tax cuts are a rich person solution because they can afford the expense
in the first place and thus can claim it later on their taxes…

a tax cut is after the fact and that doesn’t feed people or children
or old people at the moment when they actually need the money to pay
for food or housing or shelter or heating costs…a tax cut reimburses them
afterword… when it doesn’t do them a fucking lot of good…

these are not moderate and measured or reasonable or judicious
times, these are extreme and radical times and extreme and radical
times call for extreme and radical solutions…

wealthy people can afford moderate and reasonable solutions,
starving and helpless people cannot…if you offer up a moderate
and reasonable solution, it is a rich person solution to a poor person problem…

Kropotkin

men are evil but man is good…

this is one of Rousseau’s favorite sayings…

man is born free but everywhere in chains…

another of Rousseau’s saying…

these two point are connected… recall when Rousseau wrote…
Christainty was still the strongest influence in Europe…
and what was the Christian idea? that man is born with
original sin, man was born guilty of a crime committed…
and man cannot be saved unless god saved him, there was no
other possiblility to be saved… this idea of original sin has been hanging
over people since the end of the Roman Empire…for over a thousand years,
people have been taught that they were born guilty of crimes committed…
this myth, habit, prejudice, superstition was the basis of how people thought
of themselves and how they thought of people…

and here is Rousseau saying man is born free… free? free from the guilt of
original sin? the basis of both catholicism and protestantism is this idea of
guilt, the guilt of original sin…man cannot go to heaven until the father
saves the son, god saves man…and that can only happen when the son
asks for forgiveness… for sins committed, for the other idea is all men
are corrupt…and guilty of sin… for no man is without sin except jesus…
this is vital to understand, to make sense of Rousseau…but what are the chains
he refers to? they are the chains of myths and habits and prejudice and superstition
that are taught to us as children… that there is a god, and we are born of sin and guilt,
America is the greatest country on earth. America is the freest country on earth…
these myths, these habits form a picture of the universe in a child’s mind that
take the place of real thought of who we are and what is our purpose in life…

but why are men evil and man is good?
because we have taught that… man is born guilty of a crime, a crime
of original sin, since the middle ages the church and the teachers have taught
that men are evil, that men are guilty, that we cannot be saved by our own
devices…we must have the help of another to find our way into heaven…

men are evil because we have been taught we were evil… we are of original sin,
and that is evil… but man, MAN is good because we are born free of this
knowledge but we are then taught, man and we are man, we are guilty
of sin, we are born of sin, we begin our thinking lives with this understanding
that we are born of guilt and guilty of sin, that we are evil until we are
forgiven by god… if a child is taught they are evil, then they grow
up believing they are evil and if there is no forgiveness, then why
bother being good, it doesn’t matter if you are good or not,
you are going to die evil, unable to get to heaven… this notion
of sin and guilt…

for over a thousand years, man was taught he was evil, until people like
Rousseau taught people differently…

men are evil, but man is good…

man is born free but everywhere in chains…

when we give children ribbons for participating in sports,
we are saying, you have value… we are reacting to a thousand years
of teaching that man is evil and worthless…and we are rejecting
the message of those thousand year’s…and what message should we
be rejecting today?

Kropotkin