a new understanding of today, time and space.

It has been suggested that I don’t put enough
emphasis upon the spiritual side of human beings…

we are spiritual beings, not material beings…
that is the message of religion anyway…
true or not…

we need to have some spiritual engagement in order
to fulfill our need for “metaphysics”…

and we call metaphysics, that which is beyond the physical,
and that is a need of the human being, to understand
that which is beyond the physical…

but what if, what if we take philosophy and use that
as a spiritual device… what if we understood philosophy
as a spiritual guide… how would that work?

it becomes a guide that tells us how we are to live our lives…
and that guide arises not from metaphysics as such, but
from the collection of all of us… philosophy is really
just guide that arises from not just the parts, philosophers,
but from the whole, which is all of us…

sometimes, the parts are greater then the whole…
and this is true of philosophy… the parts of philosophy is
greater then the whole…we can treat philosophy as
as a spiritual guide because it is the collective wisdom of
all of us…………… individual man can be deceived and
mistaken, but all of us…… we are the whole……. like the
universe……… the individual parts may be flawed but the
whole is wisdom incarnate………………….

this may be another form of philosophy:
so, we have as forms of philosophy,

philosophy as an engagement into life,
philosophy as a retreat from life,
philosophy as means to heal life,
philosophy as a way of life,
now, we have philosophy as a spiritual guide to life……

Kropotkin

possibly, just possibly we can use philosophy as
revealed text like a biblical revelation…

the word of Descartes was Cogito, ergo sum…
and we then study this aspect like a
layperson studies biblical revelation…………

the authority of Descartes is to use his method of
skepticism to reduce the physical world into a brief
and flashy slogan, like cogito, ergo sum………

and we have Nietzschians who proclaim the word of
Nietzsche as the revealed word of man…….something to
be prayed to as we study it……….he can do no wrong…
he is infallible…….and we pray to the revealed word of Hume
as well as Kant…as we hope they lead us to the promised land
of Knowledge and wisdom…………….those philosophers have
become the voice of authority and traditions that they
fought against in their battle against the revealed word of
Aristotle and the bible…….a voice that lasts a long time,
becomes the revealed word of tradition and authority…….
something to be venerated, but not challenged and certainly not
accused of being wrong………for the infallible ones are never wrong……
they are simply misquoted or misguided… but never wrong…….

if my words last long enough, they too will become the revealed
words of tradition and authority and they too will be venerated
and prayed to as one of the infallible ones…………sometimes,
misquoted or misguided, but never wrong………

Kropotkin

after work has tried to kill me over the last few days, I am back

we have our forms of philosophy:
engagement, retreat, healing, way of life and spiritual forms of philosophy…

let us look at one in particular, the philosophy form as a way of life…

in looking at philosophy, we see philosophy as an intellectual form of
thinking…it doesn’t engage with the emotions and it doesn’t engage
as far as philosophy being a way of life…

and philosophy began its journey, not as a theoritical exercise that
philosophy is now, but as a way of life… how are we to live?
and the answer would be, we would live as a philosophical life…

the problem with philosophy today is that it doesn’t provide a way of life for us…
philosophy for us, is the dry boring facts that Descartes said this and Nietzsche
believed this and Kant meant this… but what about those things having
some meaning for us… If we truly believed Nietzsche, then we should
base our lives on his principles that he laid out… we should become the person
that Nietzsche thought we should be… a philosophy is meant to be lived,
not studied and analyze and compared to each other… we must live our
philosophy, not just study it…

when I was younger, I was a pacifist, I didn’t believe in violence and
I commited myself to non-violent actions… so I lived my life
in regards to being non-violent…I walked away from some situations
that would have been violent, to avoid violence…

I not only had the belief, but I lived my life in support of that
belief… as an anarchist, I did not commit any act of violence…
I lived my beliefs… not as just an intellectual exercise, but as a
way of life… I was an anarchist, so I lived that life… I was off the grid,
didn’t have a car, didn’t have a bank account, didn’t pay taxes…
I engaged with my beliefs as a way of life……………

if you have certain beliefs, then as a practical matter, you must
engage with those beliefs to the point of attempting to use those
beliefs as a platform for a way of life…………….

philosophy not as a intellectual exercise but as a belief system to
some way of life……………it is not enough to say that Descartes
tried to create certainty as a basis for knowledge, but how does that
translate into a way of life?

how would we use each philosopher belief’s to create a way of life for us?

Let us take Nietzsche, how would we use his philosophy to create a way of life?

could we use Nietzsche philosophy as a guide for a way of life?

Would we want to? is it a way of life worth living? I would say no… we
couldn’t use Nietzsche’s philosophy as a guide to a way of life…….

but upon reflection, there are very, very few philosophers whose
beliefs could be used as a way of life……… Not Descartes, not Spinoza,
not Hume or Kant or Hegel, the first one that comes to mind is Kierkegaard…
he engages us into thinking about living our life on the basis of some
philosophy……………….the Existentialist are really the group that hold
beliefs that could be used as some basis for a way of life…….

so what beliefs do you hold that matches your way of life?

do you even live you life based on some philosophy?

is your philosophy a means to a way of life?

can you even use your philosophy as a way of life?

few can……….

what philosopher would you used as a way of life?

Kropotkin

of the three Kantian questions,
what can I know?
what should I do?
and what ought I hope for?

the question of philosophy really seems to lie with the second question,
what should I do?

Indeed, what should I do, does rank high on the questions of life…

what should I do, isn’t tied into what should “I” do,
but what should I/we should do… as we don’t exists in a vacuum,
we are social creatures and exists in the midst of billions of my fellow human
beings… so the question about what should “I” do is really a social question
about how do I fit into an already created world that has the many roles a
human can be, already laid out… in other words, our possible choices
for what can I do, is a path that has been laid out for me…

if I want to be a doctor, that path is laid out, I go to collage then medical school,
then an internship then……… the road to being a doctor is very clearly laid out…

as is the road to being a lawyer or a teacher or a policeman……. the path to
a career is very clearly laid out to us… and it requires schooling…
where we get trained into the occupations we might wish to do…

but schooling has another function, which is to indoctrinated all of us
into being good citizens and worker bee’s for the state and its religion,
capitalism………

what am I to do… as a question doesn’t seem to have any answers outside
of the approved course of schooling and indoctrination into what society
expects us to be………recall the greatest crime of humanity, which is not
murder, but insubordination… clearly laid out in the bible with the story
of Adam and Eve…and rebelling against the approved course of schooling
and indoctrination will leave one being punished by society………….

what am I to do? must, must follow the approved path of society or
be labeled the insubordination names, like anarchist or troublemaker
or deviant with the threat of being cast out of paradise like Adam………

(has it ever occurred to anyone, that the garden of Eden, was really
a nightmare… think about it, all you could do was wander about in
a garden and do nothing…outside of praising god, for god really,
really, really wants praise which means god is an egotistical maniac
and we best got out of the garden to escape that egotistical maniac)

anyway, we need an reevaluation of values in regards not only to
our values, but to the path to being human… for that path
doesn’t seem to lie along the set path that we have before us
in deciding what are we to do, in regards to our making a living…

but that itself is a problem for the question of what are we to do,
must that question really be about our choice of making a living…

for there seems to be so much more to existence then just making a
living……. and that leaves us with another question, if we aren’t just
about making a living, then what are our possibilities?

what are we to do, does that really mean, to make a living or, or
does that mean something else?

Kropotkin

let us look at this another way…….

let us think about values… what values do we want, what values
should we strive for, what values are we against?

let us look at the old testament…… look at the value offered
by the god in the old testament?

we have a whole lot of vengeance and hate and a lot of smoting
which is god who "strikes hard, or hit hard, to strike down, injure, slay…
the god of the old testament is a violent god, a vengeful god, a vindictive
god… so let us try this, let us say, we creating god… why would we have
created such a god with any redeeming values? the values this god offers is
of negative values…why the need to create a god with such negative values?

which leaves us the question as to why follow such a negative god?

let us look at the value of the new testament… Jesus says
let us look at new values, a new way of approaching life matters…

and he speaks of love and charity and compassion… a 180 degree
turn from the god of the old testament…

these values are values worth emulating, for these are positive values,
values worth holding, worth living by and worth raising our children
in these values, not the values of the old testament… but the values
of the new testament…

ok, so today, read the news, see the events going on…
are the party of treason, the GOP, promoting positive values like
love, charity, compassion?.. no, the so called, alleged Christian
party doesn’t champion such values of the new testament,
like love and charity and compassion… not if they are tearing
children away from their parents or denying held care for people because
of pre-existing conditions, or reducing the amount of money old people need
to feed and house themselves in reducing social security or medicare………

are the values the party of treason promotes, really the values of the new
testament?

so create a god, a god in your image……. what would that god look like?
what values would that god promote?

do as the people of the old testament did and create a god in their image?

what would that god look like and what values would they promote?

Kropotkin

as suggested in the last post, we need to understand
what values are really offered in the bible and in god,
specifically?

the question of god and values takes us pretty far into theology but
I think its a trip worth taking for what it says about us today…

We have the biblical idea of god, the Judeo Christian that has
existed for thousands of years………… and we have values…
so what values are offered by the Judeo Christian religion?

as I pointed out in the last post, we have two different, separate
value systems…one in the old testament and one in the new…

the old testament god has values and what are those values?

the new testament god offers us a mean, vindictive, petty, egotistical, violent
values among other negative values…

the new testament god offers us more positive values of love, charity,
compassion, pity and some negative values like guilt and being passive……
or as Nietzsche called it, slave morality…………

which set of value would you rather follow?

as for me, neither set of values seems to me to be worth anything because
of the negativity in each………

although if forced to choose, I would choose the new testament values because
they seem to have more positive values attached to them…

so let us try this thought experiment… what values should a god hold
that would allow us to follow those values?

in other words, if we were to follow a god’s values, what would those
values look like?

we would begin with the emphasis in the bible on the words,
thou shall not………… thou shall not take thy name in vain, for
example… why didn’t god use the positive values……
instead of following negative value in “thou shall not”

why not have positive values like “thou shall”
and why the punishment needed to enforce such values…

the more interesting question arises when we ask ourselves,
why did the Jews originally feel the need to state their values
in such a negative statement such as “thou shall not”
and why did they accept such negative values to begin with?

why follow a god whose values system is not a value system that is
based on a negative value system instead of a positive value system?

and what values did the ancient Jews expect people to follow?
for the Jews, it was about obeying the law…… obeying the law
of god……… so in part, the value of the Jews was about our old friend,
the original sin of disobedience……. that the Jews made
disobedience a major part of their religion leads us to question
that religion……… is the idea of obeying the law of god, really,
really the point of existence? to reach the holy goal of heaven required
one to follow this basic point of obedience… one must obey to reach heaven…
to follow the law… is that the point of existence?..………

why not love or peace or the other new testament values?

that the Christians felt the need to change the some aspects of
the values of god, but they still left intact this one basic point,
to reach heaven, one must obey the law, the word of god…….

so, why is obedience so important in religion?

is that really the value we should be concerned with or
are there other values that we need to concern ourselves with?

so, ask yourself, what are the values of god?
and should we obey those values and most importantly,
why, why should we obey those values?

this is step one…

Kropotkin

so in the last post, we asked why values did god have?
and here we ask, what values should god hold?

is it enough for us to understand the positive values of Jesus
or must we act upon the values of Jesus? again, a question
of disobedience…

so what values should one’s god hold?

let us imagine a god, so what values should god hold?

let us think about this in terms of other religions…

the Greeks for example, their gods were humans, who had
human failings and human attributes but these gods were
superhumans… they had superior powers that man did not have
but they had the same failings of man…

so what does that say about the Greeks that they needed their
gods to display human characteristics?

the Judeo-christian god doesn’t display human characteristics…
but the Greek gods do…ask yourself, why?

what does this say about the Greeks and what does it say, about
the Jews and the christians who followed the Jews…

so if we were to follow the Gods of Greece, what would those
values say about us?

they are human, all too human values that the Greek gods had………

but we dismiss those values, why? because for some reason, we must
have a god that is perfect and inscrutable and has his own
reasons for whatever happens?..…… what kind of god is this?
and what values does this god offer us? the random, unpredictability
of god, the Christian god, does match the randomness, the
unpredictability of life as we know it… so perhaps that is the point
of the Judeo-Christian god…… to prepare us for the random,
unpredictability of the universe…………………
and our only answer for such unpredictability is, god has his own
reasons for such actions or unpredictability as it may be…………

perhaps that is the only value of the Judeo-Christian god,
to give us some solace for the unpredictability of the universe…
to allow us to set the blame for such unpredictability on a random
and capricious god… that is the Christian god………

let us look further into this by understanding the Buddhist god…
and the Buddhist universe that is about suffering………… the point of
existence is to escape the suffering that is the lot of all living things…
let us take that as the value the Buddhist god offers,
nothing positive, escaping suffering………

but if god, the Buddhist god had anything to do with the creation
of the universe, then why did they create as the main value of existence
suffering? why is suffering the value of the Buddhist god?
and escaping the suffering as the point of existence…
why value does that offer us?

it is a rather limited understanding of the universe…
the entire point of existence is to escape suffering…….
I would hope that existence is something more then just
escaping suffering or some other limited value…………

and that is the problem of religions…… the values offered
are limited……. in the Judeo-Christian religion, the limited
value offered is one of obeying……… to escape this existence,
one must obey god… and in the Buddhist religion, one
must escape suffering……… such limited understanding of
the human existence… to obey and to avoid suffering…
is that really it? is that really the point and being of existence?

are those really the values that bring us an understanding to the
human condition?

is that the failure of religion in that its understanding of the
human condition really exists in the simple act of either obeying
or the escaping of suffering? We understand the human being
as being much more complicated then just the act of obeying or
the act of escaping suffering…………

why not engage the entire human being… the entire range
of what it means to be human… not by a negative
perception of what it means to be human… “thou shall not”
or to escape suffering?..………. what does it really mean to be
human? not just to obey or to just to escape suffering……
such a limited understanding of what it means to be human…….

for we are such diverse and complex creatures that one simple, limited
understanding of what it means to be human such as obeying or
escaping suffering, fails to properly value what it means to be human…

we are greater then any one single purpose goal of religion be it obeying or
be it escaping suffering………. we are creatures of many and diverse
forms of what it means to be human……… one form of one such answer
be it obey or be it to escape suffering, fails to properly understand
what diverse being we are… to account to us such limited values
as obeying or avoid suffering… is to miss the entire human condition which
is as wide a number as the stars in heaven…

we are a diverse lot, we human beings and what drives us can be
as diverse as the number of stars in the heavens………

we can be driven by hate and love and mercy and curiosity and
kindness and cruelty and often within seconds of each emotion
and we have such emotions that we cannot be as limited as
just having one such emotion as guilt or simply obeying the law
or avoiding suffering… we are far more diverse then that……

let us create a religion that celebrates and understand such diversity
of the human soul that we can be many people and many diverse
emotions often within seconds of each other………………………………….

reject the old school religions because they have failed to
capture what it means to be human… for being human
is more then just obeying the law or to avoid suffering…
it includes obeying and it include avoiding suffering and it
include such idea’s as avoiding and accepting guilt, and
such human possibilities as we have shown us capable of…….

religion must begin by explaining the human creature
in terms of our many diverse and often
opposite emotions and actions………………

our religions have failed us because they have failed to
actually explain who we are in all of our diversity
and possibilities…….

if you want a religion… find one that takes into account who
you really are or, or who you want to be……

and that is the next phase… religion that
explains who we are AND who we might become…

what values are the values that we really need and the values
that will help us become who we want to be…… a religion
leads us into the future, not into the past…
and we don’t have that religion right now……

and that is for the philosopher of the future…
to create a religion that answers our questions as to
who we are and what can be possible for us…
it tells us who we are and who we might become………

I await the religion of the future………

Kropotkin

another sleepless night in California…

as I lay awake thinking, I realized something…

in the traditional thinking about economics, in regards to the
Supply and demand aspect…the idea is that as something becomes
more scarce, due to demand, that that product increases in price…
so, if gold becomes scarce, then the supply and demand theory says, that
gold will become more expensive as the demand drives up the price…

however, as our supply and demand theory of labor shows that this is wrong…

we have a shortage of labor in this country… this is a fact… in every sector
the demand for workers has left virtually every single industry short of workers…
and yet, the wages and salary of said workers has not increased… again
this is fact…the wages of the average workers hasn’t increased enough
to offset the increase in inflation… but the theory of supply and demand
requires that if we have a shortage of workers, the demand for workers
is very high right now, then the wages and salary should reflect this demand
for workers and the wages and salary should be increasing substantially
to offset the shortage of workers and yet, we know, again fact, that wages
and salary has not increased enough to reflect this shortage of workers…
in other words, the idea of supply and demand should, should be able
to show that wages/salary should be increasing by a great deal…
and they aren’t increasing, so, we can tell by the slow rate of increase in wages,
again not enough to offset inflation, that the idea of supply and demand in
economics isn’t correct because wages and salaries should be going through
the roof…… and they aren’t… so if a major tenant of economics,
this idea of supply and demand doesn’t show a increase in wages/salary,
then the idea of supply and demand is simply wrong……

this is a major component of capitalist theory, the idea of supply and demand,
where the market sets the prices of objects AND the wages/salaries…
then something is radically wrong with the theory and capitalism is
fundamentally wrong in its theory of supply and demand… and that
failure leads us to the conclusion that capitalism is built upon a
false theory, the theory of supply and demand……………

if wages/salaries fail to rise when workers are in high demand,
then the theory of supply and demand is a dead theory and
capitalism is simply wrong…

Kropotkin

the question of values in our religious viewpoint…

the Buddhist belief that the basic idea of life is that
life is about suffering and we must somehow escape suffering…
the whole point of Buddhism is to find a way to escape the suffering
of life, of getting old and of pain and death, of loss…

and the Judeo-Christian belief is about obeying the law
disobedience is the greatest crime in the Judeo-Christian
world……. “thou shall not” and what happens if one disobeys?
they are punished for an eternity………

in Islam, the purpose of the existence is to worship god or to know him…

the very word, Islam itself, is the verbal form of the form IV
of the root and it means, “submission” or “surrender”
the whole point of Islam is to bow down to the will of god,
to surrender or become submissive to god…….

the god of Islam is a very abstract god, very much like the Judeo-Christian god…
and the values of Islam, that god is merciful, all powerful and unique…
and humans should have certain values…the Quran is about moral guidance…
there are 5 basic points to Islam or acts of worship… the creed or testimony
“I testify that there is no god, but god and Muhammad is the messenger of god”
prayer, charity, fasting, and finally pilgrimage……….

so we see the values of Islam, of god what expects of us……

so we see that in Islam that the value that is really expected is
this idea of submission or surrender to the will of god……

it is no different than a Christian saying, “put your faith in god”

so we see that religions seem to focus on one particular aspect of
the human being……… one religion demands surrender
and another demands obedience and another requires us
to escape from suffering………… or we shall suffer forever and ever……

there has yet been a religion that answers to or understands
the completeness that is the human being… for we are not just
a soul that simply yearns for a reunion with god… that is one
aspect of the human creature…………for each religion, in its own way,
makes a central point that the human being must be completed
by a reunion with god… and that reunion is found by doing the task
required by that religion… obedience by the Judeo-Christian,
submission by the Muslim, to escaping suffering by the Buddhist…
each religion has a central task that must be completed to reach
heaven and god……….

but is that task really the task that we humans should be doing?

because the understanding of the human creature by each religion
is one aspect of a human beings soul… obedience or submission
or escape…………

the religions don’t involve us as complete human beings…
they just apply to some partial aspect of our human nature…

the religions are incomplete until they answer the larger questions
of who are we and what are our possibilities…

“Who are we”……. we are some mixed possibilities of
a Einstein and Jack the ripper and Mozart and Ed Gein and
Lincoln and Stalin and Jesus and Ted Bundy……… in each of us,
lies each possibility of being each and every one of these people………

are we kind or mean or vicious or greedy or loving or musical or
artistic or do we torture for the joy of it……. yes………
yes, we are all these things and often within minutes
of each possibility……………

within us lies the possibilities of our human nature, both good
and evil……. but religions are simply representations of one side of
us and religions don’t capture all the possibilities that exists within us
human beings… Religions shine a light on a single possibility for us human beings…
be it obedience or submission or escaping… religions don’t
cover all the possibilities of what it means to be human… and that
is the failure of religions…….

religions don’t cover all the values that make up our human existence…
and values are what make human existence worth living for………

and until we have a religion that understand that we are looking
for values that make existence bearable………… and it is in this
question of values that make our current religions a failure…….

what values should we hold and why? Religion cannot answer this
question because religions are based on a single identity of the
human existence………… and we are so much more then a single
identity… be it obedience or submission or escaping…

we are all three values and so much more… and religions must
reflect that…………………

Kropotkin

how do we overcome the human condition?

first, we have to identify the human condition……

the human condition is among other things,
the tragedy of human existence…we suffer, we live and die,
often in pain and misery… the human existence is not a pleasant one…

the trick is to try to turn human existence into a more
pleasant experience… we can do this by two ways,
change the enviroment we exist in and that has proven hard
to do… or we can adjust how we look at human existence…

and that is the path of the ancient philosophers… learn to
adjust how we look at human existence…one such way, not necessarily
a way I would suggest, but to become indifferent to human existence…

turn away from both pain and pleasure and if either comes, to become
indifferent to both pain and pleasure…

to accept both pain and pleasure with equal indifference…
for oftentimes we react to pain or pleasure based on
nothing more then how we feel about it… the event that gives
us pain or pleasure is really neutral… it is our reaction to it that
creates the pain or pleasure… so, by not having a reaction to
either pain or pleasure, we aren’t toss about the waves of human existence…

the death of a brother can be a tragic event and we can wail and
cry and carry on for days on end and no one would blame us…
or, or we can simply accept as that thing that will happen to all of us
and it just happened to him… there is no need to wail or cry for days on
end if we simply accept and understand what has happened……

the death of a brother doesn’t need to become a emotional upheaval that
most people make it… it can simply be acknowledge and accepted as
another step in our human existence……… no need to wail or cry or carry on
for days on end………….how we approach such matters becomes a matter
of our understanding the human experience and death is part of the human
experience…………

so our attitude toward the human experience can lead us to a better
response to the human condition…………….

this is one possibility for our understanding of the human experience…

there are other possibilities in our response to the human condition…

the Buddha has one such possibility and the Jews have another response
to the human experience and the Christians have another response
and Islam has another response… we can respond to the human condition
with a religious response…

another possibility is by the acquisition of values that give our lives some value
and create values that give our death meaning…… ………
I would happily go to my death if it meant protecting my family from
grave harm…… that family creates a value that we can live by and die
by is the strength of having family………………

the human condition is about what we face in this life… and some
of it is bad and some of it is good and what is our response to
both the good and the bad…………

this question of the human condition is tied into the values we have
and the values we should have and the values we need to overcome……

Kropotkin

when born, we are born into the human condition…
but what exactly does that mean?

it means that when we are born, we are born with a series of
questions hanging over us……

and the Kantian questions, seem to offer us some guide as
to the nature of these questions…

What can we know?
what should I do?
what ought I hope for?

but perhaps, we can speak more directly to the nature of
the questions in regards to the human condition…

What can I know? When we are born, we have no knowledge,
knowledge that can tell us about what should we do or
what can we hope for…

perhaps we should change our knowledge question into something else?

perhaps the question should be, what should I know? but that leads
us to other questions like, should know for what?
what should we know to accomplish what?
to ask what we should know implies that there is some ending process
or an end that we should gain knowledge for…

if the goal is wisdom, then we should gain knowledge about how to
get wisdom…or the the end or the point of life is to meet god,
then our knowledge should be to that end… the point of life dictates
what the knowledge we should know… but we don’t have that…

We don’t know what the point of life is, so we can’t say what knowledge we
should be trying to get…if the point of life is to say, go into outer space,
then the knowledge we should be trying to get is knowledge specifically
tied into getting into outer space…

so the goal we have dictates the knowledge we need,
but we have no goal, so we don’t know what knowledge we need…

so the next question is, what should I/we do?

once again, the human condition is about what should we do?

should we be avoiding pain and suffering as the Buddhists think or
should we be making money/profits? Should we be making the goal
of life to be obedient? obeying the law? or should we be
gaining knowledge? what should we do, is a basic question
of the human condition…and one we cannot answer until we understand
what is the point/purpose of life. just as the question of knowledge needs
some point or purpose to make sense, the question of what are we to do, also
needs some point or purpose attached to it, for that question to make sense……

is the point of the human condition to gain knowledge that tells us what to do?

and we reach the final question, what should we hope for?

this question also implies some final point or purpose is needed for us to
be able to answer this question………

if wealth and power is the point/purpose of life, the answer to the question
of the human existence, then we should hope for wealth and power…….

we must hope for that which helps us answer the question of our human existence…

for the human condition is really the questions of human existence…….

why am I here? what should I do? what should I know? what should I hope for?

to be born, the very fact of existence forces us to ask these questions…
that is the human condition…… to be forced to wonder about why we are here?
what can we know? what should we hope for? what should I do?

if you don’t wonder about why we are here, then perhaps the indoctrination of
childhood has done its work and all your questions have been answered by
the myths, habits, ism’s and ideologies, biases, prejudices and superstitions
we were taught as children… perhaps, they are enough for you and you have
no need to ask further questions about why you are here, for that is the human
condition, the questions we are faced with when we are born…………………………

but the myths and biases and prejudices and ism’s we are born with,
we must overcome them and by overcoming them, we are faced,
really faced with the questions of human existence, of the human condition…

overcoming those biases and prejudices and myths of childhood, leaves us
with wondering, what is point of existence?

the human condition is simply us asking those basic questions about
why we are here and what should we do?

and we are left with another question, what about values?

how do they fit into the human condition and its questions?

values are simply a means of answering the question that baffle
us, what are we to do? what can we know? what should we hope for?

more on that later…

Kropotkin

so we have the human condition which is the questions
that we are born with… what can I know? what am I supposed do to?
and what ought I hope for?

the one question, what can I know? should really read,
what should I know? should I know such facts that the earth
is 93 million miles from the sun or the declaration of independence
was signed in 1776……

or should we know what is really important in life or what does it mean to be
wise? those types of questions are much more important……

so we have the human condition, which are the questions we face as existing
human beings… and what role does values have in this?

we have values which give us answers to the question of human existence/condition…

the three Kantian questions can be answered by the values we considered to be
important…….what can I know? I can know that love is a better answer to life then hate
or anger or greed……… what am I to do? finding love is one excellent answer
to the question, what should I do? or perhaps, being kind or looking for honesty…
each of these values are worth spending time on……

and what can I hope for? I can hope to find values that are worth living for
and values worth dying for………. values can answer the question
of the human condition……………

it is by values we understand the human condition… for values can answer
the questions posed by human existence or to say the same thing, the human condition…….

for being is simply a question of the values we consider important… to be is to
ask, what are the values I need to understand my existence… the human condition……

which leads us to a question, is existence to be a intellectual game……
you study others to discover what they believed in, or, or do you study
to discover what you believe in………… is philosophy supposed to be
an exercise in learning about what other believed in or is philosophy
supposed to discover the values we need to answer the question of
human existence/human condition

we have made philosophy into a dry, sterile, study of,
of remembering what Nietzsche or Descartes believed in, instead
of philosophy as a study into what I believe in and what are the values
that are important to me and what values are the answers to the question
of human existence…………

and the questions I asks are my questions………
but we can take philosophy and use it to answer
the wider questions of society… what can we know?
what should we do? and what can we hope for?

for our actions don’t exists in a vacuum, we are social creatures
and we exists in many different and diverse groups/systems…….

it is not enough to understand our own personal questions or values but
we must answer the questions of all of us, what should all of us do?
what should all of us believe in? what should all of us hope for?
what should all of us know?

for to be a successful human being is not just about our individual actions/
search for values… but for our society and culture to be strong and successful
and society knowing its questions of human existence/human condition
and the values needed to answer those questions of human existence/human condition…

it is about all of us………. we are in this together… like it or not and our
values must be shared values… it is not enough to answer our individual questions
and ignore the wider questions about the society we live in…….

for society exists too, and the same questions we face individually,
we face collectively and the same answers we find individually, are
answered collectively………. individual values are collective values
so what values should we have individually and what values should we
have collectively?

and how do those values solve the questions of human existence/the human condition?

Kropotkin

what are values? values seem to be something that says something about
us………
here is a list of values, not in any order and certainly by no means
any type of comprehensive list, just a list to give us some idea what a
value is……

excellence, wisdom, persistence, passion, valor, empathy, order,
efficiency, trust, devotion, truth, love, justice, curiosity………
and there are hundreds more values we could have listed………

so, values are something that says something about us…
and values are something that we can say about who we are…

I am persistent… that is a value statement…
I trust people… that too is a value statement…

I have empathy for people…a value statement…
I believe in order…ditto…

so ask yourself, if values say something about us, which values do
you have that say something about you? be honest…

what are your values?

Kropotkin

ok, so you have some sort of list of your values………

which values do you have that are your values or have your
values been indoctrinated into you? if your values match the values
of society, then it is quite possible, that your values were given to you
by society and you never challenged or overcame them…

let us take up the statement, truth, justice and the American way…

truth and justice are clearly values… but and this is important,
are they values worth having? should we in fact, promote these
values over other values? and if we should promote these values,
why?

what values are important for people to have?
and what values should a society at large have?
and once again, why? why should individuals have certain values
and why should society have certain values? what does it say about us
individually and collectively if we have certain values but not other values?

so, let us return to our saying, truth, justice and the American way…
so one value is truth… and here we are saying that truth should be
an individual value and a collective value… but look around you…
see the lies, both individually and collectively… is truth really an American
value? or do we pretend it is, to make ourselves feel better? I would say, we
pretend that truth is an American value because we aren’t truthful at all……
either individually or collectively……….

now should we be truthful……. yes, yes we should be truthful……
so our saying about truth, justice and the American way is really a
comment on something that we need to work on, not really a value we
currently have but we hope to have at some point in the future…

and is this also true about the word, justice… we don’t currently have
justice but at some point we wish to have justice? perhaps… perhaps……

so we hear the right speak about so called “family values”… but
what exactly are family values? can anyone actually name the
values that are considered to be family values or is the term
family values really devoid of any meaning and is just a political
term meant to pretend to say something but actually doesn’t say anything
at all……………

what are the specific values of your country? what are the specific values
that are promoted by where you live? and do those values of country,
match the values you have? and most importantly, what values
do you have and what values should you have?

and as Nietzsche said, what have you overcome? what values have
you overcome? think about it……… how does one overcome a value?

Kropotkin

in light of the values we may or may not have discovered
about ourselves, that leaves the question of what values
should we have? what are the values that make us human beings
and do I have those values?

does my society and culture have values and if so, what are those values
and what values should my society and culture have?

and most importantly, why? always ask yourself why,
when asking any sort of question…

so what values should America have and why?

Kropotkin

so, what exactly does it mean to
have a “revaluation of values”?

you have the values from your childhood indoctrination, the
myths, biases, habits, prejudices, superstitions of your childhood…

now most people don’t ever have a “reevaluation of values”……
they simply just carry on the values of childhood without ever challenging
them, or without ever having a “reevaluation” of those values

let us take patriotism……. USA, USA, USA, USA, USA…….
We’re number one, we’re number one, we’re number one…
chants taught to us a children, but does the fact that U.S in not
number one ever cross anyone’s mind? a “reevaluation of values”
would have one reexamining the “fact” that American is actually number one…….
but the more important question is really, what does it mean to be number one?

do we hold those values or facts that would suggest that we are number one?

we need to come to an understanding of what a country means and what values
would suggest that we are number one and why is it ever important to claim to
be number?

let us take another value, greed… it has been said and is believed that
greed is good, Gordon Gecko, but upon reflection, is greed actually good?

no, no it isn’t……. take a family… let us imagine a family where
greed is the dominant trait or value of the family…
run out in your mind what would happen in a family where greed
was the dominant value………yep, I see it too… that family
would be one of those dysfunctional families we have seen and heard……

values that keeps a family strong is love and hope and laughter
but values that can and will destroy a family is greed and hate,
and fear……. a family can only survive and prosper by having values
that are positive and upbeat…….greed is not a useful value for
a family to have because it will destroy the family and the family members…

and so goes from the small to the large, greed in institutions like business
and politics will also do the same and for the same reasons…………

greed will, in time destroy institutions in business and government
just as surely as it will destroy families who practice greed as a family value……

so what values are necessary for a family to survive and prosper?
and what values are necessary for a government to survive and prosper?
and what values are necessary for a society and culture to survive and prosper?

as systems are systems all over, pretty much the same values which allow one
system to survive is the same as it will take for any other system to survive…

human systems must have the same values to survive and prosper……

if one system has this value and another system has another primary value
and another system has another primary value, the systems cannot work
together or function together……… it is like trying to mate a cat with an elephant…
the two system are too diverse to ever create anything…the two biological systems
are incompatible and so is two systems with a different value systems…….

communism has one value system and capitalism has another value system…
they are not compatible with each other… for them to function together,
they must share the same values………

kinda like couples, if couples don’t share the same values, they will
not last… the same principle that works for a couple works for
institutions and works for governments… for different systems
to work, they must share the same values………………. and we cannot have
greed being the value of the economic system and the main value
for our political system being sacrifice…………

our various systems must share the same values or they won’t work……

so we must define and understand the values upon we base all our systems
upon…………. and such values as greed and hate and anger cannot be the
base values for any system because those values will cause the collapse of
a system because of the instability those values bring into a system……

values that are stable are the values we must install into our system and
any system… values live love and peace and charity and honesty…

we cannot have as our base values, values that destabilize a system…….

and greed is a value that destabilizes because it puts the objects of the greed
before the human being…… life must come before any value…for it is the values
that give life meaning, but life exists before the values……………life takes precedence
over values…………

as the wife wants to go shopping, I must leave you……

Kropotkin

Peter Kropotkin: so, what exactly does it mean to
have a “revaluation of values”?

you have the values from your childhood indoctrination, the
myths, biases, habits, prejudices, superstitions of your childhood…

now most people don’t ever have a “reevaluation of values”……
they simply just carry on the values of childhood without ever challenging
them, or without ever having a “reevaluation” of those values

let us take patriotism……. USA, USA, USA, USA, USA…….
We’re number one, we’re number one, we’re number one…
chants taught to us a children, but does the fact that U.S in not
number one ever cross anyone’s mind? a “reevaluation of values”
would have one reexamining the “fact” that American is actually number one…….
but the more important question is really, what does it mean to be number one?

do we hold those values or facts that would suggest that we are number one?

we need to come to an understanding of what a country means and what values
would suggest that we are number one and why is it ever important to claim to
be number?

let us take another value, greed… it has been said and is believed that
greed is good, Gordon Gecko, but upon reflection, is greed actually good?

no, no it isn’t……. take a family… let us imagine a family where
greed is the dominant trait or value of the family…
run out in your mind what would happen in a family where greed
was the dominant value………yep, I see it too… that family
would be one of those dysfunctional families we have seen and heard……

values that keeps a family strong is love and hope and laughter
but values that can and will destroy a family is greed and hate,
and fear……. a family can only survive and prosper by having values
that are positive and upbeat…….greed is not a useful value for
a family to have because it will destroy the family and the family members…

and so goes from the small to the large, greed in institutions like business
and politics will also do the same and for the same reasons…………

greed will, in time destroy institutions in business and government
just as surely as it will destroy families who practice greed as a family value……

so what values are necessary for a family to survive and prosper?
and what values are necessary for a government to survive and prosper?
and what values are necessary for a society and culture to survive and prosper?

as systems are systems all over, pretty much the same values which allow one
system to survive is the same as it will take for any other system to survive…

human systems must have the same values to survive and prosper……

if one system has this value and another system has another primary value
and another system has another primary value, the systems cannot work
together or function together……… it is like trying to mate a cat with an elephant…
the two system are too diverse to ever create anything…the two biological systems
are incompatible and so is two systems with a different value systems…….

communism has one value system and capitalism has another value system…
they are not compatible with each other… for them to function together,
they must share the same values………

kinda like couples, if couples don’t share the same values, they will
not last… the same principle that works for a couple works for
institutions and works for governments… for different systems
to work, they must share the same values………………. and we cannot have
greed being the value of the economic system and the main value
for our political system being sacrifice…………

our various systems must share the same values or they won’t work……

so we must define and understand the values upon we base all our systems
upon…………. and such values as greed and hate and anger cannot be the
base values for any system because those values will cause the collapse of
a system because of the instability those values bring into a system……

values that are stable are the values we must install into our system and
any system… values live love and peace and charity and honesty…

we cannot have as our base values, values that destabilize a system…….

and greed is a value that destabilizes because it puts the objects of the greed
before the human being…… life must come before any value…for it is the values
that give life meaning, but life exists before the values……………life takes precedence
over values…………

as the wife wants to go shopping, I must leave you……"

K: ok, back… so let us try this…

how are we going to connect values with actions?
we have a value, so what are we going to do with it?
what action do we take regarding said value?
how do we turn values into action?

as people, the usual course of action is to try something and
then make a judgment based on how it worked out…
the end justifies the mean…we usually base our
understanding of our actions is based on the results…
so, I understand that the result of hitting my idiot 12 year old boss,
will end badly, so I don’t do it… the results is simply not worth the
effort…and at no point, do values enter into this equation…

but what if, what if we start with values and then decide our actions…
instead of thinking about something based on the ends or the means…

we start with the values we have reevaluated and now
hold to be true… this approach has nothing to do with
any question of the end or the results or the means to achieve any
such goal… we begin with the values we have accepted…

I begin with the value of understanding… I understand
corporate wants very young managers because they are easily
duped and they won’t put up with corporate bullshit…
(in reality, the store manager is 26, yep, I have tennis shoes older
then him and probably smarter then him too)

anyway…….that is exactly who corporate want in charge of the store,
a philosophy, a rather stupid and ignorant one, but nevertheless a
way to go……. so I can despise this moron but it won’t do me any good…

I can simply accept the fact and move one…
so punching this idiot won’t change a thing… it is a rather pointless
exercise, so I just go on doing what I have always done with managers,
and that is just studiously ignore them…don’t engage, don’t talk with them…
avoid them, I don’t even say hi to him… I just do my thing…

so, I begin with the value, not with the action and I derive the action
from the value… the results or the end, never enter into the picture…

so, we have a new understanding of our Kantian question,
what are we do to? we begin with the values and then
we create actions that take those values into account…

but we begin first and foremost with values…

and every action afterward, we derive from our values…

not we act and then understand the values later… no,
this is a reevaluation of how we are to act……….
not just a reevaluation of values, but of action……

we begin with the value of say, justice… which as I have defined
it is equality… you must have justice practiced with equality to be
justice… so, we begin with justice/equality and then and only then
do we act… we use our values to define our actions…

but the values must come first and then we act from values and
we don’t take the results into consideration when we act…
we simply act from the values… if the values are the right values
for that action… the results will turn out fine………

but if the values are the wrong values and then we act upon those
wrong values, then then action and the results will end up badly……

so we take into consideration the results when we decide if the
values were the right values for that action………

values and actions are simply two aspects of the same thing…

I have an action I must take, I need a new job after being treated
crappy for the last 11 years… so, I don’t look at results, I look at
the values… and then and only then do I look at a solution for
my problem… I use values to decide how I am to act and then the action
must have the right values to succeed…

values and action must be equal to there to be any success……

the values must be appropriate to the action/situation for their
to be any success……….

If I bring a value like hate or greed or anger to a situation like
a relationship, the relationship will fail, no question about it…

but if I bring into a relationship values like love, passion, charity,
hope, equality/justice… the relationship will have a far, far, far better
chance of succeeding…………………

different situations require different values……. we cannot plug into
a random situation any random value… the value a situation
needs is distinct and every situation needs different values…
so we must learn to connect the right values with the right situation…

if we are at war, we cannot fight with an enemy with love and peace…
we must engage in that war with the values that are appropriate to that
situation… but to avoid war and to hold the peace, different values
like love and peace and compassion may just be the right values
to prevent war and keep the peace……………

so we begin by understanding our values… what are our values
after an reevaluation of values… from the values of our childhood indoctrinations
to our values that are appropriate to our adulthood and our adult situation…….

after we discover those values then, then we begin by applying those values
to the situations we find ourselves in… or, or we can create situations in which
we can apply our values to……… we can begin with the values and then
create actions around those values we have……. if we value love, then
we try to commit actions in which the value that drives those actions are love……

if justice is the value, then we commit actions in which justice is the goal of
our actions… we use justice to create actions in our live… and justice means
equality… so we are just to people by being equal to people…… we don’t treat
someone different because they are black or white or gay or old or man or women……
justice is when we treat everyone we meet equally……… we are just when
we treat people equally…

justice is the value and we treat people with equality and that is the action

or we look at the action we see what value will work in that situation………
finding the right value for the right situation is hard, very hard and
we must practice that every single day……….

so, what are you values and how will they create new actions for you?

Kropotkin

we have values and we have actions……for the actions to be successful
we must have the right values

so let us give another example…

a man enters a relationship with a women…
he has the values of hate, of anger, of greed and of lust…
I predict that relationship won’t work or succeed…

a man is alone again… for a man to succeed in his goal of
finding a mate, a wife…he must find a women with whom he
share the same values with…….if a man enters a relationship with love
and compassion and charity… he will far more likely have a successful
relationship……. not a guarantee but a better chance of success……

so, if a man enters a situation, he must first decide upon the his values…
and if the situation fails, it might have been the values the man brought into
the situation…….the situation required one set of values and the man brought
another set of values, the wrong values to that situation…
and situation failed… the results weren’t good… and then the man
can learn from that situation……… that is how we learn…….

but the key factor in learning is understanding the values we brought into
any learning situation and every situation is a learning situation………

sometime aggressive actions are required in some situations…
but don’t bring aggressiveness into every situation… learn
to understand every situation……… not every situation requires the
exact same values………. and yet people quite often take the same values
into every situation and when the situation fails, they never take a look
at the values they brought into the situation… they will blame something else…

every situation that fails must be understood in terms of the values that
situation required and what was brought into the situation value wise…….

we need to learn what situation requires what values and what values
will work in different situations…………. the one, values, requires the other,
action and they must engage together… you need values to match the
situation and the situation must match the values… otherwise you tempt
failure………… and only after the situation resolves itself, the end results,
then you can begin to understand the role of values and the action taken…

you understand the results as a question of values… where the right values in
place in that situation? and if the right values weren’t in place and you had
failure, then what values were the right values for that particular situation……

our understanding of reality now becomes a question of the values used
in what situation and what situation required what values………

that is the new reality…… a question of values and their uses………

Kropotkin

so we have questions of the modern age……
and they come from the Kantian questions,
what can we know, what are we to do, and what can we hope for?

but we don’t exists in a vacuum, we exists in the middle of …………. life……

and part of life is the indoctrinations by society in the myths, habits, biases,
prejudices and superstitions that society has and wants you to have…….

we also exists in the “modern” age……… or perhaps its the “postmodern”
age, I can’t tell them apart……anyway…….

and we have values…… so the question becomes how to connect these different
aspects of our lives………

the modern age or was it the postmodern, anyway, this age has its own
values…… they are easy to spot………… what do we value?
we value money……… and our side values support this one basic value…

we value punctuality, we value efficiency, we value obedience… all very
useful values for making money………

“so what can we do” in light of our modern values?

the only choice that is offered to us is monetary choices…………
we must become “contributors” to society…we don’t allow any “deadbeat”
persons or group of people to exists… we must all contribute to society to
be considered “useful” to have “value”… upon this fact lies the war on
minorities and women and anyone not considered to have value………
women and minorities are not considered to contribute to society
in a “production” or “consumer” aspect…………… they don’t spend enough
money in society eyes to be “contributors” to society or they don’t produce
enough goods to be a contributor………… and that is how we value people,
by monetary means…… do they contribute in some monetarily fashion
to the “betterment” of society? and by betterment, we mean, do they
contribute to the “bottom line”?

and this “bottom line” is really the end judgement of a society in which
money and profits are the only worthwhile goals……………

and so modern age answer to “what must we do”… the answer is to
contribute to the “bottom line”……….we must become profitable in some
fashion to have value……… no profit, no value… simple as that……

my question is simply this, is our contribution to society solely to be based
on the question of the "bottom line?..………

doesn’t this question of the “bottom line” asking for a “reevaluation of values”?

I think so……… but where do we begin?

Kropotkin

and we return with the question of the last post,
we need a “reevaluation of values”, but where do we begin?

we know that values must contribute to the “bottom line”,
just like people, we must have values that help us make money/profits
or those values are worthless… if it doesn’t make money, it has no
value… that is the modern viewpoint……

and we know this age of the last 118 years to be a nihilistic one and why?
because values that don’t contribute to the bottom line are ignored
and crushed… values like love and charity and peace and justice
and honor have no place in modern society because those values don’t contribute
to the “bottom line” and the “bottom line” is the only value worth holding in
modern society…….

those values of however are the values that make life worth living…
it isn’t values like punctuality or obedence or efficiency that make life worth
living… it is values like love and hope and dignity and honesty and compassion
that make life worth living…the values that are destroyed in the pursuit
of money/profit…

we make our stand for a new world, not on the bottom line, but on
those values that have been rejected by the modern arbiter of values, modern
corporations…

we begin “reevaluation of values” with an understanding that the answer
to the questions of human existence, the question of the “human condition”
does not begin with the pursuit of money/profit…or even actions…

the “reevalauation of values” begins with the values themselves…

not with the actions but with the values……. we find out what values
are really our values, not the values we were indoctrinated with, but with
values we have come to truly understand is a part of us………
to really come to your values, you must first of all, have a “reevaluation of values”
from the value you were indoctrinated with…… and then and only then can you
begin to realize what values are really the values that represent you or you
are… remember Nietzsche, become who you are… and that means become
the values that are you… and how do we do that? we engage with
Socrates with his sentence, Know thyself………….

see all of these “random” sentences are really part of a larger, overall
understanding of who we are… we must begin our “reevaluation of values”
with knowing who we are, know thyself, and we can understand what values
are really who we are, become who you are………………

it is not the actions that count in our live… for our actions don’t give
our life meaning, it is our values that guide our actions and thus it is
the values that give our life meaning…… so to discover who we are, truly are,
we must begin with values……. and which values are really the values I want
to live my life by… not the values that we were indoctrinated as children,
but upon values I find for myself… and we take those values and apply
them to the actions in our life……… thus, we begin to take actions only
once we have discovered the values that bring meaning to our lives and
use those values to engage with the actions of our lives…………

we begin with values……… and live our life based on those values…
our actions, all of our actions, must follow from our values…

you want to make changes in your life? begin with the values you have…

you want to make changes in the government or society, begin with the values
you have and then, then discover what values does the government have or
the society have… and go from there…… the government or society to truly
represent you, must share your values… that is why we are so alienated from
the government or society……… because we don’t share the same values…
the government and society and big business, have different values then you do
and that difference is the basis of our alienation from our society or government or
big business…………

the battle over government that we see today is not the battle of what actions to take
but a battle over what values shall we have……………

so we have the Kantian question,

What can we know?
what should we do?
what can we hope for?

and now I add one more question to the Kantian questions,

what values should I/we have?

Kropotkin