a new understanding of today, time and space.

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

so I might hear someone say, Kropotkin, you have rejected
actions in favor of values? say it ain’t so, joe……….

the question of values and actions seems complicated but it really isn’t……

we find our values, be it love or passion or compassion (see the nearness of
these two words, to be compassionate one needs passion)

anyway, we find our values and then we take actions……. the actions
will tell if our values are good values, values worth having……
the actions validate our values, we use actions to understand our values,
and we use actions to determine if our values are useful in any given situation…

I have used a relationship analogy earlier, a man who has hate as his values,
won’t be very successful in his relationships and the actions of the relationship
will tell him that his values are wrong… he uses hate instead of love
in a relationship and the relationship fails… he shouldn’t think it was
the other person who failed, he should think about the values he brought
into the relationship…… the values define the actions… if he has
values that allow the relationship to grow and prosper, then he has
values worth keeping… the action, the success of the relationship,
tells him that………… our actions are meant to confirm or deny the
worth of our values… we act and then by that action, we can know
if our values are good…………the action is meant to help us understand
our values……………. the values comes first, then the action……

our understanding of action and values is wrong…………

we must begin with and end with values… the actions only
tell us if we have values that can allow us to engage with our actions…

so life is a question of values, not of actions… we act in support of our values…

so the question of life is a question of what values do we have and when actions
succeed or fail, then that action should lead us to explore other values that will
allow us to succeed… values are what allow actions to succeed or fail………

and so we must focus on the values, not on the actions…for actions can only
tell us if our values are right or wrong………

Kropotkin

it is not our actions that define us,
it is our values that define us…

Kropotkin

one might ask, what values do I have?

look at your actions, your values are exposed by your
actions… your actions state, loud and clear, what
your values are… but if we change the values, the
actions we have also changes………………

so, if your actions are violent, hate filled, having anger,
then that is your values… violence, hate, anger…

if your actions are peaceful, filled with love, offering hope…
then that is your values… peace, love and hope…

look at your words… if you repeat racist, sexist, violent,
tirades against women or minorities or gender, then you are
racist, sexist, violent… the words and actions condenmn
you…those are your values… deny it all you want…
but it is true… be mindful of your speech and be mindful
of your actions… for they expose to the world what your values are…

Kropotkin

we have the values of capitalism which are the values
of greed, lust, miserly, all negative values because they
don’t improve any systems be it the system of self or
the family system or the social system or the governmental
system………

but what if we ourselves don’t hold those negative values of
greed, lust, miserliness… and we are force into a economic
system that does value those values? how are we to exist
with our value system that is different then the expected
social values of our system, be it economic or otherwise…

let me give you another example, we have had culture’s
and political systems that have had clear and defined values…
an example of this is Sparta… the only values accepted
were military values… all training, all education and all values were
involving war and fighting and being militaristic and martial……

but what of the person, a man who felt different values… a person
who thought that his personal values were of the scholar or of learning?

how would that person fare in a martial society like Sparta?

we have a clash of personal values and societal values………

what of the man today who doesn’t value the economic values
of our current society… what of the man who values/believes
in personal values of sharing, compassion, equality… in other
words, a man who values are communistic…… that is in direct
conflict with the values of modern society…….

how do we resolve this conflict of values? we ask, what
would Sparta do to a man whose values were different from
the Martial values of society? most likely either execute him
or banish him……………we don’t do either but we do
punish him in other ways…….we call him Liberal in a pejorative
way or we call him a communist also in a disparaging way or
we simply isolate or neglect him……………
and for the human being, a social creature, isolation is the
greatest punishment one can have…………

so society wants you to protect the system by
drafting you into the army… but your values are
peaceful, pacifistic, non- violent……. must you serve
in an army that expects you to kill when your own personal
values are against killing?

we see this clash of values every day, where the personal
values clash with the social values of the society or the state………

when one’s personal values are in conflict with society values,
we have another example of alienation………… how do we resolve
these conflict of values between the individual and the state/society/culture?

which leads us to a second question, should we hold our own personal
values even to the point of death? how strongly should we hold our
personal values… should we hold those personal values even to the point
of being punished by the state…………

we read in history books of the long battle between the values
of the Roman Empire and the values of the Christians………

we see that for over 200 years, the state did battle over this question
of values with individuals to the point of the state executing those whose
values are different then the state………………… this battle of values is not
just an ancient one……… we have wars over different value systems
such as the Nazi’s and the west value system which was decided by
World War 2………….

and we see this continuation of the battle in values in the ongoing clash
of the neo-nazi’s and forces of the left doing battle in places like
Charlottesville and Berkley………………. so we have not only the battle
of values involving the state and the individual but within groups of
individuals………………… and once again, how do we resolve this?

upon what principle can we all agree upon that will limit these
clashes of values that happen with great regularity………

and to continue this thought, we have elections that are simple
peaceful examples of the battle of values………. we have contested
elections because we have contested values…………… and how are
we going to resolve this conflict?

Kropotkin

the original basis of philosophy was not as we know it…
the original basis of philosophy was that philosophy was
a way of life… it wasn’t as we know it, a impartial, impersonal,
series of facts about what certain philosophers believed in…

we believed that Descartes was interested in creating certainty
especially for the new science… and each philosopher after
continued on this path of creating certainty for the new science…

the ancient philosophers wouldn’t have considered that philosophy…
their idea was that philosophy was not just a series of facts but
a way of life…that philosophy was a spiritual exercise and a way of
living out one’s life…….Stoicism for example, wasn’t just to be studied
but to be lived………you went into one of the 4 schools of philosophy
as a way of life… not just studied, but lived… the 4 schools were
stoicism, platonic, epicureans, aristotlism……………. these schools
are different from what we think of philosophy…………

we do philosophy,
they lived philosophy

and that is the difference between the ancients and us……

they weren’t about the facts of philosophy but about how to live philosophy…

this idea of living philosophy as a way of life was taken over by
Christianity……. and here we also just do Christianity instead of
what they did which is living in Christianity… that is the difference
between ancient Christianity and today’s Christians… we do Christianity
and they lived Christianity…………

one of the things that every school believed in was to
examine thyself………. the process for every ancient
“philosopher” be it pagan or be it Christian, was to look inward…
the process was involving looking at oneself and not worrying about the
outside world…the problem with this is the fact that so many became
engaged in looking at themselves and ignoring the outside world that the
outside world, collapsed… the middle ages are a result of so many
people engaging in looking at themselves that there weren’t enough people
engaging in the world to keep it going………… society became so engage with
examining itself that it didn’t have enough people to maintain society……

so we should engage with looking inward, becoming who you are by
finding the values that you really are, not the values that you were
indoctrinated with… but your true values that can only be found
by knowing thyself…… but we can’t allow to happen what happen
to ancient civilization which is so many become involved in
their engagement with becoming who they are, that we don’t
have enough people to engage with society and keep society running…

as with everything else, it becomes a question of moderation…
but if we engage with moderation, how are we to begin the process
of living our philosophy… not just doing, but actually living our philosophy……

we are stuck here… we must be moderates in our engagement with life,
but to actually live our life philosophically, isn’t moderate… it is fairly
extreme to actually live our lives philosophically, be it philosophy or be
it Christian………… do you know of anyone who actually lives Christianity
instead of doing Christianity… you know, lives it instead of preaching it……
I don’t know of such a person and I doubt you know of such a person
and to honest, I doubt there are a thousand people in all of the United States
that is living Christianity instead of just speaking the words with no
emotional investment…

so how, if at all, should we begin to live our philosophy instead
of doing philosophy? should we begin to engage with philosophy
as a real, livable plan of action or should we just study the words
and say, Descartes began modern philosophy by intellectually
practicing doubt…… for that is exactly what he did…
he intellectually practice doubt… he didn’t live doubt,
but he intellectually practiced it… as all we modern philosophers
do, we intellectually practiced it… we don’t live it……

so, should we engage with philosophy as a way of life or should
we continue to intellectually practiced it?

Kropotkin

so in the last post, I wrote about how we don’t engage in philosophy,
we simply intellectually practice philosophy, with no regards
to the actual, existing world………

so, we have to wonder about values…
we have X number of values… so do we also
practice values by simply intellectually spouting off words
that make it seem like we have some values or
do we actually live our values, like the ancients actually
living their philosophy, not just as an intellectual game, but
within the world as part of our day to day living…….

do you engage with values as an intellectually practice or
do you engage with your values as a way of life?

Kropotkin

so the question becomes, how does one practice philosophy
as a way of life and still exists within the state???

this may be our modern question…… how can we live philosophy
and still peacefully exists within the state?

for it is clear that having our intellectual discourse on philosophical
matters will not interfere with the state for they are intellectual,
not as a matter of a way of life……… but can we have a philosophical
way of life and still be part of the state?

Kropotkin

when I was an anarchist, I easily could have engaged
in intellectual discourse about anarchism, …

but I didn’t, I didn’t just engage in the intellectual
practice of anarchism… I lived the life…
I was out of the system as far as I could possibly
be out of the system… the only thing I did in those
years to participate was to vote in the national elections…
I didn’t have a bank account, I usually didn’t have a car,
I was paid under the table, cash, as far as possible, I
lived the live of anarchism… It was a way of life…
by choice… I was even homeless for a time…
but I was young… at my age, being homeless isn’t really
an option anymore… I like my couch too much…

I can see how people have taken a position, be it anarchism
or christian and make it a way of life… but philosophy,
think about turning that into a way of life…

it would mean staying true to whatever values you subscribe to,
it would mean that in the conflict between the values the state
wants you to have and the values you deem important, you stay true
to your values even to the point of being punished by the state…

if you believe in your set of values, you must believe them regardless
of the threats or punishment that you might receive from holding those values…

but what values are worth that punishment?

I would suggest big values like justice and love and hope
and charity are values worth holding and worth being punished over…….
but ask yourself, why these values? why not other values???

so what other values are worth holding that are worth life and death?

Kropotkin

so we this collision between the state and the individual…
and that collision is because the values of the state are different
from the values of the individual, whatever those individual values are…

but let us look at the values of the state…

the state to be successful must enforce certain values upon its citizens…
obedience, sacrifice by the citizen, religion values, (whatever religion the state
allows) but how does the state pick its values? The state picks values that
ensure the state survival… those values deemed necessary for the state to
continue to survive, those are the values the state wants from its citizens…

so the state will allow some citizens the freedom to ignore those chosen
values of the state, those citizens are allowed that freedom because
of some value those citizens bring to the state, be it status or knowledge
or wealth or artistic value… but the vast majority of citizens are
expected and required to follow the values of the state… think of Sparta
and its martial state… citizens were required to follow those martial
values regardless of what the citizens has for values… the state comes first…

and we today, have the same process in place, we are expected to
follow the states values, regardless of our own personal values…

and this is the basis of the collision between the individual and the state
that we see quite often…think of the fact that homosexuality was
illegal in the United States until quite recently… that that homosexuals
loved and that love was considered illegal because it was love between
two males or two females… this conflict between the state
and its citizens has been resolved to some extent in the last few years…

but this conflict of values drive our current discourse…
think of liberals and their push for justice, which is equality between
people and the push by conservatives for security………… these values
have been in conflict for decades… or think of the so called “culture wars”
of the last 40 years… they are a battle of values… between conservative values
and liberal values…………think of abortion or voting rights or the
military budget, they are all a fight over different values,
played out over specific issues………

a budget is a moral document because it is about what values
the government has and those values are highlighted by
specific issues the government funds or defunds for that matter…
if we value old people, then we increase the funding for matters
involving old people, if we don’t value them, then we defund those
issues… simple as that…the priority of government and its values
are simply listed in the money spent on projects that the government
favors…….

and a look at the budget, our budget shows that we spend a
vast amount of money on military means, we have a martial
vision of the world, given the money being spent on the military……
this is a value decision about how we see the world……

the budget shows the values……. and social issues that are important
to liberals are not given very high priority and that is shown by
the very little money in the budget to social issues which are simply
values taken to specific issues……………if the budget shows
us our values, that those values are martial, which are values
about obedience and violence and hate……

those are the values of the United States and have been the values
of the United States for over 40 years………… if the United States
had true believe in the values of love, peace, hope, those values
would be in the budget, but they aren’t……

but what if as a person, I hold those value in opposition
to my state… what if I was a peaceful person in a martial state,
like the peaceful man in Sparta?

my values are in conflict with the values of the state……
how does this conflict get resolved?

Kropotkin

let us recap and see where that leaves us…

first, we are born, society, parents, media, state, church, spends
years, even decades indoctrinating us into official, canonical
beliefs, biases, myths, ism’s, prejudices, superstitions……

as we age, we soon learn to know thyself… we discover
ourselves as the victims of this indoctrinations… we discover
that our views and beliefs are really those indoctinations of childhood…

we attempt to overcome these childhood biases and prejudices…
this is our overcoming of values… those values installed in us as children…

we then become who we are by discovering which values are really the value
that we are… so the process is to know thyself, to overcome, then to become
who we really are… at every step it is the values that are discovered
and overcomed…from the values we are indoctrinated with, to the values
we overcome to the values we finally become, for that is who we are, our values…

past, present and future are all here in our understanding of values…

we also have our Kantian questions,
what can we know?
we should we do?
and what should we hope for?

and we have the Kropotkin question,
what values should we have?

our understanding of values is that we have both individual values
and we have collective values, values that are shared within the society…

our collective values is understood best by our federal budget,
for that is a moral document……….

and we spend the most money in the budget on all things military…
that is our values, we are a martial society with violence and hate
as our primary values……………

and we wonder why our society is failing today…
because our investments within society is not
with the people or their concerns but with building
weapons and training and things military…….

those who say we must be secure have won the battle…
and those who fight for justice/equality have lost……

and we will continue to fail as long as the conservatives win
their battle to be secure instead of fighting for people based
values like justice/equality or freedom………….

in other words, we are practicing the wrong values given the situation……
and that is always the path to failure……………

and we continue…….

Kropotkin