As noted our modern ism’s and ideologies such as communism
and capitalism and Catholicism, all exist outside of our control…
we are victims of each in the fact we have no choice in the
grand movement of those ism’s… in communism, we exist
within the grand sweep of history in which we can only watch
as historical materialism, which is a broad force of history
works out our personal and collective fate, all of which is outside
of our personal ability to control……. individually, we are victims
of these broad forces, not having any means to control or change these
forces… the same exists for capitalism, whereas our individual fate
is determined by that “invisible hand” of broad market forces that we
have no control over… victims once again of forces outside of our control
or any ability to change…….but there are other forces outside of our control
in which we have no control over or any ability to change… we have modern
technology… do you have any control over all these new technologies?
who among us actually understand how our cars work or how the computer
works? Not that many…these modern forces of technology exists
outside of our control and our ability to change…just like those ism’s
and ideologies of capitalism and communism…do you have any control
or ability to change anything that exists in our “modern” world? no, not really…
the political system has been bought and sold as our individual congressmen
and senators have been bought by big money and big business like big pharma
and the Cock brothers and the NRA… do you have any say or influence given
the money now flowing into politics? no, of course not……
so once again we see the average person having no control over or
any ability to change our political or economic or social structure of
the modern world…….
modern man is competently powerless to control any aspect of their lives…
we are victims of our “modern” world which has taken away any chance we
have to change, affect, direct or move people or events in the modern world……
Now how can I personally have any meaning when I have zero control over
any aspect of my life? I cannot change or control any part of my economic,
political or social life……… life is what happens to me… not what I do to life…
the technology already exists to put me out of a job… we can easily have
stores with no need for cashiers or baggers… the only thing saving me is
the fact I shall have already retired or died before the new technology
destroys an entire industry…and I have absolutely no control over this…
it will happen regardless of how I approve or disapprove or even feel about it…
it is not a question of if, it is a question of when will my job of being a cashier disappears…
and this is the modern world writ small… events outside of my control and my
ability to affect will completely change my life and not for the better…
the large, grand scale forces that are beyond my control changing and dominating
my life without any input from me… it will just happen and there isn’t a dam
thing I can do about it……… and that is in essence, modern life… forces changing
and impacting us without any input or response from us… it will just happen and
we can only respond to it………….and that response will be pretty meaningless because
no one will be able to hear it in the midst and confusion of all that white noise
of society…
so, once again, I ask, how do I find meaning in this modern age?
those broad and all encompassing forces of our modern times,
in the midst of all those forces, how do I find meaning?
forces I have no control over and forces I cannot affect……
and we engage with these broad forces we have no control over
by wondering if someone has a “hobby”? such a irrelevant question…
given the how unimportant our lives have become in this modern world…
can we have any meaning in the broad forces like the “invisible hand of god”
that dominate capitalism or the “historical materialism” that dominates
communism or the plan that god has for all of us to lead us to the final days
of judgment… we are irrelevant in the midst of forces we have no say over
and we cannot control…… in the midst of that irrelevancy, how can I find meaning?
I would have better luck trying to stop the earth from circling the sun then
finding some relevancy in our modern world…….
is Voltaire right? should we just be content with taking care of our own garden
and leave the business of life to outside forces we have no say over and no
control over? is withdrawing into ourselves an answer? we see millions of
our fellow human beings have already taken that course…
anyone who says, a pox on both houses has already withdrawn into
themselves, into their own garden……
and in our modern, secular world, I don’t see how we can find meaning in
such impersonal forces like religion or god…………
so, what is left? do we retreat into ourselves, into our fixation on
celebrity news or our passion into our own personal field of hobbies
or sports or TV or drugs or booze? so many have left the field of
battle, left the outside world for small personal goals… which is
why millions fail to vote every election… they have given up trying to
change or influence or having a say in matters that dominate their lives…
the impersonal forces of capitalism and bought and sold politicians
have millions of people abandoning life and retiring their own
personal garden…
and once again I ask, how do I find meaning in the midst of all this?
Kropotkin