One might say that the “world” is “cold” or “harsh”
or “indifferent”… but the world is none of these things…
the world is and we then attribute to the world some
ideas or values or viewpoint that seems to match whatever
the world seems to be to us… so, a tree falls in a forest, it just does,
there is no value or viewpoint we can attribute to the act…
let us say, that tree almost hit me, it was mean or vicious or
deceitful or whatever value we care to say, but the tree isn’t
any of those things… it is simply being a tree… with no understanding
of anything outside of itself… it falls because it is a tree…
to make it anything more then a tree doing tree things is to
humanize that tree…to create a viewpoint that doesn’t exist…
the tree is just a tree… nothing more, nothing less…
now we might try to turn that tree into something more then a tree,
it might have feelings or we might say it was a good tree… but frankly
to add features to the tree is to make a false claim about the tree…
the tree doesn’t know or care about you, the tree doesn’t have any feelings
of any kind toward you or your world……
so when we say “the world is a cruel world” we are just taking our emotions,
adding to the world beliefs and feelings that doesn’t exists, we humanize the world
in a way that doesn’t exists……
the world isn’t cold or inhuman or indifferent or mean or cruel or anything…
the world isn’t anything… it just is… and we take our thoughts and put
into the world…
humans and their society can be cruel or mean or indifferent,
because humans and their society have a choice… it can decide…
to say the world is cruel is really to say, human beings are cruel
or human society is cruel… of course, you then have to make clear
what it means to be “cruel”……. but my idea of cruel maybe quite
different then your idea of cruel… so, we get approximations of what
“cruel” is……
so we have in the society vs the individual clash… society wants/demands
certain things and the individual wants/demands certain things………
part of the confusion between this society/individual clash is the difference
between the very words society uses and the individual uses…
so the society may claim that the individual has a “duty” to society,
but what does the word “duty” mean, exactly? it may be different from
person to person and from person to society…
I disagree with the comment that the individual has a “duty”
to society… but more on that in a minute……
which has a greater “duty”? the society or does the individual?
I would suggest that the society has a greater “duty”
to the individual then the individual has to society…….
why? think about society… what is the society made of?
individuals…the society cannot function without individuals
but the individual can function without society, its not very pretty,
but it can be done…………
we can replace society with government and get the same result…
so, we have society/government that is made up of individuals…
the goal is to create a society/government within which individuals
can become who they are…………
so, what does that society/government to look like?
government must be the tool of the people, individuals,
government does the dirty work, the chores that make it
possible for people to engage in their own vision of what it means
to be human……… we can have a socialistic society and still reach
our goal of having a society in which we find our own truths…….
it is not about having a government that can be drowned in a bathtub,
but about government actually working for the people…… if we control
the government, we can set it to task that are too much for single
individuals to do… there is a pothole in my street, it would be too much
work for me too personally patch that pothole and still conduct my business,
whatever that business is, but we have government to take care of that business…
so by having the government working for us, we can take care of what we need to
take care of…government no longer tells us what to do, we tell the government
what to do…this idea of democracy is where we take control of our government…
power is no longer in the hands of the bureaucracy or in the branches of government…
we, the people, in order to form a more perfect union……….
government of the people, government for the people, government by the people…
so how do we make this happen?
the first step, as always is awareness… we must become aware that there
is a choice, we can decide to reclaim our government… make government of
the people, for the people, by the people…………we can no longer trust those
who say, follow me… for I know best… don’t follow them, follow your own
mind, your own heart…if you want the government to be of the people,
then you must act and be an agent of change… fight for government
that is just a tool for what we want and what we need……….
the next step is to understand that we are in this together… it is not
about you vs me, it is about us banding together to get those things
done that need to be done… we need to educate our young…
and the cost of educating them is nowhere near the cost of
having an uneducated America………… one man, one vote…
regardless of the man’s wealth or title or status… the poorest among
us get the exact same power as the richest man in America and by
taking control of our government we can make that happen………
Kropotkin… poor deluded Kropotkin……… that can never happen…
and I say unto you, the world doesn’t exist, for we make it so…
the tree’s are just trees and the sea is just the sea and they do their thing…
but we humans, we make the world evil or cruel or indifferent… we value
and we judge and create opinions about things and the world…
the world doesn’t know or care what we decide about it……
if the world is cruel or indifferent or evil, it is us that is cruel or
indifferent or evil… the world isn’t but we are……
we decide or give meaning to what the world is, we act
to make the “world” better or nicer or cleaner…
and we can create or make the society/government better, different
or even if we choose, not exist…… that is our choice… that is the
great answer of human existence… we have the choice… we can decide
what kind of world we live in and what kind of government/society we want…
decide then you need to make your decision as to how to achieve your goal…
but it takes all of us to reach the goal… individual decisions lead to
an overall group actions……………. you say the world is corrupt… I say it is
corrupt because you allow it to be corrupt… we can end corruption by simply
exercising our ability as human beings to act, engage with who we are
and what are our possibilities…….corruption only exists because we allow it…
but Kropotkin, you fool, there are forces in the world, holding it hostage,
keeping us in chains, so, why are you being a passive person to being held
hostage? I choose to fight being a hostage even to death…… why are you
so afraid? Ok, my dear confused Kropotkin, there is no chance of winning against
the forces allied against us… So, who cares if we can’t or don’t win…
I would rather fight and die being a hostage then being a hostage that
is indifferent to being a hostage……… we make the world what it is…
what world do you want to make it into?
all that it takes is two things, first courage… then second more courage to
think about the possibilities and the possibility for change……
we must plan and then act… become aware of the possibilities
then try to create the possibility of change…….
Kropotkin