in this political season, here is the speech I would give
if I were running for president…
Hello, my name is Kropotkin…and I am
given you a choice…
We human beings have 2 sets of possibilities…
and to be blunt, one choice is to rise up
and the second choice is to fall down…
for we have only two choices, up or down…
because to remain the same results in stagnation,
we cannot remain in neutral for very long…
for the very nature of the universe is movement, change,
evolution, progression or regression…
the two possibilities are we either rise or we go down…
and these possibilities can elevate us or we can descend…
the choices are about what values we are to choose…
now one might say, but dear Sir… you are suppose to talk about
infrastructure or student loans or foreign policy……
those are policy debates and by their very nature change, some from day to
day and some more slowly but nevertheless the nature of policies change…
the debate over medicare or social security or defense spending are only
an application of the values we have…the real discussion needs to be over
the values we have in order to act upon those very important discussions about
student loans or medicare or defense spending…
to discuss policy issues implies that there are values that are to be
implemented in those policy issues…
for example, let us talk about our values in regards to entitlements
programs… should we hold to the values that all people should be
able to feed and clothe and house their families… should we
as a society, ensure that all our citizens and even noncitizens, have
resources enough to meet their basic needs as human beings…
for we all have needs, that is the basic condition of being human, even
the basic condition of life… and should we then ensure that all human
beings be able to meet their basic needs of food, water, shelter, education,
health care?
The values you hold decides your answer and thus it is paramount that
we understand the values we hold in order to engage in discussions about
entitlements programs or defense spending or student loans… the values
we hold drive the discussions we have about policy issues.
Now we can hold values that elevate us, values like love, justice, peace,
charity or honor, are among the values that elevate us… that make us better.
Values that lower us are values like anger, hate, violence, injustice, bigotry,
intolerance.
Now one may ask, rise us to what or lower us to what?
We come from animals. We are genetically related to all sorts of animals.
We are genetically related to dogs, cats, mice, the common fruit fly
and chickens. We are not independent, separate beings, apart from
the rest of the world. We are, of the world.
So, when you want to know, raise us to or lower us to something, that
relationship is to our recent past. To us in the past being animals, just
like dogs and cats and cows and mice and the common fruit fly.
We were animals. That is a fact that cannot be disputed. So we were
animals. We are now humans but we haven’t, as yet, learned to
overcome our animal nature. Hence the lower level, the animal nature
inside of us. This lower level nature is the part of us, the animal part of
us that has anger, and hate and lust and greed and injustice and intolerance
and bigotry, as part of our animal values.
But we are also human and what are human values?
Love, justice, honor, charity, truth, peace.
Those are the values that make us human.
But until we can overcome our animal nature,
we are really animal/human. So what do we strive for?
We strive to become more human. So I don’t offer you
policy differences like infrastructure or student loans
or defense policies, the choice I offer is what values are the
values we are going to choose?
Now, none of the other candidates are talking about what values
are important to us as Americans or as human beings. But I think the discussion
about what values we should hold, should be front and center of every single
discussion we have. Because the values we hold drives the policy decisions we make.
So the choice we have is to lower ourselves into holding animal values of
hate or anger or lust or greed or to become more human and hold
human values of love or charity or peace or justice?
That is the question.
Now conservatives hold to the lower values of hate, anger, lust, greed.
You have heard them brag about their animal values of greed. Grab
them by the pussy, is an animal value. Where money, profits are the only
thing worth chasing, that is animal values. Conservatives offer us
anger and hate and lust and greed, and most of all, fear.
They tell us we must be afraid of people of color or people who don’t
think like us or look like us or pray like us. But they are people too,
with needs and wants, just like us. Human beings have the exact same
needs of food, water, shelter, education, health care regardless of what
they look like or who they pray to or where they live.
We human beings are connected in every way, shape and form.
We are 99% genetically related. If you can look past the superficial
exterior of human beings, we are one. We are one in our needs, in
our hopes and in our desires and in our goals. I don’t offer you policy
differences, I offer you the choice of learning to see everyone, every single
human being, as one. There is no they, there is only us.
Now as for seeking out values, some people might not be seeking out
the same values as I am. Why? Because for example, I am not seeking
out love. I don’t have to seek what I already have. People don’t seek
what they already have, they seek out what they don’t have.
Part of the injustice of the world is that people, millions of people,
lack food, shelter, water, health care, education. That is what they
are seeking, the basic necessities. But millions are not seeking out
the basic necessities because they already have them.
So those people are seeking out other things, like safety/security
or love/belonging or esteem. But to say, that my seeking is more
important then another seeking is just pure ego. If I seek love/ belonging
or esteem or some other higher level goal, that is just as important
as someone seeking out the basic necessities of food, water, shelter,
health care, education. We cannot deny others their needs because
we have already reached those needs. If I have the basic necessities of
food and shelter and education and health care, by what right do
I have to deny others that which I already have?
This is why the discussion of values must precede the discussion of
policy issues. For the values we have, drives the policy issues we
must discuss and that is why I don’t talk about policy issues like
infrastructure or student loans or foreign policy.
For once we collectively agree on what values we should hold, we
can then discuss what policy issues we should and must enact.
Our values as human beings drive the policy discussions.
Now we reach the second part of this discussion.
(and this will end this post)
Kropotkin