a modern question?

Philosophy Forums Philosophy
21

I know lots of people who make great art; even classical art.
It’s simply that the “art establishment” run (mostly) from London, Paris and NewYork valorises and promotes non-craft art.
But it is out there to be found.

Consider the “Children of Lidice”, a sculpture of 82 children, the victims of Nazi occupation of Czechiovakia, and the life’s work of one woman.
How about the Genghis Khan Statue Complex?
Statue of Guan Yu in Jingzhou Park.?
How about Hyperrealistic Sculptures of Ron Mueck??
ronm.JPG

As for literature. W&P is dull. I can imagine in a time before TV and film this book would have been great for spending dark evenings in Russia reading by candlelight. I’ve read plenty of Dostoyevski, but W&P is just too much to bear.
Art has moved on I’d stand The Soprano’s and Breaking Bad as every bit as artful as any Russian literature.

22

Maybe you should take a look at “Shiflett Brothers’ Sculpting Forum” on Facebook?
There is some astounding talent there, but it is denigrates as “fan art”.

23

so, you actually didn’t answer my question… …

who is, right now, creating great ART? And the secondary
question is, how do you know?

Name names and then tell me why?

Kropotkin

24

the great assumptions or articles of faith in our modern age:

that capitalism has won…

that communism has lost, permanently …

that greed is good…

that individual rights supersede collective rights…

that profits/money is the end goal of existence…

the superiority of one, some or many or all without facts or evidence…

that sometimes, sometimes we cannot find the answer, no matter what…

that god is necessary…

that hard work, keeping one’ nose to the grindstone pay off…

that the search in our existence is to become “happy”…

that faith supersedes reason…

that we are entitled to our own facts, irrespective of the actual facts…

that there is but one truth and the search in existence is to find that one big truth…

that ism’ and ideologies supersede values…

that real courage lies in having convictions…

that there are absolute truths that we can find in morality and ethics…

what is the bible? a series of interpretations… and all we know of the bible
is another series of interpretations… because let us be clear,
who actually reads the dam thing…

that the point of existence is to work and be a good citizen…

these are some of the truism and assumptions of the modern world

what are your truism and assumptions?

Kropotkin

25

it has been said that in the universe we have two different
and distinct scientific theories going on and they don’t
connect in any discernable way… we have the science
of newton and Einstein… the big science in which we can
know and keep track of the large scale stuff in the universe
we can know during an solar eclipse which side of the street will
be in the sun and which side won’t be… we know about the galaxies
and black holes and tracking the entire universe is now possible,
and then we have the second track which is quantum mechanics,
the universe writ small… the properties of nature on the small scale of atoms
and subatomic particles…this ‘‘universe’’ doesn’t seem to have
any connection to the larger universal picture we have of galaxies, solar systems
and planets…

in essence, we have two distinct and vastly different scientific theories
explaining the universe…two theories that are not connected to each other…

we cannot hold or maintain these two distinct and separate theories about
the universe…they may describe two distinct and separate aspects of the
universe, but in the end, we can only have one theory of the universe…
we cannot go for long holding onto two distinct and separate theories of
the universe and how the universe works… we just can’t…

so we have to create a synthesis of the two… combining the two into one
separate theory…which will explain both the small and the large as aspects
of each other…

today, we have two distinct and separate political and social theories at play
in America… we cannot hold as a country by trying to work within two
distinct and separate political and social theories… we will break open
as a country attempting to keep the country intact while holding to two
distinct and separate theories political and social theories…we must overcome
and work out some synthesis of the two distinct and separate theories…

the first theory is the conservative theory and the second theory is the liberal theory…

and as long as part of the country hold to one theory or the other theory, we will be
chaos and disarray until we can work out or combine the two theories…

it was yeats who said:

“things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
the ceremony of innocence is drowned;
the best lack all convictions; the the worst
are full of passionate intensity”

we are in the midst of the land falling apart because
we cannot bridge the gap between the two opposing political parties…
the center cannot hold if we stand so far apart as to not hear each other…

we must overcome, we must bridge the gap of the political storm
that divides us into right and left… for if we fail, we fail as a country…

we cannot, as science cannot hold, if the universe is described by two
distinct and separate theories…we must have one theory, one synthesis
by which we hold… we cannot go backwards… we have seen this two many
times before where to unite, the powers to be went backwards, Spain of
the 16 and 17 century withdrew into itself and became a backwards nation…
the muslim countries after the 11th century went backwards to unify itself
and in doing so, destroyed all that was great about the Islamic world,
the science, the medicine, the study into philosophy
and the greatness of their ARTS… all gone under the darkness of unity of
religion… killed off by going backwards… sure, we can be unified
by retreating into a phony unity that destroys all creativity and purpose…

we must attempt to synthesis by overcoming into the future… we cannot go back,
we must go forward into some synthesis into the two distinct and separate
viewpoints of the universe… we cannot accept some half ass
unification that curbs and limits our potential of seeking the possibilities
of who we are… we cannot, cannot retreat into a political or religious
formula that does not allow us room to grow, as a people or as a individual…

I must be able to seek my own possibilities and we as a people must be able to
seek our own possibilities… and we cannot be forced into a settlement that
prevents us from our engagement with who we are… in other words,
we must not have a peaceful overcoming of the two diverse and different
understandings of the universe at the cost of losing our souls… as it cost
Spain and the Muslims countries who achieve reaching the center
and kept it together…and lost their soul in the process… lost their
ability to seek out their own possibilities…Spain and the Muslim counties
retreated into a forced center that denied people the chance to explore
what it meant to be human… the two area’s put the religious front and center
and didn’t allow any deviation from that religious viewpoint…free speech,
free thought, freedom of expression were all banned and forbidden in Spain
and the Muslim counties… you had to follow a certain protocol, certain obligations
to act, believe, think, in a certain way… there were no exceptions to the rules,
the code of the time…and that stifling of creativity, of imagination, of originality,
destroyed both Spain and the Muslim countries…turning both into second class area’s/
countries…we cannot follow their path… we must open the gates of imagination
and the gates of creativity and originality… to find the center, not close them off…
in seeking to make the center hold we cannot destroy what makes us great
as human beings…our imagination, our ARTS, our originality…our freedom to
seek our possibilities in life…we must go forward in our attempt to
make the center hold… not backwards…

Kropotkin

26

Education removes the blinkers of ignorance… knowledge has the same power to do so… but ignorance, is like running on empty.

27

K: ahhhh, just another assumption… I would submit that modern education is one form
of ignorance… for example, do we teach about communism in our universities or
collages? and if so, what do we say? we just simply go about calling
communism a failure without any attempt to understand it… for example,
there is a vast difference between the communism of Marx and the communism
of Stalin/Lenin… The communism of Lenin/Stalin is about the dictatorship
that hides within their version of communism…communism for them is about
being a cover for their dictatorships…whereas for Marx, he was engaged
in improving the lot of human beings…did Marx have tendencies toward
being authoritarian? Yep, hence the failure of the 1872 5th congress
of the IWA…and the ongoing disputes thereafter between Anarchists
and mainstream communist…but Marx’s own personal issues don’t
negate communism… they point out an issue with any political ideology…
the personal need for power…

today we are taught (educated) that communism is a failure and
there is but one possibility for us going forward in regards to an
economic system, and that possibility is capitalism… and we
taught (educated) that we have only have capitalism as a viable
system… and this is simple not true…much of the universities
funding come from individual and/or big business, so universities
have every incentive to paint the picture of the so called success
of capitalism and the failure of communism…

our modern day education is simply one of painting and defending
our current ism’s ideologies, biases, superstitions, and prejudices…

there is no real attempt to reach some new ground, but to engage with
and defend the old morals and ism’s of our modern age…

to defend superstitions such as American exceptionalism
and American values… whatever that means…

our educational system doesn’t engage in any new ground or thought,
our current educational system engages in the creation of workers,
consumers, and producers… nothing more, nothing less…

you get an “education” to get and hold a job, nothing more…
frankly, our current educational system is nothing more then
just a system to brainwash youths into thinking their value is
found in working, being “good” citizens and upholding the current
system… our current educational system has no other value to it…
besides the carrier of modern propaganda and being a cheerleader
for the current political/educational/social/ and cultural system in place…

education should challenge one values and one’s belief system…
our current educational system draws its support from our current
value system and thus is in no position to challenge it…

to state this another way, our educational system has sold out to corporate
interest and so the educational system is just another mouthpiece for
our corporate overlords…and that boys and girls isn’t seeking to remove
our “ignorance” but to replace old ignorance with new ignorance…

Kropotkin

28

I read this in a book today…

“…Mankind is adrift on a sea of confusion, scepticism, and
perplexity and in dire need of rescue.”

that book was written in 1662 by a Pieter Balling’s,
“The light on the candlestick”

and truer words were never spoken about today…we need, must find
“salvation” of some sorts and how do we achieve this?

Given our confusion today, what solutions are possible?

we can retire into the stale cliche of seeking god, unity, religion…

or we can learn to dance, as Nietzsche suggested, to dance on thin ice…

let us accept, as valid, the confusion, perplexity of the day…

instead of seeking a solution to our confusion/perplexity,
we learn to dance to it…we accept it as part of our lives,
not something to overcome but to engage with as a central part of
our lives…it is by pride and ego that forces us to be able to
‘‘make’’ sense of the universe…there is no rhyme or reason to
or logic to the forces that act upon our lives…

tell me upon what reason or logic that we face growing old or getting
diseases or even falling on love?

our lives are way too random to suggest that there might be some force
guiding or changing our lives…

our very existence is a monument to the volatility and haphazardness that is
our existence… we seek the wrong thing…

let use reason and logic to organize our lives,
or said another way, we lead our lives in a meaningless universe…
so how do we then understand that? by accepting the fact life is
meaningless and then moving on…

the statement becomes, life is meaningless? and so what? we can still
move on and lead valuable lives… we might live in a meaningless universe,
but that doesn’t mean our individual actions are meaningless for we can
and we do give our lives meaning by falling in love, finding values to live for,
by working toward some personal goal, whatever that goal may be… our individual
goals don’t impact the overall understanding that life is meaningless…
I can create my own meaning with actions and beliefs that create value in my life…

I can create my own meaning and value by falling in love… I can create value and meaning
by working out a philosophy, I can find meaning and value by such actions as discovering
my best in sports or the study of some discipline like science or philosophy or
traveling or learning a new language…I can create my own value within my
own actions… it has nothing to do with the world or the universe, but within me…
I don’t need a universe to create my own value or purpose… I can do that within me
and my actions…regardless of how meaningless the world or the universe is, it doesn’t
affect me unless, unless I let us so… and I do not choose that… I choose to
have meaning by my own actions and beliefs…I choose the dance on the thin ice
because I decide to, not because I have to… but by my own personal choice…
and by my own choosing, I create value and meaning in my life…

so dance on the ice and create meaning and value…

Kropotkin

29

it is quite clear that we still haven’t finished the
“Enlightenment” project…we are still tied down to
holding superstitions and prejudice and biases… oh, yes,
we dress them up pretty, but they are still just superstitions
and prejudice…to shout, USA, USA, USA is to proclaim one’s
bias and childhood indoctrinations…the “white is right” crowd
is just another bias and the nationalism gang that proclaims
“American exceptionalism” is just another prejudice/superstition…

we still haven’t freed ourselves and therein, perhaps, the reason for
our myriad of issues today can be traced back to our failures to overcome
our biases, superstitions and prejudice…and the reason for our failure?

we failed to have the courage to admit to our prejudices and superstitions…
we have failed to overcome our childhood indoctrinations of nation, state,
and god…

education is not just being able to recall that in 1776 we signed the
Declaration of Independence, no, education is the ability to see ourselves
honestly and without fear… education is about a viewpoint of what it means
to be human, it isn’t about creating workers or producers, but about the creation
of a human being… what education teaches us is how to be human…
and how to be human means we must overcome our childhood indoctrinations…

education is not about facts but about creating a viewpoint of who we are…

and that is why our educational system is a failure… because it is engaged with
creating workers, producers and consumers…it is not about who we are as human
beings…

and that is why we haven’t finished the “Enlightenment project” which is meant
to overcome our superstitions, and biases and prejudices that we been
“educated” with…

We are not finished with the enlightenment period… we have just begun…

Kropotkin

30

so to continue the above thought, I offer you these thoughts…

we have, currently a republic, in which we vote for representatives,
members of congress, to represent us in which they vote, in our name,
upon actions that we have “engaged” them with…so, in our name, they
vote upon such matters as taxes, declaring war, the matters of making laws
in our name… so on… we ourselves do not make the laws but others
make the laws in our name…

but the question arises, why don’t we make our own laws?

It is said that we are too busy or perhaps we don’t have the time or
effort to make the laws ourselves…it is easy enough to think of reasons,
why we don’t make our own laws and why we dispatch others to make laws in our name…

but to be honest, there is but another reason why the constitution has
representatives acting in our name and not us acting as our own legislators,
the founding fathers distrusted the “common” people…we have a republic
because the founding fathers didn’t trust the average person… we have an
republic because the founding fathers were wealthy white men who only trusted
wealthy white men…and our republic today is run by wealthy white men…
witness the fact that the laws are made today that ensure the continuation
of the rule of wealthy white men…it is far easier to rule, via money and threats,
a small number of people then it is to rule everyone… in other words, it is
easier to hold and maintain power for wealthy white men within a republic then
it is by a true democracy…

and this is rather self evident given how our current republic has been bought
and sold like the whores they are… with the buying and selling of congressmen
by wealthy white men…one of the cures of this prostitution of congress
by wealthy white men is the implementation of harsh forms of government
like a monarchy or a total dictatorship… as the right wing is advocating for right now…

the reason that the wealthy business class is advocating for a dictatorship,
as business have done so for over a century, (historically, the money for
every single dictatorship in the modern era, has been from banks and wealthy
white guys, so the money sent to Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Hitler, Mussolini,
Pol Pot and Putin and of course, IQ45, has come from the wealthy white guys/banks
who only live for making money and don’t care in any, way, shape or form, what
type of government we have because they want money, not freedom and certainly
not justice, if you want to eliminate dictators, you remove their getting money from
the upper class and banks that the upper class own)

it is far easier to control one person then it is to control some, many or all people…
thus the upper class tries to prop up dictatorships and wanna be dictators like IQ45…

so what possible political solutions exists that will allow us to actual have
a democracy?

step one: prevent the wealthy upper class from giving money to wannabe dictators…
easier said then done… but preventing the upper class from funding the wannabe
dictators is certainly part of the solution…

Step two: change the national political structure from being a republic,
and turn it into a full fledge democracy…

“we the people in order to form a more perfect union”

must remove the representatives that claim to speak for us into a
pure form democracy where we, the people, make the laws and we execute
the laws…instead of voting for others who speak in my name, I now speak
in my own name and vote for my own convictions…

one of the arguments for a representative democracy is its alleged efficiency…
but frankly I hold, and have always held that increased efficiency isn’t really
the benefit that it is claimed to be…

in an honest look at life, what in nature is really that efficient? certainly not
the human body nor is any aspect of nature is that efficient…and key,
important aspects of human existence has nothing to do with efficiency…
love for example…the parts of life that give life its meaning has nothing to
do with efficiency… looking at a sunset or looking at a beautiful picture or
walking in a forest… these things, that in part, makes life worth living,
aren’t efficient at all… and so why should we give priority to something
that isn’t a priority in nature?

one of the arguments I can make for turning America into a direct democracy is
this, we have by our use of a indirect democracy, a republic, we have
removed the “people” from complete control over their lives… we have allowed
people to escape from having responsibility for their lives by having
indirect democracy, a republic…

if you want to make people responsible for their lives, then you have to
make them responsible… by turning over all aspects of government into
the hands of the people… a direct democracy in order to “force”
to take responsibility for their own lives… an indirect democracy, a republic,
can and has allowed people to walk away from taking responsibility for their
own lives…I can escape responsibility for my life by saying, I didn’t vote for
a congress that take actions that directly impact my life… I am absolved
from responsibility for actions taken by congress or the president…
and the fact is, I must be held accountable for actions taken by congress
and the president for actions taken in MY NAME…

and the only way we can take responsibility for our own actions is to
be responsible for our actions by turning America into a direct democracy,
not a republic…part of the failure of America today is the failure for
one, anyone, to take responsibility for actions taken… the congress can blame
the white house and the white house can blame the courts and the courts can
blame congress and no one, but no one takes any responsibility for actions taken…

if we become a direct democracy, we have but one person and one person only
that we can blame for actions taken or not taken… and that is ourselves…

to have a republic allow us to shift responsibility for actions taken to congress or
the president or the courts…but we must face up to taking responsibility ourselves by
becoming a direct democracy… where we make the laws and we enforce the laws
and we engaged in every aspect of our lives including the social, economic, political
and philosophical aspects of our lives…

do we have the courage to take responsibility for our lives by
taking upon ourselves the role of legislator of our lives?

we can easily pass the buck within any other system outside of a direct
democracy because we have no control over any other system outside of
a direct democracy…and what is true of us politically, is also true
economically, socially, philosophically… the question of existence becomes this…

how do I become responsible for my own life?

how do I become responsible for my own life politically, socially,
economically and philosophically?

Kropotkin

31

when last seen, I was advocating for a direct democracy, not a
representative democracy, as a means of becoming more accountable,
more responsible for our own lives, for who we are…and who we ought to
become…more human, less animal…

another method is by what I have called ‘‘The Enlightenment Project’’

in which we engage in and with our childhood indoctrinations, or
prejudices, superstitions, biases, that we were ‘‘educated’’ with…

the superstition of ''American exceptionalism" is just an example of
this type of “education” that we must engage with…who we are, who
we really are is not found in our “education” no, who we are is found
in our journey from animal, to animal/human to finally becoming fully human…

from walking away from our childhood indoctrinations of nation, god,
family and other prejudices and superstitions to become aware of
what we really hold to be true…and to hold ourselves accountable for
those actions and beliefs… to become responsible human beings…
both individually and, and collectively…

part of the “enlightenment project” is to become alive to the possibilities
of being accountable AND responsible for who we are and what we hold to be true…

and part of, part of this engagement with becoming accountable for our actions
and beliefs is the philosophical engagement of living our lives as “way of life”
in other words, we don’t just hold to words but don’t hold ourselves accountable for
those words…we must have our philosophy as being a “way of life”…

so, for example, a Christian, a modern Christian for example, holds to the word of
god and jesus, but they don’t actually practice what they preach… follow my words,
but don’t follow my practice, says the modern Christian… so the modern Christian
holds to banning abortion but (and this is important) won’t actually hold life to be
sacred or act upon that belief as actions to be taken, today and every day…

if life is sacred, then it is sacred in every aspect, so we cannot advocate
for capital punishment, nor can we approve of state licensed killing of
civilians by the police, nor can we support war or violence of any kind…
if life is sacred, then we must act as a “way of life” to the precept that life
is sacred…and we cannot, cannot make exceptions as Christians so often make…
for example, condoning torture as it might, might, prevent future terrorist actions
against America…

or to say this another way, to get our words to match our actions…
there is a vast divide in the Christian between their words and their
actions… the modern alienation and disconnection between the people
and their society and themselves for that matter, comes from the disconnect
people have between their words and their actions…

we must become who we say we are… if we are to be Christians, then
we must act, as a way of life, as a Christian… if we hold to the ideals
of the “American way of life” then we must act on those ideals, not just
as empty words that can be tossed away when convenient… like the use of
torture to “keep America safe”…

there is a vast disconnect between our rhetoric and our actions,
as American’s and as human beings…we hold to
habits, superstitions, prejudice, and other childhood indoctrinations
as a “way of life” and yet, we don’t challenge or attack those childhood
indoctrinations… thus we are acting as ( and I use this word loosely)
as adults, because we are using childhood indoctrinations…

if we are to become who we are, we must become accountable for our words,
and our actions…

and as part of our accountability is an honest examination of our values, our beliefs,
our “educational” principles…

what superstitions and prejudice do you hold?

only by challenging your values can you work out what the chasm between
the words you hold to be true and the actions that make a liar out of you…

what values must we hold as a “way of life” should we and must we hold onto to,
if we are to become human, accountable and responsible for our values, words
and actions?

what prejudices and superstitions must you overcome to become human, fully human?
what childhood indoctrinations do you have that you must engage with to overcome
to become who you are, and not just another “modern” person whose words
and actions are divided and separated by a vast chasm… like the modern Christian,
whose words and actions are completely in contradiction… they say they value life
and then they have no problem with destroying life… “ad hoc” beliefs they hold…
and act upon…nothing of value or of permanence does the Christian holds true…

as a Americans also…

are you beliefs “Ad hoc” or do they have value and permanence?

the only way to having beliefs of value and permanence is to engage
in the “enlightenment project”…

challenge and attack your beliefs in an attempt to get your words
and actions to be the same thing…

Kropotkin