a new understanding of today, time and space.

Philosophy Forums Philosophy
3241

Nietzsche once wrote that, he wanted to be an “autonomous, rational
human being”…

and at first read, it makes sense… however once you think about it,
then it is not so obvious…

for example, the word “Autonomous” not subject to outside control, independent,
acting according to one’s moral duty rather than one’s desires…

but as we have noted before, morality isn’t about one person…
it is a collective take on how everyone is to act in accordance
to the rules…you cannot have a single person morality…

morality by its very definition, is two or more people engaging
in how we should act and interact with people within our society…

but to be autonomous, means you are engaging in your own rules of
morality… so to be autonomous is not to engage in morality because
autonomous means one person and morality means more then one person…

how does a person be autonomous and still be able to engage in
morality? if we are engaging in morality, then we are engaged with
two or more people about how we are to act with each other…

and the word autonomous is about the one person being independent,
holding to your own values and rules…

to hold to both concepts equally and with conviction, means
that you are in conflict with the state when you act
autonomously…

because seriously, how often will my autonomous self be in harmony and unanimity
with the goals and needs of the state where the concept of morality holds
for two or more people…

the fact is, that my autonomous self will be in conflict with the society
morality…

how do we resolve this conflict between being autonomous
and being moral within a society?

if you adjust your autonomous self to be in sync with society
then you are no longer being independent and autonomous…

and one certainly cannot expect society to adjust itself or
sync itself to one human being, it cannot make morality
to fit one specific individual…

morality seems to be, to me at least, to be an all or nothing
proposition…you cannot choose which moral precepts
you will abide by and which one’s you will ignore…

I will abide all the rules of society and be a moral person,
except the rule about killing people… if I am to be an
autonomous person, I must be able to kill people…

you can see the conflict…

let us expand this concept of being autonomous to, well everyone…
everyone is an autonomous being who act upon their own idea’s
and understanding of what it means to be human…
we are free and independent to act upon our own values
as we see fit…

now everyone is in an completely autonomous society, which is the ideal society
of the anarchist, BTW…well that makes no sense, a completely
autonomous society… you can have one, autonomous or you can have the
other, society, but how do you connect the two?

so, is the goal of everyone being autonomous really the best goal we could
try to achieve, given that we would no longer have any type of collective
morality in doing so?

and then we have our second word, after autonomous, rational…

given the fact that much of human understanding of the world comes from
the emotional, feeling side of existence… is being rational, the best chance
we have of understanding the universe given we have such things as instincts
which is the way we override reason and rationality…

much of human existence is engage in both instincts and emotions/feelings…

David Hume for example once wrote:

“Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of passions,
and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and
obey them”

in other words, Hume had rationality and reason to serve
instincts and emotions and feelings and passions…

I for one, don’t believe that is the true and proper role of rationality
and reason…to be slaves of, servants to instincts, emotions, feelings
and passions…

so, the problem still exists, we can attempt to be autonomous
and be outside of morality which can only exists in two or more people…

how do we resolve this conflict between being autonomous
and being moral?

Kropotkin

3242

this conflict between being an “autonomous” person, acting
independently or having the freedom to do so
and the morality of the state… Morality is the
rules of conduct between two or more people…

I cannot go around hitting people for example, that
is in violation of the rules/laws/ morality of the society/state…

but my own private personal rules, my autonomous self,
my own personal conduct can be, I am able to hit anyone who displeases me…

and to be autonomous, I must hold to my own personal rules of conduct…
to be independent…

there must be some line in the sand where I can be autonomous to
a point, then I must engage in morality…one’s engagement with
my own conduct with myself, for that is all being autonomous can really
mean, and my engagement with, my conduct with two or more people…

Morality is a collective agreement to act in an specific manner while
engaging in specific behavior…

I have already touched upon the fact that there is a difference between
morality and the law… the law, at one time, held that slavery was
legal and that women were the property of men… but my own independent,
autonomous self, denied those laws of slavery and men owning women…

we can have separate morality and laws…the enactment of laws doesn’t
make those laws “moral”…because morality is concerned with the principles,
the distinction between right and wrong… whereas the law isn’t concerned
with right and wrong, as such…the law is about maintaining order within
a society/state… not about right or wrong… and this is the clear difference
between morality and the laws…the state frankly doesn’t give a shit
about right or wrong… it only cares about keeping the peace and maintaining
order within the state…

so you have one. being autonomous… two. being moral
and three. the laws…

so we have three different possibilities… which one is the “right”
one?

do we pursue being autonomous? or do we pursue being moral?
or do we pursue the law? is there a fourth possibility?

is there something outside of, or past those three,
being autonomous, morality or the law?

do we pursue the idea of right and wrong, given the fact
that to the law, right or wrong is irrelevant… do we
pursue being autonomous, even though that means we
are outside of, separate from morality which is the
rules of conduct between two or more people?

or do we engage with the law? which denies both morality
and being autonomous…

Kropotkin

3243

as I have noted before, we, in our “modern” times,
don’t seem to have any sort of meaning or purpose or goal to
our lives, to our existence… and this is what it means to be
a “modern” person…the concept of meaning or purpose tends to
have a “one size fits all” approach and that cannot work…

but why Kropotkin?

for example, the idea that “everyone” purpose/meaning in our existence,
is about our death and the idea that meaning and purpose is found within
the Christian idea of contemplating god in heaven forever…

I for one, think that is the very concept of hell… contemplating god
for ever? Yikes… I would rather spend eternity in Hell where
at least we can spice up our pain with a little diversity…

but as a concept of “one size fits all” spending it in heaven,
contemplating god forever isn’t really, “one size fits all”

for example, the Buddhist think that our meaning/purpose is to
end the cycle of birth and rebirth… to end the reincarnation of
human beings… which has nothing whatsoever to do with
the contemplation of god forever in heaven…

but the Buddhist idea of escaping the cycle of rebirth and reincarnation,
is still just a “one size fits all” concept…

in fact, most visions of the meaning and purpose of existence is just
variations of the “one size fits all” concept of existence…

we exists to …and no other choice is possible…

my meaning and purpose is, and ought to be, different then yours…

I don’t see how we can accept any one possible vision of
the meaning and purpose of human existence…because
no matter what vision you put forward as the “one size fits all”
understanding of what is our meaning/purpose as human beings,
will simple not get people to agree with you…

for some, the point of, the meaning of existence is to become our
possibilities and for some it is to become who you are and for some,
the meaning/purpose of existence is to explore… both yourself and
the world surrounding you…

there is no one vision of the meaning and purpose of human existence
that will get people to agree with…

“one size fits all” doesn’t work in relationship with the meaning
and purpose of human existence…

in fact, I would suggest that if you ask 100 people, what is the
meaning and purpose of human existence, you might get 125 answers…

how can we turn those 125 answers into a “one size fits all” understanding of
the meaning/purpose of existence?

so, what is the “solution” to this problem of what is “the meaning/purpose of
human existence?”

do we have individual answers to the question or do we have any type of
a collective answer to the question, “what is the meaning/purpose/goal of
human existence?”

so, what is the point of, the meaning of, the purpose of, the goal of
human existence?

if you tell me, then we will both know…

Kropotkin

3244

And if I don’t or can’t tell You, then it is uncertain which one of us knows, or even if any one of us does?

3245

How many things do we “moderns” seek?

let us count them…

we seek fame, money, titles, knowledge (if it is knowledge that leads to
fame or money or titles) and we seek the material goods… cars, houses,
large screen TV’s, couches, exercise equipment… crap that fills the house…

but I am not a good American… I don’t seek these fluff things that simply
waste my time and energy… I seek something else…

Now some might seek less material things… they might seek god or
salvation or simply seek a good time… the highlight of their day is to
party with all the essentials of a party, music, booze, drugs, dancing…

the word philosophy means “love of wisdom” and philosopher means
“lover of wisdom”…

now most people who study philosophy are not studying wisdom…
they are studying knowledge… what did Kant think of Plato’s
theory of the state as shown by Kant’s understanding of Plato’s republic…

that is seeking knowledge…what did some philosopher think of X, Y and Z…

What was Nietzsche idea of the state?

What did Hume think about the self?

research like this isn’t seeking wisdom, it is seeking knowledge about
a specific philosopher…

when one is researching knowledge like this, it isn’t doing philosophy…
because philosophy is the seeking/loving wisdom…

and what is the difference between wisdom and knowledge?

Wisdom involves the act of perspective and the ability to make sound
judgments about a subject whereas knowledge is simply knowing…
Anyone can become knowledgeable about a subject by reading,
research and memorizing facts…

wisdom: the quality of having experience, knowledge, and good
judgment; the quality of being wise…

the soundness of an action or decision with regards to the application
of experience, knowledge and good judgment…

the act of wisdom seems to be involved in the application of good judgement
by using such factors as experience and knowledge…

I have gained wisdom over the years by experience… I now know better then to
get in between a couple who are fighting… I have learned from the past…

I have learned that in regards to my wife, that I couldn’t have pick
anyone else who matches me better… I don’t even look… to me,
I have gained the wisdom to know that I can’t do any better in regards
to a spouse…I don’t just have knowledge, I have wisdom…

so most of you, because you are reading and writing in a philosophy
website, are seeking knowledge… but are you seeking wisdom?

and that is what is lost today… we seek all kinds of things, but I believe
that we are seeking the wrong things… we seek money and power and sex
and new cars and knowledge that will make us money, power, sex and new cars…

I actively run away from money and fame and power… none of these
things will make me wise and as for knowledge? I have plenty of knowledge,
but frankly most of it won’t do me a bit of good… I have the knowledge that
the earth is 93 million miles from the sun… that and a couple of bucks will buy
me a coffee…

so why are you studying philosophy? is it to gain knowledge about how
certain philosophers felt about love? or what they might have thought about
the meaning of life? or perhaps what they might think about god?

that is the search for knowledge…

what are you doing to search for wisdom?

Kropotkin

3246

let us take this example… what is the point of seeking ART?

is it to gain the experience… for example, a few years ago, I was
in Paris and I was able to see the Mona Lisa… very small picture, by the way,

so I can say, I saw the Mona Lisa… and now what?

what did I gain by actually seeing the Mona Lisa in person?

Just another item off the bucket list?

Like saying, I skydived a few years ago… as a another bucket item list…

just to gain some experiences that I can later brag about… I was in Paris…

but did I gain anything outside of bragging rights when I saw Paris?

did I learn something while I was there?

did I gain any “wisdom”?

what is the point of going to Paris if I don’t gain any wisdom?

what is your experience versus your wisdom?

Kropotkin

3247

so let us continue to explore this…

Is the idea of BLM… is that wisdom or, or is that knowledge?

Black lives matter and they do, but is that knowledge or is that
wisdom gained from experience?

Now for me, I don’t separate out black lives from other lives…

all lives matter to me… but that begs the question,
why is it that all life matter?

because I have gained the experience to know that life, all life
is something of value…

but we haven’t grown enough in experience, to know that we human beings,
we are part of life… that all life has the same value as human life…

it is the growth of human beings to go from animal to animal/human and then
if we gain in wisdom, we will go to becoming human, fully human…

and in that growth, we have gone from being concerned with only our
tribe/family to the larger tribe to the city to the city/state to a nation…

with each new understanding we include, include more people…

we now include those that our ancient tribe mentality wouldn’t have
accepted, people who don’t look like us, people who pray to a different god,
people who, by the accidents of birth, have a different color then us
and love different types of people then we do, and people who hope for
different things then we do…

in the beginning, we only valued and respected those who were directly
related to us… today, we can value those who look, pray, feel and love
differently then we do…

that is the progression of the human experience…

from the one, to the few, to many to all…

I see all human life as being equal… regardless of who you are, who
you pray to, who you love and what your accidental traits are…

experience has taught me that we have the same needs, wants
and desires because we are life, because we are human beings…

we all need food, water, shelter, education, health care, warmth,
and love…those are basic human biological necessities…
and every single human has those requirements and that is the first,
the first step to wisdom… the second step is to grant animals the
exact same rights of food, water, shelter, warmth and love as we grant
to human beings… we are equal…

and then we can grant to all life… ALL LIFE the exact same
rights as we grant human beings and animals…

the path of human existence is to include… from the one, me, to
the few, my family, the many… my tribe and my city, to all…
my country and then to the real all, which is all human beings regardless
of their accidental traits of birth…

and then we include all living things… from one to few to many to all…

the path of inclusion is the path to real wisdom… where we see life
as being the same… regardless of what it looks like…

are you searching for knowledge or are you searching for wisdom?

that answer tells you everything you need to know…

for the path of knowledge, anyone can travel this path…

the earth is 93 million miles away from the sun…
the declaration of independence was signed on July 4th, 1776…
the human body deprived of water or food or air… will die…

these are facts, knowledge which anyone can read about or know…

but what is wisdom?

wisdom is knowing from experience and good judgement, that all life,
all life is equal…and deserves as it right, food, water, shelter,
warmth, education and love…

that is the basic right of all existence…

no matter what your existence looks like, no matter what it might feel like,
you, as life, deserves food, water, shelter, warmth, education and love…

and that there is no exclusion to this matter of wisdom…

all life has value…

so, what is your wisdom?

Kropotkin

3248

let us think about what “truths” we hold to be “self-evident”…

that the “black man is inferior” to the white man…

that “the Jews control the world”

that “women should be the property of men”…

that there are people out there who believe these things is true…

is it from experience or from knowledge that they learn these
“truths”?

neither… they learn these things from their indoctrinations from childhood…

they haven’t the wisdom to understand the growth of the human experience…

from one to a few to many to all…

how do we get from such nonsense as “black men are inferior to white men”
to the wisdom that all men are created equal?

we gain wisdom from experience and from the use of good judgement…

it is good judgment that “all men are created equal”…

but Kropotkin, isn’t that bias and superstition?

no, because all human beings, all human beings have the same needs,
desires, wants and urges…

we have the exact same need for food, water, shelter, education, health care
and these needs are what make us equal… it isn’t about talent or alleged
superiority of one group or another that makes us unequal… it is about
having needs and wants that are equal…that makes us equal…

I might be smarter then you, but that doesn’t make me superior to you…

and you might have math skills that I don’t have but that doesn’t make you
superior to me…

it is in our needs and wants and desires that make us equal…

we see alleged superiority in matters that doesn’t give us superiority…

for example, many see wealth as making one superior to another…

but wealth isn’t what makes one superior to another…

for wealth can be gained by any number of ways… none of which implies
superiority… I might become wealthy from winning the lottery…
does that imply superiority? I don’t see how…

I might be white and you might be black… I don’t see how this
accidental trait of birth might make you or me, superior or inferior…

but I can see how we both need food and water and shelter and warmth
and love and health care and education… I can see how that makes us
equal…not superior or inferior, but equal…

“all human beings are created equal”…

I hold this truth to be self-evident because we
have the same needs and desires and urges and wants
as every other person has…

we are equal…

Kropotkin

3249

so, how do we find meaning, purpose of life chasing
the knowledge found in Kant’s theory of the Analytic-synthetic
judgement?

like how do we find wisdom in the knowledge that
the earth is 93 million miles from the Sun?

if we are really philosophers, then we should be engaged
with the pursuit of wisdom and not the pursuit of knowledge?

when I ask, what is the meaning, purpose of life? am I asking
about knowledge or am I asking about wisdom?

am I a philosopher, a lover of wisdom,
or am I a philosopher, a lover of knowledge?

by tying my shoes, I show knowledge…
by putting on my pants, I show knowledge…
by turning on the TV set, I show knowledge…

but have I shown any wisdom?

among the philosophers, who has shown us how to live a life
worth living?

most philosophers have been men who have lied and cheat
and one pushed a women down a flight of stairs injuring her…

Which modern philosopher has been a pillar of the community?
you mean outside of Spinoza? None…

philosophers have all kinds of information about the knowledge of
other philosophers, but do philosophers have the wisdom enough
for us to be able to follow their lives? In other words, do they live
lives that we should emulate?

No, for the most part, no…outside of Spinoza… most philosophers
were just men who didn’t take their philosophy out into the real world…
it was all theoretical, not practical…

even Nietzsche didn’t live his philosophy out in the real world…

so, if we were to find the meaning/purpose of life, could we actually
practice it out in the real world? or is it just more theoretical writings?

what is the point of chasing wisdom if we don’t practice it out in
the real world? I can see the use of knowledge, for with knowledge
we can build bigger and better bombs for us to use on others… but do
we have the wisdom not to? what is the practical application of
our actions in the world? and why don’t we use wisdom to
see the practical applications of our actions in the world?

we always seem to use standards of, was it successful?
or was it effective? but what about the standard of,
what actions should we take, regardless of how effective they
were or how successful they were? just because we can do something,
doesn’t mean we should do something… I hope we have the wisdom
to see that one day…

Kropotkin

3250

on a reading note, I finished “Beyond Good and evil” yesterday
and I am going to start Nietzsche’s “on the Genealogy of Morals”
today…I am in the home stretch of reading all of Nietzsche’s work…

so let us understand the concept of meaning and purpose in terms
of what they actually mean and the idea of “one size fits all”…

we have various religions that hold to certain idea’s…

we have the Buddhist for example who believe that life is suffering
and we must end the cycle of suffering by the process of becoming
enlightened…

Life for a Buddhist is one of ever ongoing cycles of birth, suffering and death…

how do we end this cycle of rebirth and suffering?

the problem with the Buddhist ideology is this notion of life being
one of suffering…I don’t see life as being full of suffering…

I see the “suffering” of our becoming, becoming old, having disease
and finally dying as being part of the gig of being human…

suffering sucks, but it isn’t the decisive driver of life the Buddhists make
it out to be…

I see suffering as being just another aspect of life, like the stages of life
that all of us go through, puberty, menopause, growing older and finally the
last stage of our life which is death…

is death suffering? no, death is just another step along the way…
if you are born, you are going to die and we should be ok with that…

but we are not because we have such religions as the Christian religion which
offers us a bribe to believe, if you believe, you shall live forever…

as if living forever is some sort of paradise, no… I would rather die
a thousand deaths before I could live forever…

but religions “one size fits all” mentality won’t allow any other choice
beside the choice of the Christian nightmare of living forever…

and see the difference between the Buddhist thinking about
living forever and the Christian thinking about eternity…

life is something to escape from the Buddhist thinking, and in the
Christian thinking the goal is to live forever in heaven…

two different religions, two different approaches to life…
and who is right?

the “one size fits all” mentality of religions is a major problem for
religions… life isn’t something we try to escape from…

it is what we make of it… for some, some, life is beauty and love
and peace and all the other positive aspects of life…

and for some, some, life is anger and hate and ugliness and roughness…
the negative aspects of life… but once again, we see two distinct
different aspects or possibilities of life…

is life full of beauty and love and peace? yes and is life full of anger
and hatred and ugliness? yes…

but which possibility am I going to work for?

I have made my answer clear…

so, in a “one size fits all” understanding of the universe…
we can see the differences between beliefs and we can see
how one belief can lead one toward beauty and love and peace
another belief leads toward hate, anger and ugliness…

but a “one size all fitting universe” doesn’t allow for choice
and possibilities…

we have but one choice in a “one size fits all” universe and what if that
choice isn’t your choice?

I don’t believe in a heaven where we stand around and wonder at the
magnificence of god… forever… what a nightmare…

a “one size fits all” heaven certainly doesn’t work for me, but
what other choice am I giving by Christianity?

so, I am not a Christian because we have but one choice in
our death… believe or face eternity in hell… that is not
a choice in my mind…

and for the Buddhist’s, I don’t think living our lives is suffering…
because we do have such things as beauty and love and peace
and hope to keep us company while we live out our lives…

a “one size fits all life” isn’t worth holding to because it negates
our possibilities as human beings… we are simple put,
beings full of possibilities and the point of life is to explore
and seek out those possibilities…a “one size fits all” universe
misses the many possibilities that await a human being if we only
looked…

work, that is not about making money to put food on the table…

no, work is to explore our possibilities… to see what we are capable of…

this idea that work, working all our lives is an “one size fits all” endeavor
to simply put food on our table… misses the point about seeking
and finding our possibilities…

to find my possibilities isn’t predicated upon me working my whole life…

work simply exists to help me find and explore my possibilities…

a “one size fits all” understanding of the world, misses the enormous
possibilities that exists for us as human beings…

“what am I to do” as a Kantian proposition isn’t about what job should I hold, but
“what am I to do” is about seeking the possibilities that exists within me and
discovering those possibilities within some actions such as work or perhaps
continue to seek our possibilities outside of the business environment…

to say, life is about going to heaven and contemplating the wonders of god
for eternity is to entirely miss the vastness of the human possibilities that exists…

the point of existence isn’t, isn’t about living life via “one size fits all” mentality
of understanding…

the point of existence is to seek and explore the possibilities of human existence…

what is possible for me as a human being?

I can be a musician or a leader or a researcher or a teacher or
a worker or philosopher or a… the point of existence
is to seek out what is possible for us…

“what am I to do”? isn’t about me becoming a worker or a producer,
but about what it means to be human in seeking out our possibilities
that exists as human beings…

the meaning and purpose of the universe isn’t to find a job for which we
work at for 40 years… no, the point of existence is to find a job that
helps us explore what it means to be human, for us…

the kind of human being’s we are is far more important then finding
out what sort of job we might have…

part of the human exploration of the possibilities is to explore
our true nature of being human…

if I were to explore the beauty of the universe, that would be
of greater value to both me and the human race, and far more valuable
then any addition to the GDP that I might contribute to…

we are so limited in vision and scope of what is possible that we forget that
the point of existence isn’t to contribute to the GDP, and in fact contributing
to the GDP might lead human beings to avoid seeking the possibilities
that exists for all, all human beings…

our one track mind in believing in “one size fits all” is part, part of the
problem we face in our “modern” times…if we expand our vision to
exclude the “one size fits all” understanding of what it means to be human
and to understand what is the meaning and purpose of human existence is really
an engagement with the true understanding of what it means to be human…

which is to seek out and explore our possibilities as human beings…

as human beings, are we about love and peace and anger and hate
and charity and hope and all those other values which we human beings
have inside of us? yes, we are all of these and more… but we cannot know
what our possibilities are until we seek them out, until we explore all, ALL,
our possible values as human beings…

the possibilities of values includes such values as adventure and authenticity
and balance and compassion and community and curiosity and fairness
and justice and faith and fun and kindness and learning and poise and respect
and trustworthiness and wisdom, to name a few values which we should
be seeking and exploring instead of wasting our lives boosting the
GDP…

it is those values listed above that give our lives meaning, not work,
not putting our nose to the grindstone, not slaving away for 40 years to
end up with nothing of value in our lives…

“what am I to do?” is about seeking the possibilities of existence that is the
the point, the real point, of existence for me…our existence isn’t about
this false and phony idea of “one size fits all” but our existence is about
discovering the values that give my life its point, meaning,
purpose…

Kropotkin

3251

as an "thought experiment, let us think about our existence
not, not having any type of meaning or purpose…

what if, life as we understand it, does not have any sort of meaning
or purpose or goal?

what exactly does that mean to us?

well, for one thing, it removes the fixed notion that
“one size fits all”…we cannot just assume that existence
has a point or any type of meaning…and that Meaning/purpose
whatever that might be, can be attributed to the “one size fits all”
mentality of existence… that the point of existence is to seek
salvation in which then we are in heaven for eternity, for the
sole purpose of spending eternity with the idea of our
worshiping god forever…we cannot assume this notion to be true…

so what happens if there is no point, meaning or purpose or goal to
our existence?

that there is no fixed “one size fits all” in our existence…

now what?

we must accept that possibility… and what does that possibility
mean to us?

what does it mean to me that my existence has no point or meaning
or purpose or goal?

the first question becomes, then does life become meaningless?

look at animals, they don’t seem to have a purpose or meaning to them…

look at lions or bears or chickens… what is their meaning or purpose?

I can’t really say except what purpose or meaning they have in relation
to us, to me as a human being…

I love to eat chicken, does that mean that the meaning/purpose of
chickens to to be eaten by human beings?

and what about lions… we don’t eat lions, but they have, on occasion
eaten human beings… does that mean we are, the point or the reason of existence
for lions? the point or purpose of human beings, is to exists as lions food? is to be
eaten, really the point of, the purpose of existence for human beings?

I don’t think so…

so, what is the point, the meaning of existence for human beings?

do we really need the “one size fits all” mentality to to achieve some
understanding of what it means to have meaning or purpose?

what is my meaning or purpose?

I couldn’t tell you…and that is a problem for me

I don’t know what is the point of or the meaning of my existence…

I don’t seem to have any purpose in life…

so what does this mean to me?

do you have any meaning or purpose in life?

and why would you think so?

and what does it have to do with our “one size fits all” mentality of
existence?

you exist… you are alive… breathing and living life…

do you have to have a meaning or purpose to exist?

and why? why must existence have a point, a reason to be…
why must we have some meaning or purpose in our existence?

How does having some meaning or purpose in your life, help
you in your life?

what is the point of having meaning or purpose in our lives?

Kropotkin

3252

so, why do most people, actually all people assume that their life
has some meaning or purpose?

it is assumed by people that their life has some meaning or purpose…

but why? I would suggest that it is because most people don’t actually
examine their lives…they take their lives for granted and they take
their supposed purpose in life for granted…

they don’t even think about what their meaning or purpose is…

they just guess they have one…

so, take away your assumptions… don’t just assume your life
has meaning or purpose…

think about what your meaning or purpose or your goal is?

so, what is it?

Kropotkin

3253

As far as i know, the meaning of life is work.
Work making copies of self, turning earth into body, body into mind, mind into spirit.

When we reach a higher intelligence, we can contemplate yes and no, right and wrong, etc.
But before that, all of it is made possible by work and the eco system.

3254

K: I don’t know if work is the right answer… it does take time to make the journey
that we take but I am not sure your examples of “Work making copies of self, turning
earth into body, body into mind, mind into spirit” is the process we human go
through…in other words, is life about turning “earth into body” really correct,
or is turning “body into mind” or “mind into spirit” because you have to
explain what this means…how does one turn “body into mind” or how does
one turn “mind into spirit”

your answer leaves me with more questions then answers…

Kropotkin

3255

Part of the “modern” crisis is the fact we don’t examine or
we fail to look deep into ourselves… we “moderns”,
we look at life as if life were just an inch or two deep, like
water that is very shallow vs water that is really deep, like
an ocean… we don’t seek very deep into anything…
if it is deeper then an inch or two, we declare victory
and move on…

the mystery of who we are as human beings is deep and being “modern”
we simply pretend it is shallow and easily understood…
and thus we ignore it… as we ignore any question of existence
that might make us question our very assumptions…

to be a “modern” human being requires us to make assumptions
and then never look deeply at those assumptions…to assume is
the “modern” condition…we think we have answers, but hell,
we don’t even understand the questions or we misinterpret the
questions to get really wrong answers…

and the most “modern” thing we do is hold to our ego and vanities…

we think because we are the most recent, we hold all the cards…

no one digs deep into what it means to be human or what it means to
really ask, “what am I to do?”… the answer is just assumed and never
challenged…in fact, another definition of being modern is

“never challenge the answers we have right now”

we have plenty of knowledge, 1 + 1 = 2 and the E=Mc2…
and how the sun keeps on chugging along…we have more knowledge
then we know what to do with…we have plenty of ego and vanity to
go around… the "modern’ need for self-admiration knows no bound…
and is found in our social media…but in our pretentiousness and
self-importance, we have forgotten that wisdom is far more important
then knowledge…and we have no wisdom… for to have wisdom is
to have the opposite of the Modern curse, which is our conceited, self worship,
selfishness of the modern age… the modern man is the one who say,
“I have mine, fuck you”… and doesn’t feel any self conscience about saying that…

Modern man has forgotten that our wonderful GDP has been built upon
generations of human beings…they worked and we benefit… and that means
that we must work for the next generations… as other past generations worked
for us…

and in our egoism, we have failed to see that…

it is all about us and our greatness… we are the pinnacle of civilization…
and we truly believe that… a little modesty and some humility wouldn’t
hurt us…for our entire civilization has been built by our ancestors and we
don’t even see that…

the “modern” crisis is where we can’t see our true role in this story of
life, of the evolution of who we are…and who we should become…

for life is not a set notion, no, it is a process and we have failed to see
the process of life…the process of being human… where we
we see the process of existence as being suffering and pain…

it is a process… we need to accept and welcome the very process that has
made us human…and then move beyond, to the next step of the process
of us going from animal to animal/human to becoming/the process of becoming
human, fully human…

the question of philosophy is the answer of understanding the process of
how we became human… what does it mean to be human?

and how do we make the next step in that process of becoming fully human,
not just animal/human?

our “Modern” world avoids questions like this because it is too much work,
and it is easier to pretend we are already at the end of the process of being
human and we are not…

“what am I to do?” “what am I to believe in?” “what should I hope for?”

seeking these questions instead of seeking how do I become rich or how
do I become famous or how do I gain titles?

the “modern” viewpoint is very shallow and superficial… how do we
deepen the way we see existence? how do we get to a world that doesn’t take
everything for granted? a world where we must actually work for our answers,
instead of taking our current prejudices and ism’s and biases as the “right” answers…

Kropotkin

3256

the real question of our “modern” times is the
question of values… what values are we going to hold?

both individually and collectively…

one might hear, “I am a Christian” and what exactly does that mean?

or one might be accused of being a “socialist” and what exactly does
that mean?

many have accused me of being an “anarchist” or more often a “communist”
and or a “socialist” and yet, few who make such accusations really know what
it means to be an “anarchist” or a “socialist” or a “communist”…

they heard that being called a “socialist” is a bad thing and if someone
says its a bad thing, then that must be true, so in my laziness, I will
simple call someone an “socialist” even though I have no idea what that means…
and that is how the “Modern” method of accusations goes…

Call someone something even though I personally have no idea what it means
and I can dismiss someone who actually knows by calling it “fake news”…

so once again, what are the “modern” values?

no one knows because no one understand what values are…

“I am a Christian” and what values should a “Christian” hold to?

one should hold to values that are in the bible and values that
god and Jesus proclaimed to be true…but the modern “Christian”
has no need of the values proclaimed by god or by Jesus…

for example, the story of Jesus is very clear about how we are
supposed to treat strangers in our land…recall the story of the birth of
Jesus… he was born in a manger, which is basically a room for animals…

and we should treat people better then having them reside in a manger…

and the story/parable of the good Samaritan… in which we should treat people
with kindness… but today’s Christian holds to the values of anger, hatred of
others, lust, greed and yet they still call themselves “Christian” even after
such displays that eliminate them from being “Christian”… the “Christian”
values are love and care for your fellow human being… and yet, the
“Christian” supports the concentration camps we have for children…
and the “Christian” supports violence and hatred and greed toward
any who isn’t them…

I hold to the values of the democratic party and to these values
I engage with… tolerance for people, ending bigotry, creating
a level playing field for people to allow them to achieve the
“American dream”… to hold people to be equal and to
choose justice and equality as the values of our political life…

“I am a liberal” and I hold to the values that liberals partake in…

I am consistent with those values… in other words, my words and my
actions are compatible and logical… when one says, “I am a Christian”
the words and actions and values must be consistent or they are
engaged in hypocrisy… and we see a whole lot of hypocrisy in
“Modern” day America…

and why? why is the crime of America hypocrisy? because we have
failed in an understanding of what it means to be an American or
what it actually means to be “Christian” or we fail to see
how our words and our actions fail to match because we
are afraid of looking any deeper then an inch or two into our lives…

to me, I would rather people engage in terrible and dangerous
actions instead of holding to the hypocrisy between their
words and their actions… which is equally dangerous if not
more dangerous because hypocrisy allows us to feel good about
taking actions that harm others… when we should feel bad or guilty
about our hypocrisy… but that is the “modern” way when we don’t
even notice our hypocrisy in our day to day life…

the hypocrisy of the “modern” age cannot be denied… the Nazi’s practiced
it and the Russians practiced it when they proclaimed the Soviet Union to
be a 'worker" state…as America is practicing it hypocrisy when it claims
to be “Christian” and fails to fulfill even the basic notions of Christianity…

what values are we to hold? let us drop the hypocrisy of America
being a “Christian” nation when we practice values that are
antithetical to the values listed in the Bible…

let us practice our values… let us end the hypocrisy of the “Modern”
world… but what values should we hold to Kropotkin?

Indeed, what values should we hold to?

that is the question of our “Modern” age…

let us walk away from our “modern” age and begin to
engage with both our words and our actions as being
compatible and in synch… let us walk away from
our “modern” hypocrisy and match our words and
our actions…and to do that requires us to look at
ourselves, a long and hard look at what it means to be
an American and what it means to be a human being…

to accept the Modern age means to accept being
a hypocrite and I refuse to do that…and what about you?

are you going to accept being a hypocrite or are you going
to explore, look deep into yourself and see what you really believe
in and what values you really hold…

Kropotkin

3257

I have often stated that we human beings are on a process,
a journey from animal to animal/human to becoming fully human…

but what does this actually mean?

well, we haven’t changed physically for several hundred thousand years…

so the journey from animal to human isn’t a physical change…

it is mental, emotional, psychological changes that allowed us to
travel down the road from animal to animal/human…

let us look at cows, what are the inherent possibilities for a cow?

see one cow, you pretty much have seen them all…what do cows do?

well, they do cow things like eat, make baby cows, do all the bodily functions
of cows… and they can wind up on your kitchen table in one fashion or another…

that pretty much lists all the possibilities for cows…there just isn’t a whole lot
we can discover new about cows at this point…and the same could be said
for just about any animal… dogs, goats, cats, elephants, marmots…
the list of possibilities for each of the listed above animals is limited…

each animal has their tools, be it claws or horns or speed or strength…
all animals have some sort of tools which allowed them to survive…
to prosper…

and yet, look at man… what sort of survival tools do we have?

we aren’t fast, we don’t have sharp claws, we aren’t that strong,
physically human beings don’t have much in the way of survival…

physically, we just don’t have the tools of other animals to survive…

so, how did human beings become the top of the food chain if it wasn’t
a physical tool?

it is this very lack of a physical tool that allowed us to survive…
we aren’t fixed in our use of a physical tool…in other words, if we
were fast like a cheetah, then our tool of survival would be our speed…
we would be dependent upon our speed to allow us to survive and we
would have no need of seeking or creating another tool to let us survive…
as an animal, we would be at a dead end, be unable to grow anymore because
we have an excellent tool of survival that allowed us to focus on that
survival tool and not look at any other tools we might need…
every aspect of our survival, our very instincts, would be about
using our speed to get away and survive…

but we humans, we don’t have any great speed, we can’t depend upon our
speed to survive in the wild…

so, what tools did we use to survive a million years in the wilderness?

well, certainly not any physical tools, so it must have been our mental,
psychological, emotional tools which allowed us to survive…

the very tools that allowed us to survive, are the same tools that allowed
us to go from animal to animal/human…because it isn’t physical tools
that allowed us to go from animal/human… it was the emotional,
psychological and the mental tools we have, that allowed us to
grow from animal to become animal/human…

it was internal growth of us that allowed us to grow or become animal/human…

we don’t have a fixed tool in which we can turn to, to save us from harm…

and over the million years of becoming, of going from animal to animal/human,
we have refined and cultivated the tools that have allowed us to become who we are…

and depending on the situation, we can use different tools of salvation that
allows us to navigate any given situation… for example, we have our rationality,
that is a tool we use… we also have our emotional tools… for example,
we have such emotional tools like self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation,
empathy and our social skills that allow us to exists in our evolutionary state
of community with others…recall, human beings are social creatures…
we cannot survive on our own… we must engage with other people to survive…

and that takes social skills…human beings we call men, have a different set
of social skills then women do…this is purely a survival skill… if both men and
women had the same social skills, then we might develop blind spots that might
prevent us from seeing danger…everything we are or that we do, comes
from the long million years of survival in the African wilderness…

so human existence comes down to the question of what skills do we have
that allow us to survive? one of the greatest skills human beings have
is our ability to adapt to ever changing situations…we can adapt to the changing
environment in all kinds of weather conditions, from the extreme cold of the Artic
to the heat of the desert to the jungles of south America to the plains of America…

it is an adaptability that few animals have… and this adaptability isn’t
just a physical trait, it is an emotional, psychological and mental trait…

the key to human survival comes from the fact that we don’t have
any specialize tools or skills to survive… we don’t have speed or
claws or great strength to protect us, so we use our general, overall
skills to advance and protect us…

it is our lack of specialization that allowed us to survive…

the growth we have made from being animal to animal/human has been
because we aren’t not specialized animals… it is in our emotional,
psychological, mental general skills that has allowed us to grow from
being animal to animal/human and this lack of specialized skills
and our emotional, psychological and mental skills that will enable us
to grow from animal/human to fully human…

or to say it another way, the way we will grow into being human doesn’t lie in
our physical abilities but in our emotional, psychological and mental skills…

and that is why it is important to understand our questions of existence…
because it is by those questions and the answers we find, that will
allow us to become human, fully human…

“who am I?” “what am I to do?” “what should we believe in?” “what values
should we hold?” “what should we spend our energy on?”

those are the questions that will lead us to understanding what it takes
to become human, not just animal/human…

the process of becoming is a emotional, psychological, mental process…

that is why some beliefs that we have are so important…
which is why I hold that the tale of Daedalus and Icarus is the
most important tale we have… sometimes, sometimes we should
travel in the middle because that is where it is the safest…

but sometimes, sometimes we must throw all caution into the wind
and try to fly to the sun… reach for the stars even though there is no chance
of success… we must try…for to reach becoming something more, we have
to reach beyond ourselves and reach for something that might be impossible to
reach… we cannot be animals and not even try because we might be afraid or scared…

it is within that willingness to gamble everything on a toss of the dice is
what made us human beings… to play it safe, that is being animal,
to dare more is to be animal/human and to be out on the limb,
that is human, fully human…

the greatness of human beings isn’t found in the safe behavior
of the crowd but in the reaching for the impossible…

look at the “great” human beings and they are great not because they
sat at home and play it safe… no, they dare to reach for the impossible…
and that is what made them great… it wasn’t a physical attempt that
made them great but they achieved greatness because they challenged
the status quo and they reached for the stars…and that is a mental,
psychological and emotional answer, not physical answer to the question,
how do we become human?

reach up if you want to grow as a human being…

if you want to be an animal… that is very simple, just stay
at home and risk nothing, challenge nothing, dare nothing…
and animal, you shall remain…

the possibilities of being human requires us to challenge and to risk…

do you have what it takes to challenge and risk your faith, your beliefs,
your indoctrinations?

the search for becoming lies within us, not outside of us…

Kropotkin

3258

so Kropotkin, you say sometimes we have to risk, challenge
and other times, we must seek the middle, the average…
so how do we know when to risk it all and when to
play it safe?

that is why we must pursue wisdom instead of knowledge…

think about those who we considered to be wise?

usually, usually, we consider those who are older to be wiser…
think of the sages of Greece, each of them was older…
it is hard in fact to consider a young person to be wise…
and why?

because part of wisdom is the experience one gets from life…
and one simply cannot gain any experience while being young…
think about the fact that in the U.S constitution that the youngest
age a person can be elected president is 35…

it isn’t about the knowledge one may or may not know, because anyone
even a 5 year old can have knowledge… no, the age 35 is chosen
because the founding fathers knew that wisdom comes with
age/experience…

if you hear the word “experience” that really mean age and the amount
of experiences we have, grow as we grow older…

it is from experience that I have learned when to leap and from experience
that I have learned to hold back…

why does it seem that older people seem to be more cautious then younger
people? the answer is experience… we grow more cautious as we age because
we have leapt into situations and we have been burned…we have the experience
to see and understand what happens when you leap without thinking about it…

the young will leap because because they don’t see all the consequences
of a ill times leap into a situation… whereas we old folks, we can see
what will happen during an ill timed leap…

when one has earned enough scars, both physically and emotionally,
you learn to be cautious…

and that is why we old folks sometimes leap even though all our
cells are screaming against it… we sometimes, just have to
go for it…you cannot achieve greatness without risk…
it is as simple as that…

old people become risk adverse and in doing so, we hinder the
cause of becoming…

in becoming… one must take risks…

so, what have you risk in your becoming?

are you aiming for greatness or becoming a ubermensch?

if so, then you must also risk something as great…

there is no such thing as a reward without risk…
the greater reward, the greater the risk…

what are you willing to risk to reach greatness?

Kropotkin

3259

and what about our other obligations of the state
and marriage and family, the church?

can we risk everything, can we leap when we have obligations
and responsibilities to others?

we can be good citizens and good consumers and good
workers and good producers and still be able to
think about our leap into becoming…

our leap into being human, not just animal/human doesn’t involve
in us challenging the status quo, although it can, no, the leap doesn’t
have to challenge what we might call “good” or “evil” or even
our place within society…

we become when we begin the process of going from animal/human to
human… which really means we have begun the process of finding out
our possibilities…

in seeking out my possibilities of being human, doesn’t mean I
violate or disagree with the status quo… although, it might at that…
in seeking what is possible for me, doesn’t necessarily mean I am
at odds with the state or society…although it might…

it depends upon my attempt to find out my possibilities for me…

personally I am seeking what is possible for me as a philosopher…

as what is possible for me as an athlete is slim to none because
of my age and my back… so I seek what I can within the possibilities
that I have and seeking what is possible for me as an thinker, as an
philosopher, as a human being is still very possible…

I have no possibilities as an athlete to achieve greatness…

but I can achieve greatness as an philosopher…

and I hold that I am the greatest native born philosopher, America
has ever seen…and I believe history will bare this out…

I hold that we are afraid of trying to achieve greatness…
so, we hide behind our fears, our responsibilities, our current
situation in life…we have become risk adverse, as a nation
and individually…

so, who dares at greatness?

you must dare to leap into the great unknown and risk everything…

Kropotkin

3260

ok, let us think about this question of meaning and purpose of
existence…

let us “assume” that existence has no meaning, no purpose…
we exists and that is it…there is nothing more then that…

now what?

if existence is meaningless and purposeless, then we need to fill
the void and we can do this…

we fill that void of a meaningless universe by our engagement with
our possibilities… what is possible for me? and in answering that,
I create meaning and purpose…

I cannot be a great athlete anymore, not that I was in the first place…
but I can achieve my possibilities, my greatness in seeking what can I be…

can I be a great novelist? perhaps, that is a possibility for me, I am a published
author…can I achieve greatness as a politician, yes, that possibility does exists for me
can I achieve greatness as a mathematician? doubtful, as I can barely add, subtract,
multiply or divide… math isn’t my strong suit, so it isn’t really a possibility for me…

so, if I know and understand my strengths and my possibilities, I can
pursue that which is truly possible for me…I can be a great writer,
I can be a great novelist, I can be a great philosopher… these are all
possibilities for me…

our possibilities must work with our strengths…

this is where talents and genius works… if we are talented in many
different area’s, we can seek our possibilities in many different area’s…
we can achieve greatness in many different area’s of possibilities…

think of those of genius and polymaths, they have possibilities
in a great many area’s and quite often they achieve greatness in
a great many area’s of endeavor… Goethe was a great poet,
a great writer, a playwright, a novelist, a scientist and a very good
government servant…Da Vinci was a great painter and a scientist
and he created a great many inventions and he engaged in engineering,
and sculpting, and anatomy… because he was a genius, his possibilities
were far greater then my possibilities… I could never be a great
painter or be great in engineering… and I understand that… knowing our
possibilities means knowing our strengths and weaknesses…

I cannot seek greatness in an area that lies outside of my possibilities…
outside of my abilities… knowing that I cannot be a great mathematician is
part of my knowing what is possible for me…

so I must seek that which lies within my possibilities…
and so being a philosopher does lie within my possibilities…

so, how will you achieve greatness?
what possibility will you seek?
what are you capable of?
and what are your weaknesses?

all of this plays a role in our seeking our possibilities for us…

Kropotkin