a new understanding of today, time and space.

Peter_Kropotkin · October 24, 2020, 3:36pm

so the path I have laid out is a subjective one…

but Kropotkin, we must have objective, certainty!

and that is what philosophy and science has done, focused
on the objective and what can be certain? recall the centuries long
exploration of knowledge, epistemology from Philosophy? That exploration
was a search for the limits of certainty in the lens of knowledge…we sought
certainty in terms of knowledge…

logic is the search for certainty… “Method” is the search for certainty…

but as I have pointed out, we come from a subjective viewpoint…
we see the world in terms of our subjective internal thinking which
is some sort of mishmash of childhood indoctrinations, biases, superstitions,
habits, or as one here has called it, the mental contraptions of existence…
and those contraptions are not fixed or logically or set in concrete…

my own mental contraptions are based on my study of philosophy,
my childhood, my current socio-economic situation, my accidental
traits of birth… being born in America and being white and being male,
being born in an upper class family… all traits I had nothing to do with…

David Hume once wrote about the inner being we call “ourselves”
he felt that there was no there in there… we are a shifting, mixed,
ever changing of beliefs… Hume felt that there was nothing inside of us
to suggest that there was some center inside of us, that corresponds
to us…there is no center inside of us that we can point to and say, yes,
that is me…if I try to pin down who Kropotkin is, as Hume tried to do,

I don’t find some sort of center that says, here is Kropotkin…
think of it like those candies that have a center in the midst
some other candy… like a hard shell in the midst of soft chocolate…
we think we human beings have a hard shell that is us, in the midst of
our soft and gooey human shell we call the body…

but try to find it… take your time… as Hume pointed, we can only
see that a shifting collection of temporary personalities, but no hard mix
that we can call, ourselves…

so why should we think about the universe as being objective
and fixed, certain? when inside of us, our very being isn’t
objective or fixed or certain? Perhaps that is why we seek that
which we cannot find inside of us, the objective, the fixed soul,
the certainty inside of us…so we seek that which we think,
think might us what is wrong inside of us… we seek the objective
and certainty outside of us to fix what is subjective and not certain
inside of us…

perhaps we are uncertain, alienated, disconnected from ourselves
and thus from our society, the state, the culture because we
seek the wrong thing… we seek something that doesn’t exists,

we seek the certain, the objective, the fixed in the universe
but we don’t find it because it doesn’t exists in the universe either…

so let us seek that which is inside of us, the subjective, the uncertain,
the unfixed and learn to dance instead of becoming concrete and solid…

the name of a book I like is, “all that is solid melts into air”

and that is a good description of our modern existence…
what was once solid, has melted into air…

the life of living in rural, agriculture is full of solid living…

you can see the land and you can physically see, hear, touch, smell,
taste everything that you grow on the land… being in a rural existence
is being connected to the ground and that ground is the basis of being
objective, fixed, certain… but our world today isn’t fixed to the ground
the way it was for 10,000 years for our ancestors… but think about the time
before we become fixed and set on the ground…think about the million
years or so, of the life we human beings lived… hunter-gatherer…

there was no fixed, set existence for human beings… we simply followed
the animals around to make sure we had steady food supply…
there was nothing fixed or set or certain in our lives for over
a million years…

we became human beings while living uncertain, unfixed, unsettled
lives…it has only been in the last 10,000 years that we have lived,
fixed, settled, certain lives…

what are you saying Kropotkin, that we should return to the hunter-gatherer
existence of over a million years just to return to some weird notion
of the past and who we lived?

no, not at all…I am just exploring possibilities and what if’s and what might
have been, to understand what we were and what we are and what we might
become…

what is the very first rule in Philosophy? to know thyself.

all philosophy begins in that very first rule…

and that is what I am trying to do… to know ourselves… by exploring the past
and present…

I am saying it is possible that we are seeking the wrong thing…

we are currently seeking the objective, the set, the fixed in existence…

and that is fine, but that may not be who we are and what we need to
be searching for… we must accept as equally possible, the need within
us to be subjective and uncertain and not fixed…

we need to learn to dance to the music of uncertainty and subjective
and not fixed…

instead of planting roots and becoming tree’s, we might need to learn
to live like birds or clouds… just float with the wind, the breeze…
to dance because it is not certain and not fixed and not set…

and perhaps, perhaps that is why the Romantic era happened just
after the Enlightenment era… the Enlightenment was an era that
suggested the point was to settle down and plant roots into the
ground of objective, fixed beliefs of science and logic and rationality…

and so came along the Romantics who said the exact opposite…

don’t settle down with logic and science and rationality…

learn to dance with the subjective, the uncertain, the not fixed…

and so we have had this battle between the two sides which has
defined the modern age…and who shall win?

we shall win once we have learned to combine both into
unset, unsettle, uncertain mixture…

for we need both to survive…

Kropotkin

Peter_Kropotkin · October 24, 2020, 3:59pm

And what the hell does the “Aesthetic” has to do with what you just
wrote?

to seek the “Aesthetic” is to seek the beauty of the moment, action, ourselves…

it is to seek the uncertain, the unsubstantial, the sublime…

it isn’t solid or certain or objective that is the “Aesthetic”…

so how about this? we can seek the “Aesthetic”, the uncertain,
the formless, the subjective in both us and in the moment, people,
places and events in the world…

and, and we can seek the solid, the certain, the objective in other
aspects of our lives…we can honor both sides of existence by
how we seek that which is in our lives…we see the uncertain
and the formless and we see the certainty and solid in our lives…

at different times, we can seek one or the other…
depending in our life where we are, that will decide which choice
we seek… and recall that choice, to make a choice is an
Aesthetic experience… it is ART…

if we are to live in formless and uncertain times, we tend to seek that
which is solid and certain… but perhaps we should do the opposite in
uncertain times… perhaps we should seek that which is formless
and not solid and that which is uncertain…

be in line with the time by which we seek that which is the times…
so in uncertain and unset times, we seek the same
and in certain and set times, we seek the same…

follow the times by that which we seek…

Kropotkin

Peter_Kropotkin · October 24, 2020, 4:54pm

now to tie in some aspects I have commented upon lately…

the banality of existence is one means that we miss or it hides
what is there…we are so engaged in the banality of existence that
we forget the “higher” levels of existence…

if I am so engaged in the day to day matters of existence, I will forget
the seeking of the reasons for existence or I will miss out on what is
really important… how to overcome nihilism for example…

Nihilism is just a word meaning, the banality of existence…

the stuff I like to call, the kitchen table stuff, is also a way to
miss or not see what is really important in ones life…

we become so involved in the kitchen table stuff, we forget to ask
the questions of existence… “what am I to do?” “what should I believe in?”
“what should I hope for?” “what values should I/we hold?”
or forget to seek the beauty of existence… we forget
to seek the choices that, and choices is what make ART,
we forget to seek our choices in life… we no longer lead/seek
an Aesthetic life, as we should…

we could say that a nihilistic life is an “unauthentic” life…

and it is outside of the “kitchen table stuff” that lies the “authentic”
life… the kitchen table stuff, while very important, also mask or hides
that which makes us “Authentic”…

the "kitchen table stuff, is the part of the banality of existence…

and to escape the “banality of existence”, we must rise above it and
soar to a birds eye view of existence… to see the forest is to rise
above the banality of existence…to become “Authentic” means to
rise above the banality of existence and find out who we really are
and what are our possibilities…

both sides of the equation is important, the kitchen table stuff
and the attempt to escape the banality of existence and to overcome
the nihilism of existence that the “kitchen table stuff” is a part of…

it is a balancing act… to engage in the kitchen table stuff and, and
to engage in the questions of existence… but hay, if you can walk
and chew gum at the same time, you can engage in the kitchen table stuff
and engage in the questions of existence…for they both have
their time and place…

Kropotkin

Peter_Kropotkin · October 26, 2020, 5:01pm

within the “banality of existence” hides some of the basic problems of
existence…for we are all consumed with these “banalities”
of work, of making ends meet, of fighting the daily battles of
existence which hides such questions of our alienation,
of Aesthetics, the questions of existence… “what am I to do” is
force underground given the priority of the “banalities” of life…

does my life have meaning or purpose? who knows, given we are force
to concentrate on the “banalities of existence”…

trying to put food on the table or trying to pay off immense
medical bills are immediate concerns that drive the other concerns
off the table… for example, does the question of what makes us
human get priority over putting food on the table? Nope, putting
food on the table will win 100% of the time given the two choices…

If I am alienated from myself and/or my society, who cares if I am
about to be evicted from my apartment… these basic kitchen table
stuff dominates and overshadows the questions of existence…

the “banality of existence” dominates and overshadows questions of
existence…

and yet, I believe these questions of existence are as important, if not more
important then the questions of the kitchen table stuff…

“who am I” is just as important as “how can I pay that medical bill?”

the focus is just on different aspects of our lives…

and this is in part, why I am against modern capitalism…

it negates some of the basic questions of existence under
the guise of “living our lives” we cannot, cannot properly engage
with the questions of existence, “What can I hope for?” if I am
always thinking about how am I to avoid eviction or how am
I going to pay for little Kim’s collage fund?

part of being “authentic” is in fact our engagement with the questions
of existence…“what can we know?” “what values should we hold?”

those questions are a part of an authentic life and we cannot be
authentic if we are denied or if we cannot face those questions
because of “Kitchen table stuff” which can dominate our lives,
our time, our thinking…

part of people thinking is “How do we get the good life?”
and the problem with that is simply this, how do we
know what is the good life?..

I hold that the point of, the purpose of life, of existence isn’t
the pursuit of the “good life”, the “American dream” as it were…
to seek out wealth, power, fame, material goods, the “good life” isn’t…

it is seeking out what it means to be human that is the point of,
the purpose of existence… remember the first rule of
philosophy as given by Socrates… “to know thyself”
and is the point of existence…not to seek the “American dream”
but to “know thyself”…

seeking knowledge on the way to wisdom… for the final goal,
is to seek wisdom… in which we discover what it means to
be human and what are our possibilities of existence…

so to “uncover” what it means to be human, we must lose
our engagement with our “kitchen table stuff” and
begin to engage with the real questions of existence…

to be really “Authentic” means to no longer seek the
“American dream”… to be “Authentic” means to seek
out what being human means and what is our possibilities are,
just as an example…

Kropotkin

Peter_Kropotkin · October 26, 2020, 5:33pm

at this point I am reading “Prophets of extremity” by
Allen Megill…

one of the points made in the chapter on Heidegger, is that
philosophy no longer connects to what is “important”
because it is, Philosophy, focused on matters that
has no relevance to people outside of philosophical
thought… in other words, only professors care about
the type of shit that modern philosophy deals with…

as philosophy engages in the world in terms of
“forgetting” what is really important… as does the world…
in its focus upon the questions of “banality of existence”
instead of questions of existence in general…

so said another way…what is the “kitchen table stuff” of philosophy?

what should we be engaging with if we are engaged with the “Kitchen
table stuff” of philosophy?

I hold that philosophy lost its value to the “people” because it
no longer focuses on matter that should be “Kitchen table philosophical
stuff”

which is “what am I to do?”, “what is the point of existence?”
“what values should I hold?”

these are the things that philosophy should engage with,
the “kitchen table stuff”…

Does, for example, analytic philosophy deal with such “kitchen table stuff”
as in “what is the point of existence?” or “what is the meaning of life?”
“what am I to do?”

no, and that is the point… philosophy has lost its ability to
engage with what is important to people in their day to day life…

we need to return philosophy to its “root” purpose which is to
be a guide to the way people live out their lives…philosophy
as a tool which allows people to make decisions about what is
the meaning of their lives…and that we should engage with the
“kitchen table stuff” of philosophy and that will return philosophy
to the status of “the queen of the sciences” because it has all
other disciplines as it subject matter…

instead of seeking the “good life” we return to thinking about
what it means to be human and what are our possibilities?

refocus philosophy to become something of a force in people’s life,
instead of some obscure university course that has no meaning outside
of the classroom…

Kropotkin

Peter_Kropotkin · October 26, 2020, 7:53pm

as is well known, that Heidegger was “influenced” by the Nazi’s…
he became “rector” which is head of a university, of Freiburg University in
1933… just as Germany was “eliminating” Jewish influences in public life…
the question of Heidegger involvement in Nazi’s life has been front
and center of every discussion of Heidegger for decades…

so this naturally leaves us with this question of the value of Heidegger
philosophy given his “role” in Nazi Germany…

given how much of Heidegger works deal with the crisis of the 20th century,
we cannot just walk away from this because it is inconvenient for us…

this question of how Heidegger involved himself in Nazism leads us
to this, should Heidegger have, at the very least, privately questioned
the premises of Nazism and at the most, he should have denounced
the very heart of Nazism…

How should we approach this question given our current political climate?

for example, we have people now, just now coming out against Herr Trump,
when they were silent, cricket silent about IQ45 for years… should people like
Mark Cuban or Zuckerberg or Bill Gates have publicly denounced IQ45 years ago?

I say yes, and I believe that cowardice prevented them from speaking out
against the village idiot…

compare the time period of Nazi Germany with its evil and the last
4 years with its evil… putting children into concentration camps is evil,
denying human rights because people aren’t white, or Americans or love
the wrong person…we have seen evil in the last 4 years and people,
"many “good people” have gone out of their way to defend it…

so, what about them? if we are to correctly understand Heidegger with
his failure to criticize the Nazi’s, how should we approach our modern
era with those who should have criticize IQ45 and his acts of evil?

evil is evil is evil regardless if we are the “good people” who approve of it
or if we are demonized for opposing it… “Libtards” for example…

I for one, am willing to take a hit for speaking out against acts of evil, be
it putting children into concentration camps or for legally demonizing
those who hold beliefs that are different from me… or love differently
from me or look differently then me…

this a question of justice… for justice is simply the act of
equality done for all, not just for a few… if we judge others
because of accidental traits such as the color of their skins or
their nationality or their religion, then we are not engaging in justice,
we are not engaging in equality… we are actively engaging in
injustice and inequality… for which there is no defense…

for if we cannot, cannot defend Heidegger for his implied defense
of Nazism, we cannot defend the silent ones who said nothing
over the last 4 years to protect their image or the hold onto their wealth or
power… to attack those like Gate or Zuckerberg for being silent is
no different then to attack Heidegger for his silence during the Nazi years…

Kropotkin

Peter_Kropotkin · October 27, 2020, 9:00pm

it is clear… there can be no debate… America is in crisis…

a simple look at this election shows us how much of a crisis
we are in…

the left and the right are threating to plunge this country into civil war…

and what is the cause?

the problem isn’t what you think it is… the left and right begin at
the exact same place and that is why the country is in crisis…

that exact same place the left and right begin with is in its
wholesale and complete belief in materialism…

the left believe in the materialism of getting people to the base, the bottom
of the Maslow’s pyramid… that basic belief that everyone should be feed, have
water, shelter, clothing, an education and health care is holding to a
materialism view of the universe…that we must give people material goods
for them to survive… the left begins in materialism…

and of course the right beliefs in a slightly different form of materialism…

but materialism nevertheless…to achieve wealth at all costs, that is
the materialism of the right…

the one and only function of existence is to get and hold onto wealth
and materials goods…

the two sides, although in the midst of a death struggle, still hold onto
the same basic fabric of thought… that the answer lies in the procurement
of material goods…

this fallacy of both the left and the right extend into the ism’s
and ideologies of both the left and the right… the fatal flaw of
communism is its devotion, complete and utter devotion to
materialism… communism is the we of capitalism which is I…

communism says we in regards to materialism and capitalism says
I in regards to materialism… that is the only real difference between
the two…

both ism’s begin and end in materialism…

but I say unto you…

“There are more things in heaven and Earth, Horatio, then are dreamt of in
your philosophy”

the philosophy in question here is materialism… and there is more to existence
then just a devotion to acquiring wealth and material goods…

we seek wealth and material goods to live out our lives, to be able
to retire, to pass onto our children… and what if, what if…

existence is something more then just the acquisition of wealth and material goods…

and the fundamental aspect of the modern crisis lies here because we don’t know
what else there is in existence outside of the acquisition of wealth and material goods…

and one avenue of pursuit we human beings have attempted has been to
reach toward the spiritual avenue of human belief…

but in case you haven’t heard, apparently “God is dead”…

and we are his killers… just as Nietzsche said, we have yet to hear
the news that we have blood on our hands… it is only a matter of time though…

so we cannot continue our failed path toward the acquisition of wealth
and material goods nor can we escape into that tired old path of
theology…

and hence, the crisis of modern times…

what other path can we follow that will bring us closer to salvation?

for that is what we are seeking, searching for, salvation…

and what is the point of this salvation? to be save in regards to
having a purpose, a goal, a point in our existence…
we are seeking some meaning in our lives and salvation is finding
that meaning or goal in?

and that is the question isn’t it?

and we reach one such possibility for salvation…

the Aesthetic possibility of existence…reaching and seeking purpose
and meaning in the Aesthetic… ART…

and what is ART? Is it a means of showing us our possibilities in existence…

we read Science Fiction for example… that is about possibilities… I read
the “Foundation series” By Asimov… that is really just showing us what is
possible for us if we can get there…Science Fiction is really just a road map
for us to reach, to become…it lays out possibilities for us to seek…

we can also seek out possibilities in poems and novels and painting
and buildings and sculptures…

that which is possible is possible in ART…

is there “TRUTH” in ART? only as so much as it brings out
and identifies the possibilities inherent in human beings…

I can become whatever I want… or so goes the ad, but that act of
creativity is really what we call ART…

in the song, send in the clowns… there is one line that goes like this…

“I make my entrance again with my usual flair”

the entrance with my usual flair… that is ART, that is the Aesthetic…

we, if done right can be Aesthetic, we can become ART … in our actions, in
our lives, in who we are… if we just understood that life and ART is really
the same thing…

the search for meaning and purpose can be found in discovering the
ART that lies in us and that can be displayed by us in our daily actions…

forget the path of materialism… embrace the path of becoming Aesthetic…
become ART…

Kropotkin

Peter_Kropotkin · October 27, 2020, 11:21pm

ART can be used to explore out possibilities but ART can be of even
more use…

when I look at today, our world, our time… what do I see?

I don’t see the yes of a great GDP and I don’t see the yes of
a growing stock market and I don’t see the yes of the American dream…

ART can be used to explore the possibilities that lie between the yes that
believes itself to be of value… Whereas I don’t see the greatness of those
yeses…and the no’s… I see the homeless man lying on the street…
I see the single mother trying to raise her son, I see millions struggling to
make ends meet…where the average person is two paychecks from being homeless…

but I see something missing from our world…

what is missing is hope and what is missing is people being able to
reach for the stars and if they fail, they are cheered up and send back out
to try again… and we can only reach that if we
succeed in reaching, for everyone, the basic bottom line of
human existence…to feed everyone and to house everyone
and to send everyone to get free health care and free education…

that is the bottom… the bottom line of human existence…and then
we must reach for more… it isn’t enough to just meet the bottom
level of achieving the basic necessities of human existence for
everyone…

much of what I have outlined as reaching for the star to reach our
becoming is out of reach for millions because they are trapped in
just reaching the necessities of existence, food, getting water, shelter…
if you spend all your energy on getting just the basic’s, you don’t have the
energy to reach beyond yourself… you don’t have the energy to overcome
which is not a physical engagement, but an emotional, mental, psychological
engagement…

but who has time for that if you are in a daily, 24 hour struggle to get just
get the necessities…

so how do we reach the next level of engagement?

that is the question of the modern era… how do we allow everyone
the space, time, leisure to reach their next level of overcoming
and becoming who they are… to know thyself takes energy, time
and room enough that one, in our modern age, spends on getting
making ends meet…

it isn’t enough to get just those with leisure and time to make the next step
into growth from animal to animal/human to finally becoming fully human…

we must begin to include everyone into this leap from animal to becoming
fully human…

so, that is what I see… what do you see?

Kropotkin

Peter_Kropotkin · October 28, 2020, 3:49pm

one of the crisis point over the last 200 years has been the
crisis created by Darwin…

the point of Darwin was simple, we are biological creatures… and
we have yet come to an understanding of that basic, fundamental
point… we have yet come to grips with Darwin…

my evidence for this? why look around the world and the way it
functions… at my work, I am treated as a machine, not as a biological
being… I arrive at work and I put on my PPE gear, my gloves and my face shield…
I then clock in… around two hours, I get a break then if I am working more then
6 hours, at some point between 3 and 4.75 hours into work, I must take lunch,
after lunch, I get another break… breaks are only 10 minutes…

at work, we have a “profile” and this “profile” is a list of what we are to do
and what time we are to do it at…so, the profile might list me doing
self- checkout or perhaps I might be in a checkstand…or on very rare occasions,
I might be listed as courtesy clerk… or sometime in one day, I might be listed
to engage with all three possibilities…

so look at how regimented my work is…I am not given an option to pick and
choose…at every step I am told what to do, where to stand, what to focus on…

very machine like… I must play a role in the smooth running of the store
and the way I play that role, as others play it to, is by following the
strict roles I am given… we are treated like machines… not biological
beings…

but given what we know from Darwin, we are biological creatures, not
machines… so what happens if we are, as millions of people are, treated
as being machines…not people, but machines…

at work, they keep track of all kinds of things… for example, I am
measure, timed, compared to other checkers… My drawer is
checked for overages or shortages… and that information is kept tracked
of…how fast I check is kept track of as well as how many people I
engage with…on a busy day, I can ring up up to 250 people…
and every single one of those 250 transactions is timed, measured,
compared to other checkers…we are “encouraged” to have a checker
score of over 100%… that is a number that takes into account my speed,
my accuracy, my “downtime” not ringing and the length of time for every
single transaction…

and on a board in the break room, we can look up our numbers…

and all of it very machine like… we have our quota’s we have to meet…

now at work, I am treated like a machine… but I am not a machine…

I am a biological being who feels and loves and hopes and dreams…

and that means nothing at work… my only function is to
increase the store profits… nothing else matters…

if we continue to treat our workers like machines, then at some point,
the biological nature of us must either be killed or we must engage in
some sort of rebellion against being treated like a machine…

I am human… and work/society treats me as a machine…

we cannot continue to engage in this dual nature… something must
back down… either the human nature, the being human part of us,
or the attempts to turn us into machines…

so which path should we follow?

the path into profits demands that we follow the machine
aspect of America and the path to becoming human, demands
we treat people as human beings, not machines…

so, what path will you follow or engage with?

Kropotkin

Peter_Kropotkin · October 28, 2020, 4:23pm

so let us further understand this concept of
people being treated like machines and
Darwin’s understanding that human being are
biological beings…

so, what happens to people who are treated as machines instead
of human beings?

I hold that is part of the crisis of the modern age…part of…

when profits have more value to companies then the human beings
who created those profits, what happens to the human beings?

I hold that human beings react as biological beings… we learn to
hate our jobs, we learn to rebel against what we see a system making us
machines instead of treating us as human beings…

we react by the usual suspects, drinking and drugs and sometimes,
sometime active engagement against the business world…

in our rebelling against the corporation… people will simply allow
such things as letting others steal from the corporation…
sometimes we engage in minor acts of rebelling against being
treated like machines… small acts like not charging for bags or
not charging full price on merchandise…

the point is that people don’t feel any need to defend or have
any loyalty for the companies that they work for…

it is almost, almost a running battle between the company
and the employee’s… and why?

because companies treat their employee’s as machines
and expendable parts… the employee is simply a means to
profits… they have no value in themselves…

and it is clear that companies have no interest in treating its
employee’s as human beings… for hopes and dreams and love
cannot make a company any profits… so it has no place within
a company… the very thing that makes me human is the very
thing that a business will not accept or tolerate…

and as business are parts within capitalism, we can see that capitalism
has no interest in people as people, with hopes, dreams, desires and needs…
all of which is not important to a business/company…

the search for profits means businesses simply deny human beings
the opportunity to be human…for being human doesn’t increase
or make any profits… Darwin is denied in place of making human
beings, machines…

and the natural human response is to fight back against any attempts
to deny our human nature… and so we fight back against businesses
and against the ism that powers businesses… we attack capitalism…

now one might ask, Kropotkin… isn’t this just a confession of yours?

perhaps, perhaps… but I am not alone in my hatred in being treated
like a machine instead of being treated like a human being…

where I am considered to be expendable to the cause of profits…

where it is unimportant for me to hold human needs like love and hope
and dreams because they don’t make profits

or said another way… how do we fight the nihilism of the modern world
as exemplified by the seeking of profits over human beings?

and that is the question? how do we fight the very nihilistic
nature of our modern society?

how am I to be saved from just being a means to profits?

how do I become human in a world that is not interested in me becoming
human?

Kropotkin

Peter_Kropotkin · October 28, 2020, 4:48pm

in my last post, I spoke of the silent and undeclared
war between the workers and the businesses that employed them…

a war that focuses upon the way business treat employees as
a means to an end… where employee’s have little value outside
of being a creator of profits…

and that is their only value… not as being human beings with hopes,
dreams, values or love… for values do not make or increase the only
goal of business’s which is profits and everything is devoted to making
profits…

so, what is one possible response an worker can make to this attempt
to negate or dehumanize workers?

by ART… Aesthetics… we can redeem our values in our attempts
to create and become something different in our attempts in creation…

I can declare my dreams, my hopes, my love in ART and in living
an Aesthetic life… where I seek beauty and seeking what “TRUTH” that
lies in ART and the Aesthetic…

in the act of creation, I proclaim my human needs, that rise above my
value as a worker… I am no longer a consumer or producer…
I am a human being when I seek ART or the Aesthetic…

so, Kropotkin, should everyone just quit their jobs and sit around
the house and paint? that isn’t such a bad idea…and it would
cause people come closer to their human side…

the goal of existence is the creation of material goods that can be sold
in which someone makes a profit at… no, a thousand times no…

the point of existence lies in the overcoming or going from
animal to animal/human to becoming fully human…

the goal of existence is to find out what it means to be human…
not to put food on the table because that is a lower level function
that is no different then what the animal do…

and I am above animals because I can dream and hope and love
and seek justice… it is these values which makes me human, not
the day to day existence of putting food on the table or making ends meet…

because we think the basic function of being human is to engage in the
lower level of existence, of fulfilling the lower needs of food and water
and shelter and education and health care… no, that is living an
animal existence… to become human I must rise above that and
seek such goals as love, belonging, safety/security and self esteem,
and when those needs are met, I can reach the highest level which
is the level of reaching the self-fulfillment needs… of achieving
one’s possibilities and potential… be like Goethe or Shakespeare and don’t
be like an animal… just seeking the lowest possible level of existence…

reach above the lower level of existence by making your existence about
getting food or water or shelter or education… but seek your higher
possibilities by going beyond such lower levels…

the act of work… the business of being a producer keeps us from
achieving our possibilities… of becoming human…

our seeking is no longer the seeking of the lowest level but
of seeking the higher levels of love, self esteem, of safety
security, of belonging… and then reaching self achievement…

think of becoming human…not just a worker or a consumer…

but think about the act of creation which is the act of becoming
human…

Kropotkin

Peter_Kropotkin · October 28, 2020, 5:08pm

but Kropotkin, you are wrong… here is my “truth”

and so you offer up your interpretation of facts…

and that is all we have… interpretations… not “TRUTHS”
but interpretations of the “TRUTHS”…

Which is based upon the “mental contraptions” of
the accidental traits of birth, of one’s family, of one
accidental place of birth, of one’s accidental birth of being
male or female or of being born white or black…

we see things in terms of age, or income, our nationality,
who we love, of our indoctrinations in childhood…

all these “mental contraptions” have a influence and impacts
upon our strongly held beliefs…

my accidental traits of birth give me a perspective, just
as your accidental traits of birth gives you a perspective…
and that means we engage in a discussion of values or truth’s
within our interpretation of our accidental traits…

there are no “TRUTHS”… just interpretations based upon
our “mental contraptions”

Kropotkin

Peter_Kropotkin · October 28, 2020, 5:20pm

so what is “real?” “What is reality?”…
what is the “first” principle of existence, that was
sought by metaphysicians since Plato?

Nothing is real, or within reality… it is simply an interpretation, which
is one of many interpretations about what is “real” and what isn’t “real”…

the search for “reality” is simply a search for a stronger interpretation of
existence…

everything is an interpretation…even reality…

Kropotkin

Peter_Kropotkin · October 28, 2020, 5:23pm

But Kropotkin, what about science?

yah, what about it?

Kropotkin

Peter_Kropotkin · October 28, 2020, 7:47pm

[quote=“Peter Kropotkin”]
in my last post, I spoke of the silent and undeclared
war between the workers and the businesses that employed them…