so Heidegger book, “Being and time” is about, surprise
being and time… so, Heidegger spends pages and pages
trying to understand what is “being” and then spend
more pages connecting this “being” and “time”…
we are beings who do “travel” through “time”…
but what does this mean?
I hold that most people, 99% of people have no idea about “who they are”
and thus don’t understand this concept of “being”… what does it mean “to be”?
and what is this connection to time that “to be” has?
what is existence and what does it mean to exist?
what is the point, or meaning/purpose of existence?
what shall we do while we are “existing?”…
the questions of existence must be understood before we can really
answer the questions of existence…
“Who am I?” “What am I to do?” “What should I believe in?”
“What values should I hold?” “Into what should I invest my limited
energy into?” “What is the point or meaning of my existence?”
questions like these are what need to be answered before we can
fully understand what is the next step of our continued existence …
so instead of walking into the future with no sense of “who we are”
both individually and collectively, we must have some sort of sense of who we
are before we can step into some future action…
it is not enough to engage in some thinking about “who am I?” if I don’t
also engage in some sort of engagement with my role or place in
the universe or the world…
we have no sense of who we are, either individually or collectively
and that has limited our ability to move forward as individuals or
as a nation or even as a species…
we are fumbling around with outdated and outmoded ism’s and ideologies
like Christainity and Catholoicism and Hinduism and nationalism
and using these outdated ism’s and ideologies as some
means to decide upon our actions, when we no longer fit
into these outdated and outmoded paradigms…
we are using the wrong maps given that we are now in a totally different
place… we have to use a map that allows us to understand what it means
to be human given that we now exists within a world of science, technology,
a world where god is dead, a world in which we can destroy life, all life on
planet earth… the need for a new ism or ideology or a new paradigm of
existence is desperately needed…
we cannot pursue the old paradigms of the pursuit of the baubles of
modern life, the pursuit of wealth, power, fame, titles…
we must seek another vision of existence that understands
what it means to be human given the 21st century
reality of our existence… all our maps are outdated because
they don’t take into account our modern technology, our science,
the various revolutions that has changed the world… … the scientific,
the social, the economic, the political and philosophical world we now live in…
the maps, ism’s and ideologies, of the past, no longer fit into today’s world…
and that is why we suffer, in part, from alienation and disconnection
and the malaise of our day… we lack a road map to lead us to a new
destination that comes from our current reality, or location in our current
time and space…
and of course, the first step is an understanding of where we are
and we lack even this basic step…we don’t see ourselves as lost
or confused about our current location… we have hidden even this basic
fact from ourselves… our current understanding or image of who we are,
is based upon a false and misleading understanding of what it means to be
human…we are not being who pursue wealth or fame or power or titles…
we are beings that must have something deeper and more meaningful
to locate ourselves in this current world…
and we can begin by working out, “who am I?” and “what am I to do?”
and these opening questions can at least begin to work out
the real questions of existence…
Kropotkin