a new understanding of today, time and space.

Philosophy Forums Philosophy
701

So this idea of infinite as Jerusalem is also
Platonic… The infinite is out there and untouchable
and only by the grace of god can we reach it…
We can only reach paradise with permission…
Plato’s idea of eternal forms is also this idea of infinite.
Truth is found outside of us…

This helps explain the love of Medieval man for
Plato… For it is the entire way of the medieval times…
Grace and god and redemption is found outside of us
and only available to those who lower themselves to become
worthy of god…Only the debased can become the elected to heaven…
the ideal man never comes from strength, but from weakness,
according to the man of the medieval time period…
the path to the truth is to lower oneself, to humble oneself,
to debase oneself before god… this is the way
of the infinite…the way of Jerusalem…

Kropotkin

702

The question for Augustine is, how does one find permanence
and stability? That is his goal, his search is for permanence
and stability and how did he find it? Like a lot of weak people,
he found it through religion…People never come to Jerusalem through
strength, they find god when they are their weakest and most vulnerable,
at their lowest point in their lives…People at their lowest point are looking
for a life raft or anything to save them from their despair and emptiness.
Jerusalem is found in people’s darkest hour…
I think that Plato found his eternal forms in his darkest hour while
searching for a solution for some despair and emptiness of his…
not from strength but weakness drove Plato to find a solution to
his quest to find permanence and stability…like Augustine…

Kropotkin

703

it is clear that Augustine feels himself a wounded person,
wounded in the soul and he is looking for someone to heal him…
He calls god a healer and his source of permanence and stability…
this idea of god being a healer takes its cue from Socrates who
called a philosopher, a healer…One who heals society…
This idea of philosophers as being healer was big in Socrates day…
Plato talks about it…The philosopher as healer and the patient was
society…Socrates last words were about making sure his friend would
take a chicken to sacrifice to the Greek god of medicine… We have lost
this notion of the philosopher being a healer, a doctor who can heal society
from its illness… Although Nietzsche tried to revive it… It is an idea
that’s day has come…

So how do you heal yourself?

Kropotkin

704

I was watching the Giants play the D-backs in baseball
yesterday and they had one of those players meet the families
of the military episodes and I suddenly had a vision of what would
happen if we no longer had military families. What if we had no military,
in fact, what if we didn’t have military anywhere on earth and all that
money, time, energy was spent on productive matters…
You know like improving people’s life’s…

I realized it could happen if we all just tried to make it
happen but then I realized people would come up with the
usual excuses about why we can’t…

but the truth is we can, not tomorrow but one day if we actually
made it a priority we could end all the military on earth and use
that money, time, effort and energy to improve people’s lives and
use that to go into space and conquer space…
but we stand hostage of our fears, what if the other guy…
and so we are frozen in place by our fears of what the other
guy has militarily and avoid the future…

All those things preventing us from achieving peace, fear
and ego and pride and ambition are not real things, they are
just creations within your own head and they are just as easily
placed into check and that is the real battle…
not letting those emotions like ego and ambition drive
your narrative…
the peace of the future can only be won when we have conquered
our own need for ego and materialism and pride and ambition…
when we have won that battle the peace of the future suddenly
becomes possible and we will have no need for military or military
families or weapons of wars because the real battle, the real war is
fought between our ears, not outside of us…

Kropotkin

705

Ok, let us use our previous post about eliminating the
military in our world and using that to improve people’s lives…

this thinking of the vision of the future without military is
Athens thinking… What would happen if we …
the Jerusalem part would be the fear and ego and ambition
we have which are pure emotions and Jerusalem is emotions…

so in effect we are using Athens to conquer Jerusalem
and make the world a better place…
But Jerusalem always has its say, so where would we
direct the emotions of Jerusalem so it would not destroy us?

We could direct those emotions into arts and creating…
We can only succeed if we learn to direct our emotions,
Jerusalem into activities like art be it painting or acting or
sculpting or some other artistic activity… We must learn
to redirect those destructive emotions like ego and pride
and anger ambition into activity such as art…
we could even redirect those destructive activities
into the ultimate activity which is love…
redirect our emotions which can destroy us into love which
enhances us and improves us…
The path into the future is about taking
our liabilities of today into the productive actions of tomorrow…
turning ego and hate and pride into love. this is the ultimate act
of creation, the ultimate act of art…

Kropotkin

706

Athens is thought and Jerusalem is energy…
You have to unite the two in some fashion.
You have to focus Jerusalem into some
useful and productive actions using its energy.
you have to refocus the energy of Jerusalem into
something we can use, not just to destroy which
is the easiest way to use energy…

How to combine thought and energy, that is the question…

Kropotkin

707

lost future:

For us moderns, we have “lost” the future for
we have no goal to reach, no end game, no race to finish something…
We are lost in time without some goal or end game…
So how does Athens vs Jerusalem mix into this lost future…
Athens has not delivered to us a goal in rational thought that
that has gained assent…
Jerusalem whose value is to create a goal when Athens cannot,
has failed us today because who today even understands what
Jerusalem means today…
we have lost our bearings with the lodestone that governed
the past…
Ism’s and ideologies that spoke to people, spoke to us in the past,
no longer speak to us, no longer means anything to us…
We are left rudderless, without a country to call home because
we cannot go home without a goal to guide us there…

I am old and my future is known
doors will close one by one
until there is but one door
and that door is death…

This land still has many doors before it
we just have to choose one
and the future will become clear

Pick and decide the future…

Kropotkin

708

As I have mentioned, I have been on sport teams like in baseball and
track and Cross-country…and one of the thing about teams is
the collective unification one feels being on a team…
You feel a part of something when you are on a team…
A collective striving toward a goal and even though you
may not like the guy next to you, you knew that he was
important for the team to win and so you keep everything
in scale because you wanted to win… So you didn’t create
any problems with teammates you didn’t like…This bond
between teammates is common. You have this bond within
other aspects of our lives… For example, religion
created this bond within people… Religion is a tie that
binds people together like being teammates on a sporting
team…You get these ties in all kinds of ways…
Religion as I mentioned but also in regards to other
types of “teams” such a country which is the source
of patriotism… a tie that binds people together.
Now this binding effect can also occur in ism’s and
ideologies so we have one sort of tie that binds is
ism’s like capitalism which is an economic system
and democracy which is a political system.
so people within a given economic or political system
can feel this pull of binding people together…
any time you get a group of people tied
together in some aspect, you can get ties that bind…
So we have religions that are ties that bind people together
but what happens when people don’t believe as much as in
the past, for example, it is clear that religion no longer
ties people together as it once did because less and less people
believe in god and heaven and hell and sin…
This lessening of religious belief for example, means
that those ties that bind society are less than before…
We are faced today with the fact that the ties that bind us
together are less than ever before… We are a less unified people
in matters like the political and religious…and we see this every
day in our lives…People try to fight this by insisting on greater
ties between people… If you are not for us, you are against us…
this doesn’t drive people together, this drives people apart…
You cannot force people to have stronger bonds between them,
but you can create conditions where people will have a greater sense
of the ties that bind…
People don’t feel like a part of America because they have
been marginalized…made separate by the actions of
the majority… We don’t want to divide America in this way anymore
because when we do, we separate Americans in ways we are trying to prevent…
to marginalized individuals like blacks and women is to destroy the ties that
bind Americans together…If you want American’s to be proud of their country,
don’t separate them, don’t marginalized them, don’t stick them outside of the
pale… If you want Americans to be proud, then you must included them into
mainstream life. You cannot expect people to be part of something if they are
in some aspect of life being excluded… Inclusion must mean inclusion or
it doesn’t mean anything at all…so you want American’s to be proud of America
then you must include American’s in all aspects of America which means they
must be included in the wealth of America… Income inequality divides
America in basic fundamental ways…You want to unite America… you
must end income inequality because that divides American’s in a basic
fundamental way…this is an example of ties that binds…
income inclusion is one way to unite and tie American’s together…

Kropotkin

709

People have asked why doesn’t Colin Kapernick, the quarterback
for the 49’s lack patriotism for America? When the right question is
why doesn’t he feel like a part of America? He is standing up for those who
are unable to or aren’t noticed when they stand up…
He is standing up for those who have been marginalized.
if you marginalize people, you get people who act in such a
way like Kap…and as we marginalize more and more people,
we will get more and more people losing their ties with America
and we become more and more a country divided…

Kropotkin

710

As I spend my days trying to understand the world,
that attempt becomes a series of questions…
Who am I? What am I? What is my role in the universe?
What is the universe? What does existence mean?
How do we find the truth? What is god?
Why?
sometimes I think journalism has the right idea,
they go with
who, what, when, where, why and how…
Every story must answer each of those questions
Who am I? Kropotkin
What? ummmm, maybe human, maybe existence,
body and soul?
when? 2016? but what does that really mean?
I think from a human standpoint, a better answer is
my age because my when is my years, not the year it is,
so my when is 57…
where? San Mateo county, California, USA, earth?
Why? don’t know, but still looking
and maybe the most interesting question,
How? What would be my how? How am I existing?
how am I living? how is the quality of my life?
but my life quality is dependent on the quality of life around
me… If I live in polluted area, my quality of life decreases,
so to improve my quality of life, I must improve the quality of life
around me…To improve my quality of life, I must make choices
that improve my quality of life which means I must make choices
that improves the quality of life around me, which means I must
improve the quality of life all around me…and as everything is
connected, I must improve the quality of life everywhere I can…
My quality of life improves if the quality of life in Africa or Asia improves,
my quality of life improves if we protect animals around the world and
improve their quality of life…
Pollution in China decreases my quality of life, so I must try
to decrease the amount of pollution China to improve my quality of life.
I have a vested interest in improving the quality of life of everyone,
everywhere because it improves my quality of life…
so this applies to ism’s and ideologies also…
My quality of life is better if politically AND economically
we have equality of people… to allow some to have great
power over us either politically OR economically is to decrease
my quality of life, so it is in my best interest for the my quality of life
to reduce income inequality…As I am part of the great chain of being
and one of billions, it seems to me that what applies to me, also applies
to you. It would improve your quality of life if the people around you,
had a better quality of life… It would improve your quality of life if
there was no income inequality and everyone was equal, both politically
AND economically…You want a better quality of life? improve the
quality of lives for others and of the world around you!

Kropotkin

711

so let look at what we have here…

We have Athens and Jerusalem which are two
different ways to discover the truth about the world we
live in…One way, Athens is about rational, logical way
to discover the truth. Jerusalem is about revelations of
god as to a means to the truth…
We also have questions… Who am I? where am I?
what am I? why am I? how am I? the journalism
questions we use to explain who, what, when, where, why
and how.

So we use Jerusalem to answer our questions…
who am I? I am a child of god and answerable to him…
What am I? I was created in a lab like a test tube
baby to praise god…(read the bible and it is quite clear
humans who praise and obey god are rated higher than those
who don’t keep god’s law’s… So obedience to god is ranked
the highest value to god, thus why we were created)
Where am I? on earth, another created test tube creation
When am I? waiting for god to bring back his only child
(and how that works is beyond me, his only child, god clearly
has billions of children if he created us in a test tube)
how? we look at god creating man as a miracle but
what if it is just plain old science, like we use to
create test tube children?
and Why? Why, where we created? to praise god of course.
What would you think of someone who has children for
the sole purpose of praising their parents for their creation?
Pretty creepy actually…

so we use Athens in terms of answering our questions.
Who am I? One can answer this in about a billion different
ways and not even scratch the surface of the number of different
ways we can answer this…
what am I? That search goes on and on…
Where am I? on an obscure little planet in the middle of
nowhere…
When am I? depends on which clock you use…
why? why am I? past, present and future have tried to answer
this question…
and How? how am I? Science has tried for a very small time period to
answer this question… three hundred years is barely enough time to
set up the equipment needed for the search little less then time
enough to discover the answer to how am I?

So we see that Jerusalem offers us easy to understand,
painless answers to life. Just obey god and you shall have
rewards beyond your wildest dreams…
Augustine wanted to find permanence and stability.
that was his thing, finding permanence and stability.
He found religion and anyone who wants the easy answers
to permanence and stability find god, find religion…

Athens doesn’t answer the easy questions and in fact,
Athens creates more questions then answers…
Athens is the hard road to the truth because
every answer can have several different answers
depending on how you ask the question…
As I prefer to find my own answers and I prefer
to travel my own path to the truth…
I choose Athens…as my path to the truth…

Kropotkin

712

I have often spoken of “finding the truth”
but what do we do with this “Truth”?
We think of human experience as being of a
material object in a material universe.
A material object, a body, that has
enough uniform part like arms and legs, to be
identified as being human…

Now some people identify the human experience
as one of being spirit, which they call soul…
they identify the soul as being a metaphysical
experience. the body for these people is far less important
(and for some has no importance) compared to the soul…
this soul has connection to a god and is the basis of action,
not the body, but the soul is what drives these people.

But look at a group of children, especially in the younger grades…
I don’t see body or soul, I see energy…these children
are just energy, always running around and playing at full speed…
they don’t hold back, they are energy personified…

When I see human beings, I don’t see body or soul, I see energy…
and the question becomes, what do we do with the energy we have?
this is another connection with the universe that we have…
the universe is energy made physical…
What was the big bang? was it a physical event?
No, there were no physical or material matter at that time,
the big bang was pure and simple, energy and as we
come from the big bang, we, the children of the big bang,
we are energy in physical form…

So we have something we call the “Truth” and what is this truth?
This truth is something we use to direct our energy to…
The truth is simple a way to direct our energy, a goal for energy
to achieve…

We eat and drink to replenish our energy,
we sleep to replenish our energy…
Much of our daily activities is about energy…
we exercise, use energy, to maintain our bodies
which is simple a material form for energy…
As we get older, we lose our energy,
(don’t I know this) and we become
slower and less active…
going on crusades is a young person game…
So as physical forms which is a casing for energy,
we use the “truth” as a guidance method for our energy…
We expend our energy on something and the rules we use
to expend that energy on is called laws/rules…
sometimes the “truth” is about these laws we have
to control our energy and sometimes
the truth is about the goals of our energy…

think of human existence as energy taking human form
and what do we direct this energy to or for, is what
our search for the truth entails…
We find the truth to which we then direct our energy to
or live by…

Kropotkin

713

in thinking about language, I realized we speak about our times,
the 21st century with 19 or 20the century words and language…
The language has yet to catch up to our times…
We live in a “Post Modern” era and we use words and language from
the “modern” and earlier era…
Our times, because of technology, has moved faster then the
language needed to describe it…
So our description of reality is wrong because we are using outdated
language to describe modern reality…
We still for instance, haven’t learned to adapt language to adapt
to the changing technology… For example, research done before
computers was cumbersome and tiring… You read books until
you came across the information you were seeking…Quite often
the battle was about knowing where to find the information you were
seeking. this change in technology has influenced how we look at the world…
I recall doing some research during my JC years and taking forever trying
to find the information… Whereas today, it is minutes away with the
click of a few keys… Research in the 70’s and before was a grinding
nature…Our language hasn’t kept up with the technological
changes such as such basic stuff as searching for information.
The changes in technology drives so much and we are unable to
keep up…
If Augustine were to come back to life, say a thousand years later, so
he lived in the 400’s and so he came back in roughly the 1400, the world
he would see wouldn’t be that strange to him… Men still walked or
rode horsed or carriages and still took ships that would have been
easily recognizable to Augustine… Take a person from the 1800,
say Goethe, and show him our world today and he wouldn’t even
recognize it… in just 200 years, we have remade the world in our image
and it isn’t always for the best…
the world has changed substantially since my childhood…
I was a raised in the 60’s and the world I see today,
is very, very different than the one I grew up with…and
that is ok, but has my language, my understanding of the world
adapted to the changes in the world? sometimes I am not so sure…
Our language and understanding of the world must
keep up with the changes in the world…
I don’t believe for example, Philosophy has kept up
with the changes in the world… I think Philosophy
is still stuck in the 19th century with Nietzsche being
the last real studied philosopher…
Philosophy certainly hasn’t kept up with
changes in science like physics and cosmology…
until Philosophy learns to keep up, it will still
be doubted as being useful or of value…

Kropotkin

714

As I am old, I have seen more and more, my limitations.
I haven’t become afraid of the world as many of my contemporaries
have become…In those limitations, you become afraid…
Fear in old age is the result of becoming aware of your limitations.
The young not knowing or understanding what their limitations
are brave and fearless because they don’t know what is possible
and what isn’t… I am wise because I know my limitations and I
understand consequences of actions taken…
Wisdom is really nothing more then knowing your limits
and knowing the consequences of actions taken…

I was young once, and I was bold and daring and acted
like I was immortal. I no longer make that mistake…

I still push forward to the bounds of my limits but
I do so intellectually, not physically and that makes all the
difference in the world…

Kropotkin

715

I dreamt of a man who was engaged in
the forms and rituals of old.
He lit a fire and praised the gods…
He said, “all hail the might gods of the earth.
Praise be to Ra and Thor and Mars,
Praise be to Apollo and Loki and Shiva”.
the man bowed down to the nearby tree and
said" Praise thee tree and earth and sky and sun".
The man walked under a platform of wood
and received the ancient gift of blood being poured on him…
As the Bull blood flowed over him he said, “Praised be
the gift of life and this gift of the bull”.
He climbed into a cave and received the gift
of rebirth in the religions of old…
He was reborn as spring is reborn and renewed…

When the man was done, he cleaned himself off and
watched some TV until it was bedtime…

He followed the form and function of religions that
had millions of followers for centuries on end…
but he couldn’t recreate the same feelings of all those
years ago…
he was playacting all those time honored religions.
The Christian does the same thing today…
gives form and function to beliefs he no longer holds.
It is the ritual that matters, not the beliefs…

Kropotkin

716

I have health insurance through work and its called the
trust fund… Now this trust fund is wildly sporadic…
Multiple times I have received a letter stating that
my insurance has lapsed because I didn’t work enough hours.
(we have to work 94 hours a month to get this insurance)
Now the trust is inevitable wrong about this and failed to
account for vacation time or sick leave or something like that…
In July we received the “letter” saying we didn’t have the hours
and our insurance was terminated…They or someone forget
to add in my vacation hours and so I was short… So I called and
called and called trying to get my insurance back. it took from the time
the insurance was terminated July 1st to July 20, to get my insurance back.
this is the modern world at work… Random forces have a great deal of power
over such things, such necessary things as insurance and not being held
accountable for its random actions which screw people up…
We see this randomness all the time in our daily modern lives where
we have events happen and we have no control over it… The IRS decides
that you owe money even if you don’t and you have no control over it…
you can fight it but at the cost of money and time and effort which wasn’t
necessary in the first place… this is a common event in the modern era…
but we also have random events that affect our lives…
I lived in the Midwest as a kid and saw the effects of tornado’s,
where the tornado would destroy several houses and then skip houses
until it touch down again and destroy more houses… totally random.
The same goes with fire which would destroy houses on end and then
for no apparent reason, skip several house and then destroy more houses…

Physical events like fires and tornado’s and earthquakes and Hurricanes
are random events that plague our world and has plagued our world since
man has come around millions of years ago…

the problem is not the physical events but the randomness of them…
How do you deal with random events that plague our lives, like
fires and earthquakes? Events that don’t seem to have rhyme
or reason, how are we to understand them?
How do we cope with them?

Events that are out of our control and effect us, also
unsettle us, make us nervous and unsure of ourselves…
We see this today in the effects of terrorism…
we are unsettled, nervous, unsure of ourselves…

Events that make us unsure and unsure of ourselves
our events that for us to doubt ourselves and in this
doubt we have two choices, one is the choice of
Jerusalem and the other is the choice of Athens…
Which way do we follow to achieve some sort of
acceptance, clarity, sureness about ourselves in
regards to events out of our control…
Do we turn to revelation and god to
to calm ourselves and our fears
or do we turn to rational, logical thinking to
calm ourselves and our fears?

We are living in unsure times and
in unsure times, people turn to Jerusalem
to salve their soul…
they turn to the metaphysical
in some attempt to gain solace and clarity…

the reason is because random events don’t seem to be rational,
logical… They seem to be random and capricious…
how does rational and logical thought help the randomness
of events like terrorism and earthquakes?

In the old days and I’m talking about centuries ago, men thought
illness was another random, capricious event which had no solution except
via some metaphysical means… But today, today we no longer think that
illness is outside of our capacity to heal… We can diagnose and heal many
illness that was beyond the capacity of doctors even 75 years ago…
We believe that illness is random but it isn’t really random…
the seeds of our illness lies in past …
I have bad arthritis, bad luck? Well, my mom has it and
my brother and sisters have it, so no, its not bad luck, its
a genetic heritage passed down from parents to children…
We see how we can fight seemingly random, capricious events
with rational, logical thinking… We don’t need to turn to
Jerusalem for healing and comfort… If we work hard
enough and long enough, even such random events
can be understood and explained in terms of
our understanding…

We need not need to turn to Jerusalem for
our salvation… We can face the future
with our head held high with the help of
rational, logical thinking that is Athens…

Kropotkin

717

the pursuit of gold is not about gaining gold,
but about the benefits gained from the gold…
don’t mistake the pursuit of gold for itself…
gold is used to allow us choices and benefits that
being poor doesn’t allow…
but sometimes we forget that gold’s only purpose is
for the freedom of being rich and if we pursue gold for itself
we fail to understand it purpose, its point…
the pursuit of knowledge is the same thing…
if we pursue knowledge for the benefits of knowledge,
we are on the right path, if we pursue knowledge for itself,
we go wrong…Knowledge only value is in what can be done
with knowledge… not in the knowledge itself…
I pursue knowledge for its benefits and choices…

Kropotkin

718

On Monday, a man goes to work and
on Tuesday, a man goes to work and
on Wednesday, a man goes to work and
on Thursday, a man goes to work and
on Friday, a man goes to work and
on Saturday, a man does things with his family
and on Sunday, a man goes to church,
watching football for three hours…

and on Monday, a man goes to work…

Our lives is a grind of 40 years following the same path.
and on Tues, a man goes to work…

if there was a one word description of our lives… it would be work,
and on Wednesday, a man goes to work…

travel to work, work and then travel home, 10 hours every work day…
and on Thursday, a man goes to work…

the thing in life we do the most is work…
and on Friday, a man goes to work…

a man spends less time with his family then he does with his coworkers,
and on Saturday, he spends a few hours with his family…

a man spends a few hours practicing religion,
and on Sunday, a man watches football…

and then on Monday, a man goes to work…

and on Tues, a man goes to work…

and on Wednesday, a man goes to work…

and on Thursday, a man goes to work…

and on Friday, a man goes to work…

and he spends a few hours with his family
that how he spends Saturday

and on Sunday, a man goes to church…

and on Monday and on Tues and on Wednesday
and Thursday and on Friday, a man goes to work

The years pass for this man and he grows old…
and during the week, he spends his days working

and one day, the man will be old and on his last day
he will ask himself, what was my life?

On Monday, a man goes to work…

Kropotkin

719

What should he be doing?

720

K: indeed, what should men be doing?

Kropotkin