this question of “human improvement’’ has often
been spoken of… why haven’t we ‘‘improved’’
since the beginning of time? We see science
dramatically change, and we see technology, which
is based on science improve, but we haven’t seen
human improvement in terms of morals, ethics,
''doing the right thing”… we are still as unhappy
and miserable as the very first human beings…
Why hasn’t there been a change in that area of being
human?
If the human situation has improved technologically
and scientifically, why haven’t we improved in our
understanding of what it means to be human?
I would like to suggest that our ‘‘failure’’ in creating
a better life for us human beings lies in our understanding
of what it means to be human… I would suggest that
we put our focus on being human on the wrong thing/things…
There are essential aspects of being human that we have failed
to account for in our lives…
There are basic essential aspects of being human…
and in no particular order, these are the essential
aspects of being human and aspects that we cannot,
without doing grave harm to ourselves, that we cannot
ignore…
One: that human beings are social creature…
we have an essential need for other human beings…
we cannot reach our own private goals without others…
we cannot meet our own private needs without others…
that we must have, to remain alive, certain needs that
must be fulfilled… food, water, shelter, education, health care,
love, are some of the bodily needs we must have fulfilled,
our psychological needs are found within love, self-esteem,
a sense of belonging, and safety/security…
we must have these things if we are to become ‘‘successful’’
human beings… and by ‘‘successful’’ I mean to say,
as human beings, we are engaged in our lives, we are
striving for goals we have decided upon, we have the
freedom to act and be as we decide, not as others decide for us…
but our strivings cannot, however we may want them to, our
striving cannot violate the basic premise that we can only
survive within a state/society… for us to be successful,
as human beings, we must also have the society/state to
succeed… the two aspects, a successful society/state
and a successful human being are just two aspects
of the same thing… they need each other to succeed…
a state/society must have successful human beings to
survive and successful human beings must have a
successful state to survive… they are two sides
of the same coin… one needs the other in order for both
sides to succeed…
so, that is step one… recognizing that our own
individual success depends, requires our state/society
to succeed… part of the reason we haven’t been able
to improve our situation, as in improve ourselves, lies
within the failure of many to realize the importance of
the state/society in order for us to succeed personally…
this idea of ‘‘rugged individualism’’ whereas our own
personal success lies solely within our own efforts,
fails because we can only succeed within a communal,
society basis…our own personal success lies
within the state/society success… we cannot,
however, we try, we cannot divorce our own success
with the success of the state/society…
This is a fundamental fact… and yet, many including many
here on ILP, have failed to appreciate or understand the close
connection of the state/society to our own success or failure…
they are in fact, one and the same…
But that is one aspect of this, the other side which is often
lost, is that the state/society cannot achieve its goal without
successful human beings… and therein lies the failure
of the state/society… and the failures of the ism’ and ideologies
that drive the state/society…
For example, the reason that isms like communism and
capitalism fail, is because they negate, dehumanize human
beings… capitalism and communism both negate human
beings and their values, which is to say, they practice
nihilism against the individual members of the state/society…
just like cancer cells, if enough cells, people are infected,
the state/society becomes ill…and eventually if enough
people are infected with nihilism, the state/society dies…
Just like with human beings… and what does the
individual offer the state/society? exactly the same as the cell
offers a body, a source of energy to the body… the same
as people, cells are simply means of using energy to do
their function/job…in a liver, for example, if enough
cells stop working, from cancer, the liver itself will stop
working… and then death becomes possible, even likely…
the exact same thing is with individuals within the state/
society… if enough individuals stop working, providing
energy toward the state/society, the state/society will
at some point, die… and this is true of any human
institution, be it the IRS, the Church, the Army,
past religions, previous gods, they all die once
energy is/was taken away from them…
to put it another way, prior religions died once
people stopped believing in them and putting
energy into them… a religion is only as strong
as the energy being put into it by the believers…
this fact of life answers all questions about the
success and failure of any, ANY, human institutions…
be it a church or state or institutions within that
state/society… the success or failure of something lies
within the amount of energy we put into it… the more
the energy, the greater the possibility of success that
institution will have…the success and/or failure
of anything lies within the amount of energy we put
into it… less energy the greater possibility of failure,
the more energy, the greater possibility of success…
In fact, we can view life in terms of success and failure
within the amount of energy, we put into something…
failure comes with less energy, success with greater energy…
it is as basic as that…
thus, we can now see the ongoing failure of MAGA
and conservatives… because they have failed to
understand the essential nature of the state/society needed
within our lives for us to succeed… by taking energy away
from the state/society, we weaken that state/society enough
to risk failure within that state/society… so, to take away
energy from the state/society in terms of energy, which
can take the form of both actual energy and potential
energy which is found in the form of money…
thus the conservative attempt to take energy away
from the state/society, by limiting the state/society,
is the path to failure… by taking away energy from
the state/society, we are risking the state/society
failure… thus the attempt to create smaller government,
is doomed to failure because that takes energy away
from the state/society…and reduce enough energy from
the state/society, and it will die…as we now see
our own institutions suffering, from a lack of energy, both
in terms of actual energy and money, which is potential
energy… we risk the death of the American state, by
reducing the amount of energy going into the American
state… that energy does not in any meaningful fashion,
aid or help the individual, as the conservative seems to
think… take money/energy from the state and the
individual will benefit from it… it doesn’t work that way…
to take money/energy away from the state/society,
damages individuals as surely as taking energy away
from individuals…
This is an overall defense of government and its uses
and the need for government for all concerned…
and thus we begin…
Kropotkin