Montaigne once wrote:
‘‘That to philosophize is to learn to die’’
and he is wrong…
‘‘that to philosophize is to learn how to live’’
Kropotkin
Call me stupid, but life and death seem kind of… unlearnable.
Krap-on-It once more graces us with his philosophic acumen…
To prepare oneself for death, is learning how to live…
Straight over his Americanized, Liberal mind.
Kropotkin associated with the Jura Federation and began editing its publication.[39] There he met Ukrainian Jewish student Sophie Kropotkin, and the two were married in 1878.[40] In 1879, he started Le Révolté , a revolutionary fortnightly, in Geneva that published his personal articulation of anarchist communism, the idea of distributing work product communally based on need rather than by work.[41] He became the philosophy’s most prominent proponent, despite not creating it. The philosophy became part of the Jura program in 1880 at Kropotkin’s advocacy. Le Révolté also published Kropotkin’s best known pamphlet, “An Appeal to the Young”, in 1880.[40]
It tells you all you need to know.
Another example of how our choices, our free choices, expose our nature…and our motives.
But not all can read the… signs… most misread them.
From Plato’s apology:
''My very good friend, you are Athenian, and belong to
which is the greatest and most famous in the world, for its
wisdom and strength. Are you not ashamed that you give
your attention to acquiring as much money as possible,
similar with reputation and honor, and give no attention
to or thought to truth or thought or the perfection of
your soul"
Kropotkin
a modern problem is how do we engage in, what
Pierre Hadot calls, ‘‘Spiritual exercises’’ without
recourse to god or religion?
How do we improve the soul, find ourselves, without
any recourse to religion or god?
On what rock are we to build the new world on if not
religion, or a belief in god? What is ethics or morality,
without recourse to god or religion? Learning how to live,
how to be a ‘‘good’’ person, and not reference god or religion?
We usually refer to the soul in religious terms but the modern
age no longer has any use for, any need for god or religion,
then the question become on what basis do we build our
ethics, or morality on?
Ancient spiritual exercises come back to god, every single time,
as described by Hadot, spiritual exercises like Ignatius wrote…
and Plato wrote…
But today, I cannot in good conscious hold to the faith in god
that my forefathers held to…leaving us with a ''now what?"
is it possible to have spiritual exercises without reference to god?
I believe so… but how would that look like? To improve the soul,
requires some foundation… what does our modern foundation look
like?
Kropotkin
The answer is that when you build anything over an abyss, it is worse than building sandcastles in the sand. You don’t even have the beach for a foundation. You’re rejecting the very “thing” you THINK you’re building—in whose image you are made.
That’s why Nietzsche said “Gaze long into the abyss, and the abyss gazes also into you.”
You can build. But when you reject the ground or foundation upon which you build, you show you really weren’t interested in the sort of building that lasts. You build to the wind, and will not withstand the Whirlwind who tests your integrity.
Well. Not without saying Uncle.
As I have no interest in discussing whither god exists
or not, I am interested in seeking out the truth…
and how does one engage in ‘‘Spiritual exercises’’
without reference to god or religion?
That is the question before me…
Kropotkin
Just make sure what you do treats the other as self and respects consents that respect consent. And if you wanna be really spiritual, go above and beyond the call of duty. But just to warn you. It does refer to God. So you’re basically playing with fire you’re trying to avoid… which is kind of weird.
I am glad you have found your warm and cuddly
blanket that makes you feel good about yourself…
Kropotkin
“Just make sure what you do treats the other as self”
If i were to follow this advice, i would give the next person i see all my money because if i were him, i would want all my money.
In fact, the only way to do a self=other is to grant the other total and absolute freedom of will to be selfish. Only a Stirner can practice the golden rule.
One always wants the maximum amount of freedom allowed to them by the other person. Anything beyond this point - what’s the good thing to do for him, what’s the moral thing, etc. - is already too multifarious, too complicated, too negligible and not to be decided by anyone but the individual over himself!
It’s warm and cuddly, therefore it’s false?
non sequitor
Also…fire is warm and cuddly? AND you can cook with it? Doesn’t sound very likely.
Still true, though.
Let’s camp on this.
If your mama’s cat shit was worth a penny for every piece, I hope I’m the next person you see.
Your power of reasoning to decide for yourself is your power of doing self=other, and yet you stop short of actually doing it. Hence, all the cat shit. If you actually used your power, you would get more of it. This is a use or lose situation.
This is so horrible it shouldn’t even be possible. Here i am arguing with one cat lady about another. This is like when Napoleon is on his way to war and is stopped by an irrelevant chamber maid in the courtyard who starts nagging and harassing him over some stupid little thing and he has to walk double-time to get away from her.
No, BriBri. you’re Sisera, and I’m Jael.
Let me give you some respite.