when we view ourselves as human beings, we tend to view
ourselves in isolation… apart from other aspects of our lives…
but in fact, we cannot sort out or separate ourselves from our time,
our society, our government…the government/state we have helps define
who we are as human beings…so think of the various possibilities of
government… the possibilities of state/government… we can have
such political systems as in Authoritarianism/totalitarianism,
Monarchy, democracy and which system we live in helps us
define who we are…as previously noted, in my “to continue today’s theme”
thread, I noted the role of the government in how we understand who we are…
having government means I can spend my days engaging in the questions
of existence that challenge me… instead of spending my days, trying to
met my physical needs of food, water, clothing…
so said another way, I cannot become who I am in a “state of nature”, of
everyone at war with everyone else… the Hobbesian “state of Nature”
preclude me from the leisure one needs to think about what it means to
be human… to go from animal to animal/human to becoming fully human,
requires time, space, leisure to work out what possibilities of existence are
my possibilities of existence…
the role of the government is to take much of the burdens of
basic living off my hands and allow the government to take over aspects
of existence that allows me the chance to become who I am…
if I spend my days trying to build roads, bring in water, build
shelters, to the basic existence of providing for my primary needs,
the needs that all human beings try for… if I spend my days just
trying to met my physical needs, I have no time for introspection or
thinking about what it means to be human…the steps to becoming,
from going from animal to animal/human to becoming fully human is not
a physical action but is a mental, emotional activity… the engagement with
becoming is a mental/emotional one, not a physical one…
the government is a necessary step for us human beings in our growth
as human beings… we cannot grow as human beings without a government
to take over those task that we cannot do on our own… such as protection
like policemen or building roads, or building and maintaining sewage plants…
these necessary steps are necessary in our development as human beings,
the path to becoming human beings lies in the growth of government…
without the state/government, we cannot become or grow into
becoming better human beings…
thus any, any attempt to develop better human beings lies in having
a better government…thus we can see that the path to becoming
better human beings lie within having a government like a democracy,
not in having a dictatorship…the Authoritarian type of government doesn’t
allow for the growth of human beings… whereas a democracy does…
think about the times that human beings advance the cause of being human,
the first time was during the “democracies of Greece” and there is a reason,
why we had an incredible growth in understanding of human nature during
the high-water mark of democracy in the ancient world…
and why the next highest understanding of what it means to be human,
was during the Roman era… when men were able to speculate about
what it means to be human… with the rise of government, we can see
the return of the speculations of what it means to be human within
the Rennaissance, and within every growth of government, we can see
the growth of understanding of what it means to be human…
the growth of understanding isn’t separate or apart from government,
it lies within the growth of government… our advancing understanding of
what it means to be human is tied into the growth of government…
to be a little more philosophical about it, the path to our engagement
with such areas of philosophy such as ethics/morality, requires that
we have a government that allow us to engage in that area of
philosophical endeavor… to become ethical/moral people requires
us to have a firm, solid civilization behind it…and the growth of
civilization is directly tied into the growth of government…
for we can only be civilized within the power of the government…
of a government committed to democracy …
that is our path to becoming ethical/moral people, is by having
a political system that holds us accountable for being ethical/moral
people… which isn’t possible within a monarchy or a dictatorship…
(in a monarchy, the accountability of success within that state/government/
society lies within the monarchy, not within the hands of the people,
and that makes all the difference in the world… within a monarchy,
I don’t have to hold myself responsible for the success of that state/civilization…
the monarch is responsible for that success or failure)
the holding of accountability of ourselves is part of becoming human,
within becoming human, fully human lies in our becoming accountable
for who we are and our actions…and this is only possible within a democracy…
the act of holding to a democratic society is the act of holding oneself
accountable, responsible…for that is what a democracy is about,
holding oneself accountable, responsible for actions taken and not taken…
thus my thesis is that we can only become human, fully human with the growth
of a democratic political process… anything else, denies accountability
and responsibility… we must have government, a democratic government to
hold ourselves accountable and responsible for who we are…
Kropotkin