Part and parcel

Philosophy Forums Philosophy
1

I often come back to this point of identity…

but identity is not just about our own personal identity,
but our collective identity… we are after all, social, tribal
creatures… and much of our own personal identity is tied up in
our collective, group social identity…
When asked to identify ourselves, we often refer to these
collective, group identities…
I am an American, I am female, I am a Republican, I am transgender,
I am Jewish… all of which are social, collective, tribal identities…
and each of these covers a small aspect of being human…
the large-scale identity is human, with other smaller scale
identities within that being human is being an American,
or being female or being Jewish… they are part of being
human… being human thus includes these partial
identities we have…I have often commented on the
what has been called the ‘‘Human condition’’…
what exactly does it mean to be human?

but the same can be said about these partial identities
we have, I am an American, but what exactly does that mean?
Yes, I was born in America, but being an American must stand
for something besides just being born here…
the left and the right have vastly different visions of
what it means to be an American… and the dividing line,
at least for me, is the one sentence within the Declaration,

‘‘That all men/human beings, are created equal’’

and equality is the application of justice… to treat everyone
equally… that is justice… the right, MAGA party is about
treating people unequally… with injustice, and intolerance…
for the MAGA party, that is what it means to be an American…
don’t take my word for it, just listen to them… the right wing
is engaged in racism, bigotry, hatred, and violence to any who
disagree with them… that is what it means to be an American
for roughly 45% of the country… but are these ‘‘ideas’’ what
it means to be human? No, for being human has a much
wider scope then just racism or bigotry… even the declaration
of one being a ‘‘Christian’’ is still just a partial aspect of
being human or even a partial aspect of being an American…

So, what is our American identity? Are we ‘‘Christians’’ or
are we white, or are we practitioners of justice and equality?
I believe that part of our current struggles come from our
lack of a collective identity… it could be said that before
1900, that being an American, meant one who engaged in
overcoming the frontier… participating in the American dream…
there is a reason that Americans responded so strongly to
the Horatio Alger stories of the 19th century… the poor boy
who makes good… who lives the American dream of going from
poverty to wealth…one of the modern day problems is
that the right, conservatives still try to peddle that fantasy
in modern day America…(Alger BTW was probably a
homosexual… make of that what you will)
or we are members of the ‘‘City on the hill’’ the example
of what it means to be moral and ethical, to the world?
The phrase ‘‘the city on the hill’’ was used as recently
as Ronald Raygun… but no politician uses it today…
and I am not surprised as it has no meaning today…
and how could it mean anything after the events of
the last 60 years… from Vietnam to Watergate to the stolen
election of the 2000 election, to Abu Gharib and the lies
of Bush Jr. that led us into the longest war in American
history… and the continuing lies of IQ45… we cannot
make any claims of moral superiority give our recent history
of America…the idea of American exceptionalism
has been ground to death by our ongoing failure to
be exceptional and to hold to morals and ethics that
we can be proud of…is America even a moral country
anymore? can we hold to that identity any longer?

Let us be honest and admit that we no longer practice
ethics and morals… that our actions are ‘’‘ad hoc’’ of the
moment and have no value beyond the moment…
and unlike the right/conservative argument that
allowing abortions is a leading cause of our immorality,
that allowing abortions is not a moral ethical issue
that the right makes it to be… it is a political,
social, economic, medical and legal issue far
more than it is an ethical/moral issue…
and that is because not all life is sacred… we allow
the death penalty and we allow torture to ‘‘protect’’
ourselves… in the name of self-protection, we do allow
the taking of life… we do allow murder…
see Florida ‘’ Stand your ground law’’
if life were sacred, all life, then this law wouldn’t exists…
if all life is sacred, then there are no exceptions to it…
and today, exceptions abound for the sacredness of life…

so, given all of this, what does it mean to be an American?
What values are specifically American values? Name a value
and I can tell you that someone in America is pushing to
destroy that value… the American idea of voting… the right wing
is hard at work in their attempt to take away the right to vote
from millions of Americans… by voter suppression, and removal
of voters from voting records… and so, is taking the right
of voters away, is that an American ideal that you can get
behind? or is practicing racism and/or anti-immigration
lies, really something that you can get behind?
is that really what it means to be an American?

So, ask yourself, what exactly does it mean to be
an American? What values, specific values does it
mean to be an American? Do we hold to our moral
superiority with references to a long lost ''city on the hill"

part of the American crisis today is due to our loss of
some sort of collective identity… some value that
we can share with most, if not all Americans…
is that even possible today?

Kropotkin

2

what seems to be self-evident is what has been
called, ‘‘the failure of nerve’’… we have lost our nerve…
it is as simple as that… there is no bold or daring
words or actions in our modern world…FDR’s new deal
would be politically or socially rejected as being too
bold and too daring… who today challenges the
old way of thinking, the old values? no one…
we have lost any attempt to think or be bold or
daring… try anything today and it will be attacked
as being socialism or liberal or not in my neighborhoodism…

we have grown old and conservative in our actions and
beliefs…but what is needed most today is bold, new
thinking on the goings on, in the world today…

witness the attempts to solve say, homelessness…
there are simply rehashing of old barren ideas…
where are the fresh new thoughts on homelessness…
what exactly is the root cause of homelessness?
two things, poverty and mental issues such
addictions, both drug and alcohol and mental illness…
both of which is solvable if, if we are prepared to take
daring actions… making mental illness a priority
issue that we need to solve is step one…
poverty too can be solved, if, if we are prepared to
take drastic actions… but no one want to tackle
poverty… it will take too much work… and heaven
forbid we try something hard…
the critics will say, it costs too much, it isn’t possible,
poverty and homelessness has been here forever,
we can’t change it… excuses after excuses after
excuses to avoid dealing with the issue…
to avoid taking bold and daring actions to
end homelessness and poverty… we can do it,
but we don’t have the will, the nerve to attempt it…
the failure of the modern age… the failure of nerve…

it isn’t the resources we lack, it’s the will…
and those band aid attempts to feed the ones
in poverty, you know the chain stores with their
‘‘end food poverty in America’’ donations crap…
just bullshit lies… it is just a band aid on poverty
and food issues… it isn’t a permanent or even
a viable solution…it just pushes the rock down the
road…solving nothing… and that comes from
a lack of nerve to face up to the problems of our
modern world…

another failure of nerve is the inability to get
real gun control laws on the books… it isn’t about
criminals having guns, its about our failure to have
the guts to deal with one of the major issues of modern
America… heavens forbid we wouldn’t want to hurt
anyone’s feelings… oftentimes, the path to doing the right
think requires, demands us to hurt the feeling of others…
and the real problem lies in the fact that we think by
not hurting others feelings, we think we are being
moderate…its a cover for us failing to have the nerve
to act… the path to success is often by
acting with the goal in mind, not hurting the feelings
of others… Want to end the Israeli-Palestinian war?
push for the end of all Israeli aid from America…
it becomes a choice for Israel… war or the end of
the state of Israel… without American aid, Israel
will cease to exist in 5 to 10 years… is the war
that important to risk total extinction?
and people will come up with all kinds of reasons that
this isn’t either doable or desirable…
and those reasons stem for a failure of nerve
to act… the longer the Israel-Palestinian war
goes on, the risk of a wider war increases…
end the short war or risk a very long, very
dangerous war in the region, and possible spreading
even further than just the Middle east…
if the cost of stopping a world war is the end
of Israel, I’m good with that… the bigger picture
must hold… and keeping the peace worldwide is
the bigger picture we must hold to… it is only
by a failure to nerve that prevents us from thinking
about the larger picture… what is the right thing to
do for the larger picture?

will I be attack? no doubt, but frankly those who attack me
lack the nerve to engage in the larger picture…
Peace at all costs? no, peace at a price, yep…
there is a cost to every action, no doubt, but
some costs are worth paying to prevent a larger,
much more costly event…
will ending poverty costs us yes, but the bigger picture of
having poverty in America is costing us more…
the cost of poverty in America is beyond measure…
it costs us in more than just dollars, it damages
the American soul…but do we have the nerve,
the courage to do the right thing?

Given the state of America today, I would say no, we
don’t have the courage or the nerve to do the right
thing anymore… and that failure is evident all
around America, every single day… our failure of nerve
is costing us our morals, our ethics and ‘‘our city on the hill’’
and it is costing us our souls… and it is beyond monetary
value, of the destruction of our soul…

we cannot put a price tag on our failure of nerve…
maybe that is why we cannot understand it…
we can’t put a monetary value to this failure of nerve…
but think about this… Europe lacked the will to act,
a failure of nerve to stop Hitler in the 1930’s, when it
was possible to stop him… and look at the results?
their failure of nerve costs them dearly… and you can’t
put a monetary value to that kind of costs…

Kropotkin

3

one of the things that I am saying is that the turn toward
myth, superstition, religion, conspiracies, and god, is
due to a lack of nerve… a failure in courage…
belief in myths and superstitions is from a failure
to hold one views accountable, to engage in
Nietzsche ‘‘reevaluation of values’’…

it takes no effort or courage to hold to myths and/or superstitions
of our modern age…it is not a sign of strength to hold to
the conspiracy of Soros having lasers starting wildfires
in California…or to the conspiracy of the ‘‘deep state’’ or
to the superstitions of religions or god…
Just follow the crowd and there you are…
being moderate and part of the crowd… that takes
no bravery or courage… but Kropotkin, you yourself
said that we are social beings, that we are best served by
our connecting to the state/society… and what bests
serve the state/society? Is it our slavish devotion to
the myths and superstitions of the state/society?
Is our connection to the state/society best done by
our agreement with every single belief and values
within that society or state, or, or is the state/society
best served by our holding the state/society to its
feet and evaluate those values and belief of the state/society?

sometimes the state/society is best served by the gadflies
of the state/society… Socrates, Jesus, Mohammed,
MLK, Gandhi and Martin Luther for example… all but Mohammed
were arrested and jailed/put on trial by the state…
(Luther for example was excommunicated by the Pope
and condemned as an outlaw by the Holy Roman
Emperor Charles the 5th and put on trial at the Diet of Worms
in 1521… I can do no other…)

this one example is one of the cases where the cause of
progress was brought forth by the critics, gadfly of the state/
society…

So, I ask, who are our gadflies and critics of the American
way of life today? it is a sad state of affairs if it is me…

Kropotkin

4

so, what is needed? to quote a book I am reading,

''A political system without divine sanction, a religion
without mystery, a morality without dogma"

and how do we achieve this miracle? by first understanding
what values and beliefs we have now, and then thinking
about a goal or a destination that we want to reach…
and combining the two, what values/beliefs do we need
to achieve our goal or destination? If we are seeking a just,
fair, equal society/state, then we need to begin with the
values or beliefs that will lead us to a just, fair, beliefs that
will allow us to reach our fair and just society/state…
the emphasis then becomes on justice and equality,
for those are the values that will lead us to fair and equal
state/society… if we are making freedom the predominate
value of the state/society, then we work on the value of freedom
to create our ideal state… what is the goal? and then what
values do we need to reach that goal…

Kropotkin

5

Agreed Peter, the value of simulation toward assimilation.

What I meant by that getting toward it, even if we will not necessarily reach it in our lifetime, the trip foreward what’s meaningful, getting there is beyond us, we need to have a drive to assimilate with others before we can develop a common language, globally that is.

Meaning we need survival instinct developed by a will to share modicum’s of values, before developing world wide communication at grass roots levels.