the new paradigm of existence

Philosophy Forums Philosophy
1

the reason, I am placing this here instead of the government/society thread
hopefully will become clear soon…

what was the great achievement of the Enlightenment?

it was the fact that because of the Enlightenment we have
a new theory of existence and human beings and their nature…

the theory that existed before the Enlightenment was that man, human beings,
were fixed and set…the nature of human existence was fixed and set…
the very foundations of human existence, the society, the state, the religion,
the economics, were all based upon a fixed and set existence, of both
human beings and reality…what was in the beginning, is now and always will
be… that was the viewpoint of society at large and within the institutions within
that society/state…

What the Enlightenment brought about was a new viewpoint, a new understanding
of both human beings and the society/institutions we have…

for human beings before the Enlightenment, man/human beings were created,
we are built like cars and we cannot change or adapt to redesign ourselves…
if we are cars in the beginning, we are cars today and we will be cars tomorrow…

but the new viewpoint is that we are no longer fixed and set beings,
and we live in a changing, adaptable universe…

in the words of the Enlightenment, we are not created but we are generated…
we are becoming, changeable, adaptable…generated… the universe is not
fixed and set as the theories of the universe stated… Before Descartes,
people, institutions, the state, heaven, hell, society, the church, were all
created and thus fixed in their nature…they were set and couldn’t change,
to adapt or become something else…the Enlightenment changed that
idea forever…the new paradigm was that the state/society/heaven/
the church, were all in the process of changing… there was no fixed, set
understanding of the universe…everything we thought was fixed and set, wasn’t…
and that has afflicted the thought of human beings ever since…
and from this new idea of change and adaptation, came the new idea of
progress… that we change and become something new and the new idea of
progress was that we change and adapt into something better… our progress
was always forward… we were becoming something better every single day…
and that was the idea of progress since the 1600’s…
but we human beings have learned, recently, was that we changed, but
we didn’t always change for the better, sometimes the change was for the
worse… hence this is how we now understand the Holocaust…
it becomes possible because it is changed but not for the better or
for the improvement of human beings… the Holocaust tells us that
change is not always going up or forward…as progress has been understood
for centuries…

now in practical terms what this means is that conservatives still hold to
the idea of a fixed and set man… a fixed and set human being…
progress wasn’t available for us, we were like the spotted animals,
we were born with spots and we cannot, cannot ever change our spots…
which meant we are either born good or evil and we cannot ever change
that point of view… we are born good/or evil, we live good/or evil
and we die good/or evil and there is no change or progress for us…
we are fixed and set machines… that we cannot adapt and change given
a new environment…we face every situation with the exact same
understanding that Adam had when he was faced with the problem
of the apple…

the Enlightenment showed us that man/human beings were changeable
and flexible and adaptable…Hegel showed us that ideas were also
changeable and adaptable… that was his contribution to the Enlightenment…
that history, idea’s, economics, society, the state… they all changed over
a period of time… and the new perspective is that, that change is not necessarily
a change for the good or the better… we can change as individuals and as a
society/state for the better and we can also change for the worse…
see the Holocaust for evidence of that…

as we do not have a set and fixed universe, society, state, religion,
we have an ever changing universe and individual and collective
existence… so what type of change do you want… that becomes the
question… not if change comes, but what will it look like?

or as Marx said, it is not an understanding of the universe/society we seek,
but how do we change the universe/society that we seek…

so UR and Observe want the change to become more violent and hateful,
but I want the change to come, to be an engagement with the act
of creating, of building, of seeking out our ‘‘better angels’’ as Lincoln once
said…

the question is not of if change is coming, but what kind of change
should we make, individually and collectively…

what should be the changes we make be…

should we seek hate and violence as UR and Observe want,
or should we seek adult changes within the act of creation and building?

Kropotkin

2

as with all children, UR and Observe hold that there
is a fixed and set ideal of what is good, and what is evil…

there is only black and white in their response to events, people,
and ideas…their thinking, their very values were destroyed
by the Enlightenment…they act and think there are fixed, set
values of good and evil in the universe/society…

but that they can’t point out any such fixed, set universal values…
bothers them greatly…and so in an attempt to set fixed values, they
have turned to the easy path of hate, violence, destruction…
for that is very easy to achieve… hate, violence, destruction
is the value of the child…look at how easy it is for them to
destroy any building or sand castle…without a moment of thought
as to what it took to build that structure… the same goes for
a state/society/the church/institutions… UR and Observe
hold for the violent destruction of the state/society/the church/
institutions within the state/society…

look at their violent reactions to the events of the last dozen years…
disobey the state and society, they say, everything is “fake news”
they say there is a “shadow government” that people like Soros,
indeed all liberals are trying to take down the country…
but look at ways the conservative is trying to destroy
society and the state… with violence and hate…

there is nothing positive or uplifting in their message…
it is full of hate and violence toward the civilization and state
and the society… they have nothing positive to say about any of
those ideals…and they wish to overthrow all of them… to what end,
no one, including themselves know… so, if we overthrow the government,
the state, the very institutions of our existence, then what is next?

the conservative certainly can’t tell you… they are intoxicated with
the idea of destruction and hate and violence… read them… they
are very upfront about the violence and hate that they want America to
engage with…

violence and hate only leads to violence and hate… it has no other
purpose…but they don’t care… UR doesn’t live in America and so
he doesn’t care if America goes down in flames… it won’t affect him
as it won’t affect Observe… they aren’t Americans… they don’t give a shit…
what happens in America…

find the real path into the future which is peace and love and the higher
values of human existence…not the lower values of animals…

seek to become more human, not more animal…

Kropotkin

3

now we come to the tricky part of UR and Observe
understanding of the universe/state/society…

the epistemological aspect of their understanding of
the state/universe/society…

how do they know, what they know?

UR has called for violence and hate against Liberals because of
their supposed allegiance to certain values…and yet, when pushed,
UR cannot explain or point out these values that actually exists within
the viewpoint of the liberal… or to say it another way,
UR lies about the values of the liberals… and why is lying so
accepted by UR and Observe? because they hold to or believe in
the “religious” crusades they are party to…in the end, they hold
that “GOD” is on their side and not on the liberals side… and this is enough
to allow them to lie, cheat, steal and engage in falsehoods about anyone not
“protected” by god’s will…

they lie and cheat because of the allege “Righteousness” of their beliefs…
but I ask, once again, how do they “know”? upon what grounds do they
base their beliefs upon? Their faith in violence and hate is there because of?
what knowledge do they hold that justifies their faith in violence and hate?
one of the primary tools of epistemology is the validity of knowledge…
why are they so sure they are right, when the evidence points to them
being wrong about the values of the state and society…

how are they certain that the answer lies in violence and hate?
how do they know for sure?

conservatives have such a loose relationship with the truth and facts,
I am not sure they would even see or recognize the truth or facts anymore…
and why? Because everything they hold to be true and factual actually comes
from their faith… they believe that in their faith lies the truth… as evidence
and facts quite often betrays faith, they refuse to believe in the truth or facts or
evidence… witness Luther saying, that faith is higher than reason…

to wit… faith assents to the truth of something precisely and only because
it is revealed by god as the first truth…

it is only true if god approves of it first… any other truth is denied unless god
approves of it first…

and the bible is one long listing of the violence of god against man…
from Adam and Eve to the torture and murder of Jesus… all with
god’s approval, indeed with god as an active participant in the violence
against man, against human beings…so UR and Observe are really true
Christians because they follow god in his violence and hatred of man, of
human beings…the god of the Old Testament is a violent, murderous
god that kills and torture humans for fun… see JOB for a example…

One might say, Kropotkin, you have certainly gone a field with this understanding
of conservatives and the truth… but I haven’t… I have made a direct line of
evidence linking the violence and hatred of man/human beings by god into the
violence and hatred of man/human beings by conservatives…

when the conservative preaches and acts upon violence and hate,
he is simply following in the footsteps of the god of the Old Testament…

that is why a new reevaluation is needed of the values and ideals that
drive our society, state and religion today…

it is all connected… as everything is connected…

Kropotkin

4

the assumption of most is that their thoughts, beliefs and hopes
exists in isolation of the state/universe/society…

but the fact is, no thoughts, beliefs, dreams, values exist in
isolation of the state/universe/the society…
when we think of such values as freedom, hope,
honesty, justice… those values are not considered as independent
values, separate and apart from the state/society/universe…

“we hold these truths to be self-evident”

is not an isolated statement, apart and separate from the universe
we live in… that statement can only exist within a universal,
collective values that exist within a society/state/universe…

we tend to hold values and beliefs as isolated and separate from
each other and the society/state at large… but the fact is,
all values, all beliefs, all dreams are connected within
each other and the state/society/ universe they are found in…

the violence and hate the conservative’s practices and preaches,
lays within the collective values and beliefs held by the conservative…
that hate and violence is part and parcel of their collective belief system…
it does not and cannot exist apart or separate from their individual belief
system…

to say, Tom is a jerk… is to fix Tom within a certain individual’s belief
system that one has… the idea that Tom is a jerk does not and cannot
exists within an isolated and separate value system…
our dreams, values, hopes and needs all exists within and are a part
of all of our understanding of what it means to be human…

that I hope and dream and pray is just the last in a long, a very long line
of people who hoped and dreamed and prayed…and lies within the
political, economic, social, philosophical system that I live in…
it is not separate or isolated from me or our collective past…

my needs are needs that arise from me being human and occurs because of
our collective past, our collective evolution as human beings…
even my needs and wants are simple a story that began when life
was born, billions of years ago…everything I am and everything I can hope for,
believe in, dream for, pray for, lies in the long evolution of human beings and
within our becoming human…

we can no longer afford to think of ourselves as isolated, separated,
atomic, discrete (distinct and individual) atoms… we are the sum of
all of humanity… all that has existed before, exists within us today…

we must reject the conservative values of having human beings, being
isolated and separated, of being discrete beings…

Kropotkin

5

Keter! They’re lootin all over San Fran. Go getcha some man. Get the wife something nice. The cops are totally overwhelmed. But you gotta do it now man.

6

to return to the subject at hand…

if we are fixed and set, as conservatives say, then we are fixed and set
by something…B. F. Skinner for example considered free will to be an
illusion, we are fixed and set…religious types believe we are fixed and set
by god…and some scientist considered us fixed and set by evolution…

I hold that many of us are fixed and set by our education, our childhood
training…an example of this is our childhood training, our
education, that America is somehow exceptional…
you hear of this American exceptionalism from right-wing politicians… .
that America is somehow graced by god himself to be exceptional
above all other countries… this attempt at propaganda, is
an attempt to fix and set our ideas about America and its place
in the world…

our childhood education is an attempt to fix and set our beliefs,
attitudes, values and understanding of who we are and
our place in the universe, both individually and collectively…

I reject this attempt to create ‘‘good Americans’’ by brainwashing/
education… I am not interested in creating ‘‘good Americans’’,
I am interested in the creation of ‘‘good human beings’’

if we were to place blame in our modern world, I would
place it in one particular place, in education…
we are interested in the creation of docile workers, consumers,
producers… and the creation of ‘‘good Americans’’ fits into
this…but I want to create ‘‘good human beings’’ and
to do this, we must engage in seeking our possibilities,
not in the pursuit of wealth…

what is possible for me to reach/achieve, not in how money
can I make? In the new paradigm, we seek to become better
human beings by an engagement with values like love, peace, hope,
justice… to name a few…and recognize that the creation of ‘‘good human
beings’’ that there will an increase in conflict between the individuals
and the state…for the state/society has one agenda and becoming
an ‘‘enlightened’’ individual will have another agenda, and the conflict arises
from the conflicting goals and agendas…

this is key… and an essential aspect of IAM thinking… the conflict
between two competing agendas…and how do we choose between
the two? do we allow the individual agenda to be primary or
do we force everyone to follow the state/society/church agenda?
and more importantly, why this agenda instead of that agenda?
what reasons can we offer to help us make these choices?

the fact is at times, we must adhere to the individual agenda and at
other times, we must adhere to the society/state agenda…if we are
fixed and set, we are unable to adapt or change to the ever changing
environment… that means being fixed and set, won’t allow us the chance to
be flexible enough to adapt to the new, changing conditions…

this is the major problem with an engagement with a fixed and set
agenda, it doesn’t allow any flexibility in dealing with changing
conditions… that is why conservativism is a failure, it cannot adapt
and change with the new, changing conditions…

I hold that we cannot, cannot have an engagement with any type of fixed
and set beliefs or we faced an inability to change and adapt to new
conditions…

Kropotkin