I have laid waste to much ‘‘ink’’ in my battle
against prejudice, superstitions and indoctrinations…
I have, on multiple times, called for a New ‘‘Enlightenment’’
where we finish what the original Enlightenment began,
which is an attack, as Nietzsche said:
‘‘A common belief, to have the courage of one’s convictions,
instead, we should be attacking our convictions’’
and who here as courage enough for an attack on their
convictions, their childhood indoctrinations, of state, of god,
of the necessity of metaphysics… that there is a god,
that America is the greatest country on Earth, of
American exceptionalism…indoctrinations of
nationalism, of religions, of god, of the superiority of
capitalism, of the need to turn money into a devotional
object… all of these indoctrinations need to be examined
and finally rejected, as being unnecessary and even dangerous
indoctrinations/beliefs…
But why Kropotkin, why should we reject such indoctrinations,
like the belief in god? It is hard to have an authentic, factual
life if we don’t hold to true beliefs… faith in capitalism
and god and nationalism are beliefs/ a faith in something
that has proven itself to be harmful to us, both as
individuals and collectively, as a nation… if my
beliefs are based on false values, it is hard for me
to lead a true/authentic life… my values/beliefs
must be true if I am to lead an honest, true, authentic life…
false beliefs and values lead us to actions that are
also false and inauthentic… for it is values and beliefs
that lead us to take actions… having false/untrue values
and beliefs lead us into taking wrong and inauthentic
actions… If I hold my wife is cheating on me, and I
take actions based on that false belief, it will lead me
into actions that are wrong and harmful… my values/beliefs
drive my actions, and having wrong beliefs lead me to
take wrong/harmful actions… we can only act correctly,
morally, ethically if we hold to morally, ethically right values/beliefs…
the wrong morals and we act immorally…
Let us take a for instance, for instance, holding to the
wrong belief that America’s problems are caused by
illegal immigrants, leads us to take wrong, immoral actions
against immigrants that have nothing to do with the real
problems at hand… our false beliefs lead into taking false
actions… it is only by holding to true, authentic values
and beliefs that we can hope to act morally, ethically true…
the values lead to actions… we can only act correctly if
we hold to correct values and beliefs… and we can only
know if those beliefs and values are correct, by a
reevaluation of values… what values do we hold and why
those values and not another set of values?
to examine our own indoctrinations and discover if those
are actually our values and beliefs, not values and beliefs
indoctrinated into us as children… we need an
‘‘reevaluation of values’’ if we are to discover what
values we hold and what values should we be holding to?
Do the values/beliefs we hold to today, are they really our
beliefs and values or have we just been indoctrinated with
those values? It is only by an honest examination of values
can we judge this… What values do you hold and why
those values/beliefs?
Kropotkin
