The problems of being human

Philosophy Forums Philosophy
1

In thinking what it means to be human, I got to thinking
about what we might call, the problems of being human…

When it is said that existence is a tough one, what are they
referring to? Well, we know the obvious ones of the Buddha,
getting old, disease, death. those sufferings, but there
must be more… what are they?

let us think of this, (and we have plenty of possible ways
to think of this) we can go to our needs… we have
the biological needs of all beings, and much of the difficulties
of existence comes from meeting those needs…
I have, and you have and we all have, the need for
food, water, shelter, education, health care, the physical needs
of all beings… and we have the psychological needs of human
beings… to love and be loved, to safety/security, to esteem, to
belonging, of companionship, each of this are documented
psychological needs of human beings…

We human beings in order to live out our lives, must have
these needs… this isn’t negotiable or can be a choice…
if we fail to meet our bodily or psychological needs,
we become ill, mentally and physically… we are threatened
with losing our mental and physical health if we fail to meet
our physical, mental, emotional, psychological needs…
this is a biological fact… and not based on wishful thinking or
hoping or even promising… facts about human beings…
if our meets are not met, we are in danger, in trouble…
at risk of dying…or becoming mentally, psychologically,
emotionally ill…

but let us look at the institutions we have created to meet our needs,
we have schools, we have the judicial system, we have economic needs
we meet through such ism’s and ideologies as socialism, hunter-gatherer,
resource based economy communism, feudalism, distributism, capitalism,
statism, Market economy, Mercantilism, among the many possible
economic systems designed to allow us to meet our bodily and
emotional needs…

and we have political systems, also designed to meet our
physical and psychological needs, such democracies,
monarchies, oligarchies, authoritarian and totalitarian and

political systems… for example, in America today, we no longer
have a democracy, we have an corporatocracy… a political system
that is governed or controlled by corporations…

but that is meeting a corporation needs, but that doesn’t meet
our own individual bodily or psychological needs…

but all of this assumes that we have no choice, that individually
we are forced to live under a particular economic or
political system…but the point is we do have a choice…
if our needs, either bodily or psychologically are not being met,
we can change our political or economic systems…

the problems of being human, we can change our lives, our
economic systems, our political systems to meet the needs
of our being human…

I suspect we kinda forget the point of having political or economic
systems… to meet our biological and psychological needs of being human…
and if our needs are not being met, why have those systems?

Which is the first point… we must meet the needs of being human
and the best way to meet those needs… so the question of the
political is asked in this way, who rules and who pays? that is literarily
the only question of politics…who rules and who pays for it…
and we seek answers to that question in the various political
systems meant to answer our needs…

In fact, when we say life is hard, that we have a tough existence,
that fact refers to something other than what we think it refers to…
think about it… what issues are out there that makes existence
difficult or hard? we can break them down…

we have our needs we must attempt to meet…
but we also have the natural world… and what that means is
we are biological defined… we are born human, we have human
defects of hearing loss, or eyesight issues or physical issues like
a bad heart or not being able to walk… and these are real issues
of existence… and some we have work arounds, like a hearing loss
can be, partial by hearing aids or cochlear implants…or
wearing glasses…

but think about it, many of our issues of being human,
the difficulties of being human come from our own beliefs
and actions… we ourselves is the source of the many of the problems
of being human… if by my actions, I can be some sort of means of
helping people overcoming the difficulties of being human, then
why not be that? In other words, if the difficulties of being human
lie in the hands of other humans, why don’t we work together and
make life easier for those that we can help…
if it takes a village to raise a child, then let us do so…
and thus instead of being part of the problem of being
human, we can be part of the solution of the difficulties
of being human…

which is that we can, by our actions, help alleviate
the many difficulties of being human… we can,
by our own actions, ease some of the difficulties of
being human… which are found in the meeting of our needs…
for example, humans must be educated into what it means to be
human, and to meet this basic human need, we have schools…
paid for by common, universal consent… we have agreed to
pay taxes for education… to meet one of the universal needs
of human existence… of education… and we also attempt
to meet the biological needs of children, of food and health,
by various programs like WIC programs…we see that for many
people, for economic or social reasons, life is difficult for
them to reach their economic needs, so we, as a society,
have decided to help other people to reach their needs…
but what if, what if we make this a social/political necessity,
that we, as a society, as a state, make it a priority to
help people reach their needs…which they are unable to,
by their own efforts…if this sounds good, welcome to
Europe…this is why the European is far more human
centered then here in America…and we can make this
common, universal…an societal attempt to help
people reach their biological needs through the actions
of all of us, through the state/government…

now many might argue that helping people meeting
their needs helps create ‘‘weak’’ or ‘‘soft’’ people… but that
is seeing existence through the lens of some artificial
and not realistic value that needn’t exist at all…
how is people reaching their biological necessity really
about making people ‘‘weak’’ or ‘‘soft’’?

The point of existence, seriously, is for us to meet our
needs, bodily, emotionally, psychological… what other point
of existence can there be? And by helping others reaching needs
that we have already met, can there be another point of existence?
and we might suggest, that as we meet our lower level
needs of existence, we strive to meet the next level
of our needs until we have met all needs, bodily, emotional,
psychologically and we can reach the very next stage of existence,
which is no longer an engagement with meeting our needs…
but in the fulfillment of our possibilities…acting from an abundance
of our soul which as been filled, and from that overflow of
meeting our needs, we can seek to become our possibilities…

Personally, I am in no danger of lacking the basic
necessities of existence…eating, water, shelter,
health care…my bodily, my physical needs are met…
as are my psychological needs… I am loved and I love,
I am esteemed, my needs for safety and security are
met…it has taken 60 years for me to reach my bodily
needs… and in doing so, I have also met my
psychological needs…

So, what is next for Kropotkin? to take the next step and engage
in my overflow of abundance… I seek my possibility of becoming
a great philosopher…I cannot seek to become a great mathematician,
for I lack the tools to do so, but I can seek to become what my
available tools allow me to become…which is 40 plus years
of reading and thinking and contemplation into thinking
about what it means to be human…

I am now about reaching my self-actualization possibilities…
what is possible for Kropotkin and what do I do to reach that?

I have reached the full possibility of being human… because my
basic needs, bodily, emotionally, psychologically have been met…
and I couldn’t have reached this stage of existence without meeting
the needs of my earlier stages…I do and will always need to meet
my physical and psychological needs of love and food and safety/security,
those needs never go away, but they can be pushed into the background
and my main focus can be on becoming who I am… a great philosopher…

and that is the point of existence… to meeting my physical and emotional
and psychological needs into then reaching to what is possible for me…
and we can help people get to that “final” stage, which isn’t the final stage,
but for now it is, but we can help people get their needs met,
and then work on their becoming the best possibility of
who they can be…
which has nothing to do with the pursuit of wealth or fame or
power or titles…

those are false and phony needs… the goal is to reach
the possibilities of human existence…and we don’t need
the pursuit of wealth or fame to define us…we just need
become what is possible for us given the tools we have…

my own personal tools give me the possibility
of being a great philosopher… which I am

but that is who I am, what is possible for you?

Kropotkin

2

So, in light of the above post, what does this actually mean?

we need to take a different course in how we approach
the education and how we act and react to other people…

One of our main agendas of becoming human now changes
by the fact that we mustn’t engage in that which damages
people, so we no longer do things that will damage people,
either physically, emotionally, psychologically…

and that in practical terms means we no longer practice
our childhood indoctrinations… we don’t use education to
indoctrinate children into set and fixed principles of
religion, the state, of the meaning of life…

so we no longer indoctrinate children to be good Christians
or to be good citizens or to be good nationalists or
good sexual orientations… to become human we must
engage in understanding what tools we have and what
possibilities we can seek with those tools…

so we no longer try to train/force children to become
Christians… we teach them what is possible and allow
them to seek their own possibilities…
if it is within their own possibilities to want to become
a “good Christian” then we give them the tools to do so,
we don’t force them to become Christian, they come to
being Christian by their own needs and possibilities…
we no longer indoctrinate children, we simply give
them the tools to seek their own possibilities…

My strength isn’t math, I can’t add, subtract, multiply or divide
to save my life…so why force me to engage in something that
I don’t have as a tool? I should be allowed to engage in the tools
or possibilities I can reach… which in my case is being a
great philosopher… my own tools, my abilities are such
that my greatest possibility is to be a philosopher…
or a thinker or a writer… my own tools aren’t really meant
for me to be a mathematician or a ditch digger… I have to
work with the tools I have, as a human being…

so instead of forcing me to be a good Christian or to be a good
American, as society/the state does now, I should be encouraged
to become something that my own individual tools are best suited
for… that of a thinker, writer, philosopher…

we must change our entire way of thinking of what it means to
be human and how we reach that goal…

the goal is no longer to be rich or famous or have some title,
No, the goal is to find and reach what is my own tools, my own
possibilities allow me to become…

education is no longer to force us to become what the society/state/
the culture demands us to be, but we become what is possible for us…
what our tools allow for us…we must change, radically change
what it means to be human… to seek out what is possible for us…
no longer to be trained or forced into being something we are not…
I am not suited for, to being a “good American” that is not something
I have the tools for… I am suited to be a good thinker and to that
end I must engage with,

now, one might argue that it might mean that we will no longer
have the people to dig up ditches… that their tools might suggest
some other job or occupation… and I say, that is not a bad thing…
we are so used to forcing people into a set, fixed belief system,
that we find it hard to believe that people should and must have
the choices… to become what their possibilities mean to them to be…

so does mean that society will no longer have farm workers or ditch
diggers? perhaps… instead of forcing people into choices that doesn’t
fit them, we allow people to find their own choices, to seek their
own possibilities… and that may mean, we no longer have ditch diggers
or farm workers… but then we can and must seek out other possibilities
to dig ditches or to grow our crops… it isn’t that we can’t find other
possibilities, is that we refuse to consider them, we lack the imagination
necessary to think about what choices we have to dig ditches or grow
crops…what options do we have in digging ditches or growing crops?
we simply need to put our minds, our imaginations to finding solutions
to these problems…the point of existence isn’t to force people
into growing crops or digging ditches, but to seek out their
individual possibilities…and that is the point of society/the state…

to allow individuals to seek out their own possibilities of existence…
not to be forced into one set of one possibility, but in becoming
who we are… and that may mean we no longer have ditch digger
or farmers…and that is where we must seek solutions… that is
the problem of existence…how do we now grow crops or
dig ditches if people are not suited for that role?

let us brainstorm or think about it…

and now the question becomes, who gets to decide
this question of seeking to become who you are?

the individual or the state/society?

now we come into philosophy/political theory…

how do we accomplish what we need to accomplish to
engage in the basics of reaching human possibilities…
in other words, what needs to happen to allow us the
right to become who we are?

what social or political system needs to happen that will
allow us to become human? that is the question that faces us,
how do we work out the problems of being human?

Kropotkin

3

one of the ways that the society/state damages us, is by
forcing us into certain set, fixed idea’s…we can damage
people by forcing them to become something that they are not…
thus if we force people to be straight, when they are gay,
we are damaging people… that is the last thing we want to do…
as a society, as a state… we want people to become who they
are, and in doing so, we improve the lives of people…
and isn’t that the point of existence?

so instead of forcing people what society/the state wants,
becoming workers, consumers, producers, Americans,
we allow people to become who they want to become
based upon the tools available to them, not what is deemed
to be of value to the society/state…

so one path may be to guarantee the means of existence,
to feed and clothe and house and educated people,
without forcing to be round sticks in square holes…
and we, as a society/state feed, educate, house, clothe,
have health care for every single individual who wants it…
and within that basis, we then allow individuals to seek out
what is possible for them, without the society/state forcing
people into roles they are not suited for…

to allow people their own choices as to who they have
the possibility to be, who they want to be, not
what the society/state demands or forces them to be…

that is a radical change as to what is the point of society/the state…
we don’t work for the state/the society, it works for us…
in allowing us to become what is possible for us, without
any benefit or gain to the society/state…
the state/society supports us until we can decide what
is our best possibilities for us, and us alone…

the state simple exists as a means for us to become who we are,
and finding out what our possibilities are…
and if we spend our lives getting benefits from the state,
so be it…the goal isn’t a profitable state, but in people
finding out who they are and what it takes to become
their possibilities and thus the state/society goal or function is
to allow us to seek out what it means to be human…
even if it damages society/the state… that is better then
any damage to a single individual…by forcing them into
what the state/society wants…

Kropotkin

4

So, the shout will become, but Kropotkin,
what you are suggesting is “utopian”…
but in fact, it is simple your inability to imagine
other possibilities of existence… you simple can’t
imagine other possibilities outside of the ones you face…
and that what makes it “utopian”…
for in reality, we can (and must) recreate
new possibilities for what it means to be human…
look at the world today, with it gun violence,
and violence, wars, prisons, forcing people into
becoming what they are not… that is violence…
to force a gay person to become straight is violence,
whether you see it or not…

I would suggest that the reason the world, and us individually
are having problems is because of our various systems,
economically, socially, politically, philosophically…
by conforming to those systems which demand that
we confirm to the prevailing ideology, instead of
becoming who we are, is the reason we are in such trouble…

it is the strict adherence to the current systems and beliefs
that is causing us our problems of being human…

and the cure is, to change the system from chasing needs to
becoming the highest level of human existence which is
the drive toward self-actualization… that is to become who
we are… and share our newfound abundance of being human…

if we no longer seek the needs and wants of being human, and have
those taken care of, we can make the next step toward becoming
who we are, of seeking out our possibilities of being human…
instead of wasting Kropotkin in meaningless jobs of being a checker,
we allow Kropotkin to seek out his possibilities of becoming a thinker,
a writer, a philosopher…that is the goal, not to build wealth or increase
the GDP, which only benefits those who actually benefit from that, which
is the already wealthy and powerful… increasing the GDP has no impact
upon our daily lives of seeking our bodily or psychological needs,
but to grow beyond those needs by meeting them and then
seek out what is possible for me, given my own tools, to become
my possibility of being a thinker, a writer, a philosopher…

to seek out what is possible for me, instead of becoming what
society needs to increase its wealth… the question becomes,
what is the point, value of a society/the state?

why does the state/society exists?

answer that and we may yet be able to grow beyond our current,
limited possibilities…to become what a society/state demands, needs
us to be… so we are faced with the question, why have a society/state
and what is its value to us?

if that answer is anything but to improve us as human beings, it is
the wrong answer…

so, what is the point/value of a state/society?

Kropotkin

5

if you say, the society/state is unable or incapable of changing,
then you aren’t paying attention… because the state/society is
what we say it is… it isn’t fixed or set in its ways… we have
changed society/the state in such recent ways as to make
gay marriage legal and weed legal… whereas that wasn’t
possible even 10 years ago… we can change the state/society
to match our current needs and wants… all that we need to do is
will it and make it happen… nothing more…

you want a fair/just society/state… then make it happen
by your actions and your insistence that that is what must
happen… your own choices decide if we are a state/society
that values justice/equality… we can make that choice or
we can continue to pretend we have no choice over
the type of society/state we have and we will continue
to have…become the change you want to make happen…

Kropotkin

6

But Kropotkin, no individual or state is going to accept
what you have “offered” and that means that that state
or individual is lacking in the same intellectual and
imagination that you are…

Kropotkin