This idea of the road to Damascus is not religious idea but a human idea and a philosophical idea.
The basis of this idea is saul or as we call him paul, who was a jew who actively persecuted Christians.
While on the road to Damascus, he had a vision and was blinded, after three days his sight returned and
he changed his life. It has been suggested that Christianity is really not Christianity but paulanity (to coin a phrase)
You can say, that paul created Christianity, not jesus, Anyway, back at the ranch. The point is Saul had a moment
that changed his life. We all have moments that changed our lives. Sometimes, the moment is really, really small.
Kant says his life philosophically was changed when he read Hume. He was thrown into despair after reading Hume.
Philosophy was changed by this moment of Kant reading Hume. Now for most people, they don’t have a moment
or an event like the road to Damascus. The change they have is change cause by age. As we age, we change
physically and emotionally and intellectually. the idea’s that work for us at age 5, do not work at age 15,
and those idea’s at 15 don’t work at 25, and the idea’s of a 25 year old don’t work at 55 and those idea’s
at 55 don’t work at 75.
My moment on the road to Damascus was twofold, one at 14 or 15, I read a book that’s basic point
was that that civilization was created by the weather at that civilization. So western civilization
was created by the weather in Europe and that weather explains why Africa and Asia
didn’t have the dominant civilization that western civilization.
I cannot remember the book’s title to save my life, but it had a brown cover in paperback.
The book brought in history, philosophy, politics and economics to prove his point.
At the time, I felt he was wrong but didn’t have the knowledge in those areas to prove him wrong
and so I began to study those areas and here we are 40 years later still trying to gain knowledge.
My political road to Damascus came with the election of Raygun in 1980. I moved here in 1973 and
saw first hand the damage he had done here and that election radicalized me into becoming
a anarchist.
The moments that lead us to today may be big or small, but they exist to change us in many ways.
My philosophical road to Damascus was in reading Nietzsche. He opened up my eyes to idea’s that
I had never even considered. As the years passed, I outgrew Nietzsche but some elements of
his thoughts still exist in my philosophy even after 40 years. Life is an experiment and all
experiences are useful as learning devises.
Kropotkin
