To becoming human

Philosophy Forums Philosophy
1

Enlightenment: The action of enlightening, or the
state of being enlightened…

The action or state of attaining or having attained
spiritual knowledge or insight…

  1. The Enlightenment: A European intellectual movement of the
    late 17sth and 18th centuries emphasizing reason and
    individualism, rather than tradition…

the point of these two definitions is to make us aware of the
role of being enlightened… in which we, as human beings
are not defined by our superstitions or fear or false beliefs and the
statement that could be used to define the entire Enlightenment
period is by Kant…

Sapere aude… Dare to know…

Dare to know what? That we are indoctrinated with values and beliefs,
almost from our very birth, to hold certain beliefs that due to there
nature, are false, superstitions, of habits from inertia, and full of ignorance…

One of the goals of becoming human, is the goal of autonomy…

Autonomy: independence or freedom as of the will or one’s actions:
the autonomy of the individual…

Now we are, by evolution, social creatures and we can only find
our humanness by our engagement with others, by being within
and part of the state, the society…so, how can we be autonomous
given this fundamental aspect of human existence? Our autonomy
is found in our holding to values and beliefs that are not false, that
are not being because of fear, that are not superstitious in nature…
We hold to values and beliefs that can be justified by facts and evidence…

Let us discuss one such superstition… that there is a god…
and because of this superstition, we act as if god is the goal
and not human values… we are a means to an end…
and human beings are not a means to an end…
capitalism uses human beings as a means to achieve profits
and that is wrong… that is nihilism… so the goal is to avoid
nihilism… the negation of human beings and their values…
superstitions and false beliefs negate human beings and their values…
and part of being human is holding onto values and beliefs that
make being human and their values the end, not the means…

Part of why we do this enlightenment, is to remove those superstitions
and false beliefs… being enlightened, is part of a process, it is not
an end…the end result for a human being, is to hold values and
beliefs that are not superstitious, nor false, nor of fear…

to make it a bit clearer, false values are holding onto the
false narrative of the stolen 2020 election, or to hold to
a widespread conspiracy that vaccines are some evil
attempt to control the population… or other false beliefs
like the Jews run the world or other conspiracy theories…
or simpler false values like there is a god or that America is
by its very existence, exceptional… the entire point of
being enlightened, is to form values and beliefs that are
based in reality and truth… the path to being autonomous
is by removing falsehoods and superstitions and holding to
values and beliefs that are truth and reality based…
Whereas most of our indoctrinated values and beliefs are
superstitions and false… that blacks are inferior to white,
that is a superstition and false… to become autonomous
is to remove that falsehood/superstition and hold to the truth…
that all human beings are created equal… there is no such
thing as an inferior or superior human being… there is only
human beings…

is it possible for us to remove all superstitions and false beliefs?
No, I don’t think so, but with the removal of each superstition
and false belief, bring us one step closer to becoming human,
fully human… fully autonomous human beings… and one of the
things to remember is that we can still be a part of the social structure,
we can still be a part of the state and society holding onto values
and beliefs that are not based on fear or superstitions or falsehoods…
We can still be part of the social structure and hold onto beliefs
that might even contradict that social structure… the point of
the state/the society is to allow every human being to overcome
their childhood indoctrinations that involve superstitions and falsehoods…
the point is not the state or society but for every human beings to
make that journey from animal to becoming human… fully human…
that is the point of living within the state/society… to allow us
time and space to overcome our indoctrinations and falsehoods
of childhood/adulthood…

the battle, the war is not out there… but the war/battle is within,
to overcome the false narratives that we are indoctrinated with
from childhood… to become autonomous by attacking/removing
values and beliefs of our childhood indoctrinations, by
overcoming, by a ‘‘reevaluation of values’’, as Nietzsche called it…
to remove those superstitions and false beliefs we are taught…

animals are dominated by superstitions and false beliefs,
we are today, part animal/part human… we hold onto some
truths and values that have partly escape our indoctrinations…
and with every examination of our indoctrinations, we come
one step closer to becoming human…

Kropotkin

2

Let us continue in this vein for a while…

HUmanize holds onto wild eye and frankly insane conspiracy theories,
they are superstitions and false beliefs… and how do I know this?
Because they are unprovable, they have no facts or evidence to
support them… and by holding such false beliefs, Humanized
is not being autonomous… he is being held, as it were, hostage
to his false values and beliefs… now whether he was raised
with these values and beliefs, or was indoctrinated later, is for
our purposes, irrelevant… he is firmly fixed into these values
and beliefs… he could not change even if he wanted to…and
that boys and girls, is what being indoctrinated all about…
he is not autonomous because of his inability to change or
even to challenge his indoctrinations… the idea that he might
be wrong would never enter his head… that how firmly
the indoctrinations have gotten hold of him… he can’t even
imagine being wrong…his firm attachment to his indoctrinations,
his false values and beliefs, means he is a slave, to his values
and beliefs… and being autonomous is anything but a slave
to one’s values and beliefs…

You want to see what a slave or an animal looks like, look no
further than Humanized… and he is stuck on his path, he has
nowhere to go in his journey because he is trapped on one point
that he cannot overcome… he will live and die being an animal/slave
to his superstitions, false beliefs…

He will never become human… fully human…

Kropotkin

3

another value to be considered is authenticity…
the human being who is autonomous is also the person
who is authentic… for the values and beliefs they hold
are their values and beliefs, not values and beliefs
indoctrinated into them… How can I be authentic if all my values
and beliefs were indoctrinated/installed into me as a child?
Another question becomes this, how can I be authentic if
I am a slave/animal to my indoctrinations?
Part of being authentic is the ability to adapt and change
our values and beliefs as the situation requires…
a child who believes in Santa Claus does so from
a true belief… because for them, that is the truth, the reality
of existence… that there is a fat man who brings good children
toys… that is the truth for a child who believes…
and that is being authentic… truly believing the ‘‘truth’’ or
reality around one… and of the child who no longer believes
in Santa Claus, but holds to that belief publicly to gain
presents… is that being authentic? to hold to a value or
belief in order to gain something?

And that says something about being authentic… it is not a belief
of convenience, a value to hold because of its cash value…
to be authentic, one needs to hold onto beliefs even if it appears to
be wrong to others… even to a state/society… to be authentic
is to hold fast onto values/beliefs that have been challenged, values
that have been ‘‘overcome’’… as Nietzsche says,

"it is not enough to have the courage of one’s values,
one must have the courage for an attack upon one’s values’’

and the values/beliefs that survive an attack, those are the values
that are for someone, authentic…

that for me, Humanized is not an authentic person because he is
a slave, an animal to his beliefs… for have they ever changed
in all the years Humanized been here? to hold that others are
‘‘sheeple’’ and he is superior is not being authentic because
he is unable to adapt or change to any new conditions or realty
that is the ‘‘Human condition’’… for that is part of the ‘‘Human condition’’
that change is the one constant in our lives, and we must be able to
change and adapt to the changes… to remain authentic…but it doesn’t
means changes to be in style, to be hip and cool type of changes…
I don’t adapt or change my own style to the ever-new lifestyles that
pops into existence today…I still despise rap and I won’t change that
until something decent in rap comes along… I remain true to
the music I have listened to for 40 years, Jazz, classical, new age music…
the rock music I listen to is the rock music from the 1970’s…
my high school years… I am authentic because I don’t change my music
preferences to try to be cool or relevant… I like what I like…and that is
being authentic…but music has no need to change or become relevant…
and that is part of the beauty of ART… We only need remain true to
the ART we like, to be authentic… Whereas in reality, we must
change or adapt to the new reality or truth… unlike in ART
where we don’t have to do that…

The autonomous person is the authentic person… their values
and beliefs are their own and because they have ‘‘attacked’’ those
values and beliefs, they know that those values and beliefs are their
own, not just values and beliefs that have been indoctrinated into them…
the autonomous/authentic person is the one who is on the road of becoming,
of going from animal to becoming human… and the closer to becoming
human, the more autonomous/authentic one becomes… think about
the ones who have come the closes to being human, Goethe, Gandhi,
MLK, Shakespeare, the ones we build statues to… they are important
because they are not only further along the path of becoming human,
but they are authentic in doing so… Socrates would be another one…
as is Spinoza…and what do these ‘‘great’’ people have in common?
not that they have built great factories or massive companies or
built skyscrapers or employ a massive number of people or even made
a lot of money… nah, what made these people great is
what they did build, which is an inner character that is authentic…
what they build was going further along the path of being human…
they build being human… going from animal to human, fully human…
that is their greatness… further the ideal of becoming human…

Kropotkin