To understand people, one must

Philosophy Forums Philosophy
1

the Primary way to understand how people in general act or
engage with Praxis, is to understand the principle of inertia…

Inertia: the tendency to do nothing or to remain unchanged…

and the scientific definition: A property of matter (humans are matter)
by which it continues in its existing state of rest or uniform motion
in a straight line, UNLESS, that state is changed by some external force…

If there were a rule that governs human behavior and actions,
that rule is inertia… the tendency to remain at rest… unless disturbed
by some outside force… I have often called for a ''reexamination of values"
a la Nietzsche, but 99% of all people will not engage in that vital
act because they see no outside force forcing them to a ‘‘reexamination
of values’’ Inertia plays a vital role in making sure people won’t
engage in ‘‘reexamination of values’’ Most people remain with
behaviors and beliefs simple because of inertia… they were indoctrinated
in childhood with values and beliefs that as adults are damaging, yet,
they still won’t engage in some type of ‘‘reexamination of values’’
because it is too much work… People are indoctrinated into
the belief in god, now unless some outside force forces them,
they will not engage in a type of an examination of the belief in god…
Inertia holds them to holding a belief in god even if, they actually
don’t believe in it anymore… but they don’t have the courage of
their convictions to examine or attack their beliefs in an attempt
to overcome their childhood indoctrinations…
what outside force is forcing them to a ‘‘reexamination of values?’’

Quite often the outside forces that force people to a reexamination,
is often one of the sufferings of human beings… age, disease,
death of others, our own impending death… I know someone who
has cancer, she said that her disease has made her question her
faith in god, her husband said that the cancer of his wife has caused
him to increased faith in god… an outside force that has made
them question or a reexamination of their beliefs/their values…

and there is no right or wrong answer, but unless an outside force
forces people to a reexamination of values, inertia will allow
people to simply hold onto childhood indoctrinations that have
no place in the world of being an adult…

I am willing to bet that most people here, by inertia, will
not engage in some sort of evaluation or reevaluation of values…
they will simply hold onto and fight for values they were indoctrinated
in as children… without any sense of the consequences of holding those
values of childhood actually mean… One of the consequences of holding
onto the value of god, is that people then will be very passive in their
engagement with the world… why act when god can/does act for me?
Or people use their faith in god to act against others in a non-Christian
fashion… Liberals should be executed… and there are Christians
that hold to this belief… and because they are not engaging in
an examination of values, they don’t or cannot see the contradiction
inherent in holding such a violent belief that ''All liberals should be
executed" or they say, anyone who practices abortion, doctors for example,
that ‘‘Doctors should be executed’’, because they violate the sanctity of life…
and failing to see the massive contradictions of such a position…

Inertia leads people into such contradictions as this…

I am willing to be that many people here, hold to similar contradictions
because they hold to their childhood indoctrinations without any
examination of the values those childhood indoctrinations…

for most people, it is inertia that allows them to hold onto propositions
and values that have no more value or engage in contradictions because
of their failure to examine their values…

Kropotkin

2

Why blame Inertia ?

Normally in life, a large amount of things influence how our inner nature grows and takes shape.

It doesn’t seem as simple as inertia alone to me.

Also Christian theism isn’t the only hook in the box.

People cling to God like they cling to the meaning of their life.

A lot is at stake.
So we have Pascal’s wager.

People may be worried about their meanings.
That is another thing, other than inertia, which
effects their theism.

3

Peter,
Not sure you’re argument holds water, there is an old saying context defines when people maintain their values of earlier years it may be as a result of staying in the same context, that would fit in with the inertia concept I suppose. It sounds like a problem of no intellectual development happening. Perhaps your right inertia would explain both no intellectual development and no change of context. Assuming people all function in the world the same way is a mistake. I have some religious friends long-term, that I found frustrating on an intellectual level until I realized they don’t have an intellectual life. and people who insist on trying to engage them intellectually are experienced as rude. We are born without an identity and it is through our interactions with context after context that we come to form an identity, the process being endless until we die. I think the best way to stimulate the intellect and thus re-evaluate our beliefs is to be forced into ever-new contexts. To understand people one must ask what are you reacting to? The complexity of the behavior may be too profound to understand, but it is the only shot we have.

4

for most people, it is inertia that allows them to hold onto propositions
and values that have no more value or engage in contradictions because
of their failure to examine their values…

Kropotkin

I suppose that this, inertia, can also be true but I see it also as being about fear. People are afraid to examine their beliefs and what they hold to be true.

Questioning and doubting ourselves about things which we have automatically taken for granted even from childhood or things which we tell ourselves as adults are true because we have adopted them from other people and they fit comfortably into our scheme of things,
things that help us to feel safe and to believe that we are not alone in this world.

Starting to question and doubt how we really feel about what we think we believe and know -
“Is this really true or just a lie I tell myself”? if we’re being honest with ourselves, will cause us to feel like we’re at the edge of a precipice and nothing will ever be the same again because everything and all beliefs and likes we tell ourselves will begin to fall apart, we lose our sense of what we believed was our identity.

That could be a good thing, if we have the courage, because we begin to question what it is that we really believe in and that is when we come to know that basically we have to begin all over again to discover what is the truth about ourselves, what are the lies we tell ourselves and who we REALLY are.

It is such an easy thing to believe something or to see it our way just because it makes us feel safe and comfortable and secure and to know that we are right…and they are wrong.
I suppose that we just have to know that we know everything and there is nothing that we do not have an answer to. Thinking that we know everything, that we have all the answers makes us feel secure in this world.

I think that we can feel comfortable and secure in our skins and our minds knowing that we
don’t have to forcefully believe something simply because we cannot yet know it or perceive it.
Now that is courage.

Sometimes we have to start from scratch. It can be scary having to let go of everything which we thought was ME but who wants a ME who never really existed in the first place.

TO UNDERSTAND PEOPLE, one of the things someone must do is to LISTEN TO THEM.

5

All organisms are reactive creatures whose constitution is defined by the context/s they experience for the duration of their lives. The longer the process, the more complex the mystery of the organism’s behavior becomes. In the present moment, one stands a chance of understanding what motivates the organism by its patterns of behavior and the urgency of the pressing context. At this time, one needs to ask the organism what is it reacting to, for context is cause to the organism. and the organism’s reactions are cause to the larger world. Reaction is organism being one with the earth…