as I hold, as I have done so for a very long time,
that the questions of philosophy and of philosophers,
are the maxims of Socrates… ‘‘to know thyself’’
and “the unexamined life isn’t worth living”
every question begins with ‘‘who am I?’’
and we can ask this question in relations to the other questions,
‘‘who am I’’ in relations to the society… ''who am I" in relations to the
state, “who am I” in relations to the gods, “who am I” in relations to
the culture, ''who am I" in relations to concepts like love, hope,
success, freedom, justice among the thousands of concepts we
can work out our relations with…we can work out this in terms
of a general understanding of the conservative and liberal…
the liberal has a different mindset than the conservative…
for the liberal, the key concept is justice…‘‘who am I’’ in regard to
justice…am I engaging in justice or is my state/society engaging
in justice? In the ‘‘rights’’ movements of the last 122 years, civil rights,
gay rights, women rights and the battles against injustices perpetuated
by both state/society/individuals, who fought in the front lines?
It certainly wasn’t conservatives… it was liberals fighting for
our greatest beliefs, that of justice… even at great personal risk to
ourselves… if we put safety/security first, we wouldn’t have left our homes,
to put ourselves in danger fighting for what is right and JUST…
we can work this out better if we use real life concepts like fear…
the conservative is afraid, well of everything… I have previously listed
all the things a conservative is afraid of, and it is a long list…and using
this list, we can see that the conservative bases their entire understanding
of the universe base on their fear…hence this is why the Maslow’s pyramid
level of safety/security is the most important level to them…
that is what fear will do, it makes one’s safety/security as being the
paramount issue of their lives… not freedom, not justice, not peace or love
or hope, but safety/security…and UR being the useful idiot that he is,
he shows us time and time and time again, how he fears everything…
and that is shown in his violence of language to others… scum, commie,
“ILP nazi” he has dozens of insults from which he insults anyone who doesn’t
agree with him, lock, stock and barrel…but that show us his fear…
anyone who disagrees with him is wrong and insulted… there is no
middle ground with UR or with a conservative…
it is all or nothing… compromise is seen as weakness which threatens one’s
safety/security…and we can’t have that…
so what should a philosopher aim for, given these two ideals
as possibilities?
Philosophers should seek the positive in our existence…
we are human beings, let us act on that principle…
the conservative says, with Machiavelli, that change isn’t possible
within people…but change is not only possible, it is desirable…
the question becomes, what change should we engage with?
the conservative makes no attempt to become something more because
it violates one of their basic principles, that change is impossible in people,
and they include themselves in that avoidance of change…
but we change, we change every day to events, people, aging,
the environment…I am different today than I was 10 years ago,
because I am 10 years older…I am in a different place today then I
was 10 years ago…and I must change to adapt to that difference…
so what changes should I be making? that comes with the understanding
of the Socratic principle of “know thyself” and then an understanding of
what I ought to be…what goal is worth my effort to attempt?
the ancient Greeks would have said, to become a sage…
someone with wisdom…the Buddha says, to become “enlighten”
from where I sit, I can’t tell the difference between the two…
and the Nietzschean principle, to become who you are?
and how is that different then becoming a sage or
becoming “enlightened?” is the point to remain who one is,
all your life? from Birth to death, to remain the same?
I can’t see any point to a life like that…
growth, change, movement is what life, all life is about…
so as a philosopher, we seek change, growth, movement…
so, let us decide both individually and collectively, what
change, growth, movement we want and that we should
achieve, individually and together…
so it is not enough to seek out our own individual change,
but to seek out what changes we need to make
as a state/culture/society…
that what we should be seeking, as philosophers…
what changes should we be making, individually
and collectively…and why those changes?
Kropotkin