I haven’t spent much time here of late and here’s why…
I have been doing an very old fashion thing… I have been reading…
I read a thousand page book last week and and began an 800 page
book this morning…I should be done with it by Saturday…
both books, last week book and this week book, is about the creation
of the modern world…next in my list of books is a biography of
Wittgenstein…my exploration of the modern world continues…
as part of my exploration, I have been thinking about the essential
differences between the liberal and the conservative…
the liberal believes that we can change, both ourselves and the world…
the conservative holds that we can never change the world or ourselves…
or to put it another way, the liberal holds a positive view of the world
and the conservative holds a negative view of the world…
and what is the key factor for the liberal? that hope is possible…
that we have hope for the improvement of ourselves and the world
whereas the conservative denies hope… they rail against hope…
for the simply reason, they lack hope for the present and the future…
for many reasons, the two most important emotions/feelings in the universe
is love and hope…we can see why love is important… it is an essential
aspect of human existence… it is a need no different then food or water or
shelter or education… we must have love or we die… simple as that…
but what about hope? why is it so important?
at my age, I have but one thing to look forward to, and that is retirement…
I must have hope that someday I can retire… but what about those days when
retirement seems like a million years away? I am sad and tired and without hope…
it is hope that allows me to get up and face a job I truly hate… because I can,
one day, retire from that shitty job… without hope I would fall into a true despair…
and that is the point of hope… it gives us the strength to get up and face the world…
the liberal holds out the promise that the world can get better, the hope that the world
will be better tomorrow…
the conservative denies that hope… in fact, you can see this denial here one ILP…
read the post of UR and observ and wendy and the joker and who among them
offer us hope? no, not a one…if you actually could believe their posting,
one would be tempted to kill oneself due to the incredibly negative viewpoints
posted by them…where is the hope? do they offer us any hope for the present or
the future? no… it is doom and gloom, 24/7 along with a healthy dose of
name calling… and how positive and hopeful is name calling?
of course they will attack me or as often the case, simply ignore me,
in any case, do they offer us something to look forward to? something
to be hopeful about? no… no, they don’t…
that I want to improve the world is hopeful… because I think the world can be
made better… and that is an hopeful belief… that somedays our lives will be
better… all we have to do is fight for that better life… I am willing to fight
for that better life… are you?
have you given up or is the possibility of a better life still within you?
if you still have hope… congratulations…
the negative/conservative viewpoint hasn’t beaten hope out of you…
I hold that the most important view we must have today is hope… hope that
our lives, individually and collectively can be better tomorrow…
if you want to improve your life… find the hope in your life… what can be made
better in the here and now that will improve your life tomorrow?
what can you look forward to? what can give your life meaning, both today
and tomorrow? find the hope in your existence…
Kropotkin