What ought a man to do?

Philosophy Forums Philosophy
1

Watched the news today…
it was full of the themes of humanity,
war, drought, famine, sadness and denial…
and in light of these themes, I ask,
what ought a man to do?

what can one man do when faced by these themes?
given the immensity of this human drama,
what can one man do?
what are my possibilities?
what are my choices?

It seems I have but two choices,
one choice is to withdraw into myself
the passive answer of my ancestors,
found in religion and worship,
every man for himself, prayer unto death…

and the second possibility, that much harder road,
the second road is to answer the bell, to engage in the battle,
not by being passive in religions, but in being active with man…
in seeing the homeless, I don’t just pray to god,
I offer my sandwich and a bottle of water…

one person suffering is personal,
millions suffering is just the 6:00 news…
and what ought a man to do?
when millions are suffering,
an offering of a sandwich is pointless…

I watch the news today,
I see millions are suffering
from famine and war and private greed,
and what can one man do?
are my own private prayers really all I can do?

I am not the only one watching the news today,
millions upon millions watched it too,
and what can they do? besides offer up silent prayers
to an unseen, unheard god who can only offer one
a private salvation that allows millions to go on suffering…

a reply of “a pox on both houses” is a common theme today…
when the charges of the politics of the day lies within
hate, anger, greed, and whataboutism…
how can we respond when no one is taking responsibility
for the state of the world today?

a crime is committed and that side says,
but whatabout this time? or that time?
thus reducing their crime to “what about the other guy?”
I am innocent because whatabout that time?..
in 1853 they, the other side, did this and so I am innocent…
because whataboutism…

what can one man do about the common
political escape of our modern age, whataboutism?
do I make a silent prayer to god hoping that he can
hold these parties accountable, responsible?
or do I engage in life actively, positively, honestly?
and I seek accountability for actions taken, and not taken?

the answer to whataboutism is to say, I don’t care about that,
that was yesterday and I can only care about
today, right here, right now… whataboutism is the past
and the past is long dead, buried under some monument…
what obligations do I have to a burial plot that says,
here lies… buried in 1845…

and to those who use the news of the day,
to make political hay and increase their power,
I can do one of two things, I can be passive and
pray to a silent god, who hasn’t been heard from in centuries,
or I can be responsible/accountable to the present and become active…

what ought a man to do?
where does my responsibility lie to?
to the buried past where we have built monuments,
or to an active present or to a not yet seen future?
where does my allegiance belong to?

if you say the past, then do nothing,
continue to pray to a silent and missing god,
hoping for vengeance to be mine,
in the hands of another…or do we become,
active in our lives and engage in the present,
holding accountable the mass forces that dominate our lives?

what ought a man to do?
pray or have an engagement in our lives?
active or passive?
answer that question and the road into tomorrow
becomes clear…

Kropotkin

2

Putin invasion of the Ukraine is whataboutism…
the denial of rights to people is based upon whataboutism…
the failure to hold to justice is based upon whataboutism…
to base our lives upon greed, hate, anger and lust, whataboutism…
any allegiance to the past is whataboutism…

there is but one road for us to travel,
and that road cannot be indebted to the past,
try this, walk to the door while your eyes are fixed
on where you have been?
so, what ought a man to do?

so, what ought a man to do?
where do our obligations and responsibilities
belong to, the past or the present/future?
where does my debt go to?
yesterday, today or tomorrow?

perhaps, perhaps we don’t owe a debt to anyone,
our very birth has freed us from having
an obligation to the past…
in what direction does my allegiance go to?
behind me, besides me or in front of me?

do I engage with my fellow man or do
I bury myself into silent prayers to an unseen god?
past, present or future? passive or active?
my answer becomes my road…
what if the solution to life isn’t to seek salvation,
but is something else?
what if the answer is in becoming, not in being?

what ought a man to do?

Kropotkin

3

what ought a man to do?
how are we to seek redemption, salvation?
what actions can I take that will redeem me,
enough to make the claim that I am one with thee?

of all the actions that make me human,
which one will save me from being human?
what is the one, universal action that I can
claim for my own and mark me distinct from all others,
on the road from animal to animal/human to becoming human?

is my path to becoming, found in prayer or whataboutism or
in voting or fighting or in being in love?
no, of all the things I can do, in being human,
the road to salvation is found in the simple act
of creation…I can redeem myself in the creation of something…

my act of creation isn’t found in instinct or habit
or the customs of our age…
but in the discovery that we are the creators,
that we can build something new, we can build
something that can only be ours…
what ought a man to do?

we can build, we can conceive,
we can love and hope and honor
and in the creation of those values,
we are building something new
and it can never be taken away from us…

what ought a man to do?
we can create values that honor our past,
allow us to live in the present,
and to engage in the road not yet traveled…
what ought a man to do?

In my acts of creation of values, of becoming human,
my engagement is with the very essence of being human,
the act of making something that identifies me as being,
something more than just an animal… for I am human,
I am more than just being an animal…because I create…
and what animal can offer us values of hope or beauty or
love?

what ought a man to do?
Is to rise above being mere animal,
to engage in that which identifies us
as being human?
the act of creating, of making something,
in that we discover what it means to be human…

Is Putin engaging in the act of creation?
Is IQ45 in the act of creation?
Is whataboutism, the act of creation?
Is private prayer and public greed,
the act of creation?

You want to be saved? You want to be redeemed?
Walk away from the failures of mankind, and
engage in the act of becoming… engage in the act of creation…
pursue values that can become the road into tomorrow…
not the values of hate or anger or greed or lust…
how am I to be saved?
the act of creation…

Kropotkin

4

but what am I to do?
for I cannot write poems or create plays…
I cannot paint or draw or build a song…
what ought I to do?

the act of creation isn’t just about the creating,
the act of creation can be one who
refuses to accept the status quo,
the one who says no…
that too is the act of creation…

and how does denying the status quo,
an act of creation? is saying no, enough?
for saying no is an act of creation because
it marks out one who stands apart from the crowd…
in denying preformulated truths, one seeks
to know what is the “truth”…
apart from what the crowd thinks…

Is there one universal truth? a Truth that applies to all,
at all times, in all places?
in that question lies the untruth of the crowd…
for there are no universal answers to the questions of existence…
I have my truth and you have your truth…
what ought a man to do?

in the study of the truths of humans,
in the study, what is man, what truth is universal?
in the study of biology, history, science, and math,
what are we actually seeking? What are we hoping to find?
a universal truth that can be applied to all mankind…
to go from I am to we are…

to discover my relationship with my fellow man,
is to ask of ourselves, are we enemies? are we combatants?
are we fellow travelers or are we one nation under god?
and we study what it means to be human while asking ourselves,
who is my fellow man? how do I seek my own salvation when
I am engaged with my fellow man, in some capacity?

for one truth, a biological truth is that we are a species,
that must engage with each other… I cannot exist
alone, apart from my fellow travelers… to become human,
I must seek that engagement together with, in opposition to,
apart from and part of… each other…
to become human, I need to be part of something human…
and for some, becoming human is part of something, for some,
becoming human lies in opposition to other humans, for some,
in becoming human lies in accepting the common values of
my society, my state…

and under what umbrella term do we seek this understanding?
it is called morality… what truths do I accept, that
allows me to act and react with my fellow human beings?
and what truth do they follow that allows them to act
and react to me? What is our common connection?
what is our common truth? What common truth allows
me to engage with, to act in concert with my fellow human beings?

Kropotkin

5

self=other

Treat the other as self, and vice versa.

6

K: allegiance to the failed golden rule…
and why has the “golden rule” failed?

for to treat others as self, one has to treat others
as equal to me, and who does that?

Whites believe themselves superior to blacks,
men consider themselves superior to women,
adults consider themselves superior to children,
Christians consider themselves superior to all other religions
American’s consider themselves superior to other nationalities,

and with each belief of superiority, denies the equality
necessary for the golden rule to work…

and on what other grounds can the golden rule to work
other than equality?

On the word of god? god is dead and we have killed him…

Kropotkin

7

I didn’t realize that when you said, “What ought a man to do?” you meant “What does a man do?”

Disregard.

8

K: my question is a riff off of Kant… his three questions of
existence…

What am I to do?
What ought I believe in?
What can I know?

Kropotkin

9

if this were twitter i would both like and retweet this

10

Today is your lucky day…

twitter.com/ichthus77/status/15 … L_9IrbfcJQ

11

shit. it has no retweets yet. that means if i retweet it then you’ll know it’s me, and no one knows who i am on twitter so i can’t blow my cover.

12

ah well

13

you have a lot of tweets of bible verses which is perfectly cool but then most of my tweets are radical antifa type stuff and my followers are like 50/50 maybe the kind of people who would be mean about the bible you know some people are just like that i wish everyone would just not be mean

14

That’s so sweet you think I can’t handle mean people.

15

i have no way of knowing if you can or can’t i just prefer not to get involved in unnecessary meanness.

16

peter did you see the new madison cawthorn video? its pretty remarkable

17

I don’t usually do Twitter. I don’t name call (to legit insult people), but I can be blunt.

And if they had a laugh react, I’d prolly laugh at some things others would find offensive.

I block nekkid &/or overly irrational bullies. Unless they make me think. The nekkid ones I just block.

18

i block all maga all q and anyone who wants to argue. 1000s so far but it’s nice to be able to cultivate your feed that way. i’ve been accused of giving 1 liner responses on some platforms but on twitter that’s kind of the idea so i’ve done pretty well there.

19

I don’t block differing views, but def don’t seek folks out who argue like many Trump supporters or share outlandish conspiracy YouTube vids (will fb-unfollow, but not block). Sometimes I block folks temporarily if they lose their sh** & get disrespectful (esp. with a friend), regardless of platform. I avoid getting into discussions with folks who demonstrate they aren’t interested in using reason (basic consistency), once I figure it out.

20

i block them because i have a big account and get a lot of impressions and so if you let them into your feed you can end up getting mass reported and go through all that shit with your account getting locked and all. they love to mass report. crazy people.