the next modern topic

as I have pointed out, we have no modern universal ethical or
moral theory… all our modern theories of ethics or morality are
of the “ad hoc” type… which is to say, the situation decides the morality/ethics…

and now I approach the next topic of our modern times…

the battle between instinct and reason…

a little history… during the late 1600’s and early 1700’s, ( the years are somewhat
in debate)… we have a little event called the enlightenment…

it was an attempt to bring human beings to being rational instead of
acting on instincts… Sapere aude… dare to know or more loosely translated,
dare to be wise…

don’t follow the church just because it is the church… examine what the church
actually stands for… what does it mean to be religious…what does it mean to be
human… not as instincts but as a human being…a rational, logical being…

don’t accept the precepts of the state or culture or religion without first
examining them…see if those precepts are rationally based or are they
illogical, instinctual beliefs…

the next phase of modern Europe was the various revolutions…
the social, economic, political, philosophical and scientific revolutions
that still haunts our generation…

and thereafter came the Romantic revolution… in which instincts
were favored over rationality and reason…this began around 1775 in Germany
and move into both France and England in the years thereafter…

and every since has been a war … between instincts and reason…

the way to tell the difference between the two parties is this…

the conservative has championed the way of instincts and the
liberal has championed the rational, logical way…

the conservative champions a return to some sort of Romantic
past, be it the 1950’s or the middle ages, they want some sort
of return to a past that didn’t actually exists except in their minds…

nazi’s for example wanted a return to an ‘‘pure’’ Aryan past
that never existed in the first place…if you were to pick
the one word the Nazi’s always used, it would be ‘‘Degeneration’’…

degeneration implies a pure past which no longer exists because of
current or future degeneration…

it is a romantic vision of the past that negates the present or future…

and you see that all the time here in ILP… those who attack the present or
the possible future… which implies that there was some degeneration from
the past into the present or future…

while I got news for those who glorify the past… it sucked just as much
as the present… and in fact, given a choice, I would happily live in
the present rather then the past given how much the past sucked…

those who glorify the past simple don’t know the past… if they actually
had studied some history, they would know that the past we think of,
was a really terrible place to live in… from short life expectancy, the average
life expectancy of a Roman was 22… and up until 1900, it was still less then 40…

to the terrible medical care, Washington for example was bleed to death
by leaches… and that passed as “good” medical care in those days…

in London, the Thames at one point, dropped in its level and the stink
was so bad, that the government basically stopped and left for the country…

the streets has all sorts of filth and waste and the streets were dirt,
thus every time it rained, the streets became a mound of mud…

to praise the past over the present is to simply ignore these facts…

the fact of the matter is that the past was a terrible place to live in…
and only by ignoring the facts can one decide that the past is worthy
of admiration…

and this is one aspect of the instinct vs reason battle…

instincts says the past was great and wonderful, but the present is
some sort of 'crime", but that is make believe… by every standard
one cares to bring about, the present is a far better place to live in…
and we can, if we work for it, we can make the future an even better place…

but those conservatives refuse to work at it because they want to hold on
to their fantasy that the past was some sort of paradise… news flash, it wasn’t…

and here lies the point… you want a better future or do you want to live
in some sort of romantic and false past?

I want a better future… and thus we have to be rational and work out
what is the best way to achieve a better future, not just for me
and my family, but for all families…

and we have to work at it… we have to work into creating the future, create some sort
of plan and action… we must work at it… it won’t just happen by itself…

so we use reason and rational thought to create a better future… because using instinct
just isn’t a plan… it is wishful thinking…and running into a fantasy past isn’t going
to solve our current problems…

I am willing to work, and work hard into creating a better future for everyone…
are you willing to put in the work or do you want to just fantasize about some
past that never existed?

are you going to run on instinct or are you going to attempt the harder task,
which is to be logical, rational, engage in reason to work out a better future?

or is the past going to throw enough shade into your eyes to deny the possibility
of having a better future?

a future worth having is a future worth working for…

instinct or rationality?

make your answer known and then act… work for a future or
lie away the hours dreaming of a past that never existed…

Kropotkin