what are we, as human beings, trying to achieve?
What is the point of human existence?
what is it we are attempting to accomplish?
I believe that the enlightenment took the first step toward answering these
questions by the enlightenment engagement with autonomy… the second generation
of this question by the existentialist brought in being Authentic… so, for me,
the question of existence lies with becoming autonomous/authentic human beings…
perhaps one such definition of being autonomous/authentic is this:
being autonomous means acting upon values that one decides upon, not values
given to one by the family, the state, the culture, the society…
why this value, being autonomous instead of following right wing values of
obeying the values of society, the state, the culture, the family…the right wing
holds to the value of security/order… they preach about a safe/secure state,
culture, society, and family…the greatest crime for a republican/right winger,
is disobedience… the question of being autonomous doesn’t even enter the mind
of a conservative/right winger… the conservative constantly rails against
those who do not follow the law, be it the state or the law of god…
but I am not a conservative… my highest values do not mesh with conservative
values… for my personal goal isn’t to conform or to follow the laws of man/god…
I seek different values such as the value of being autonomous/authentic…
which means I am not interested in obeying the law, of man or of god…
I seek independence of thought… I seek to become an autonomous/authentic person…
and I cannot achieve that goal while I am attempting to obey the state/god…
or to follow the various ism’s of the modern world… If I practice communism,
I cannot also practice being autonomous/authentic… the two practices collide
because one demands obedience, that of the ism, be it catholicism, communism,
buddhism, capitalism demands complete and absolute obedience…
whereas to follow one autonomous state, one must become free and clear of
ism’s and ideologies…
the sad and simply truth is that being part of the herd, is being safe…
one can hide within the herd and be protected… the dangers of
standing apart from society, the state, the culture is quite obvious
when seeing the death of Socrates, the death of Jesus, the attacks upon
Spinoza, the various and mindless crusades against both the Muslims
and various Christian groups that didn’t mindlessly follow the church…
the Lollards and Jan Hus followers for example…
look at the current GOP/TFH party in which only complete and absolute
devotion to herr Trump is acceptable… whereas on the left we don’t demand
complete and absolute devotion to any person, ism or idea…
It has been said, in years past, that I don’t belong to an organized political
party, I am a democrat… and that has been true for decades…I point out that
Kamala Harris was a fierce opponent of Biden… and yet he choose her to
be the VP… would you expect IQ45 to choose, in any capacity, an opponent
of his for any position? we all know the answer to this, a big huuuuuge no…
the left is not afraid to work against the rule of law or the law of god because
we hold that being autonomous is a more important then obeying the laws,
be it of god, be it of man…
but once again we run into the problem that we human beings, we are social
creatures, we are creatures that are social, group, even tribal in who we are,
human beings during our very long million year pre-history, have learned
the best way to survive is through and by being part of a community…
we cannot, however strong we might seem to be, we cannot survive,
being alone…our very nature and self worth and our understanding of
who we are, are defined within the community…within our place within
the community… and that is because of our million year pre-history…
everything we human beings are, we were created and defined by that million
years between when we first walked on the savanna and today…
but that was yesterdays human beings… one defined by our instincts and
our dependence on the group, the community…physically, we are still
defined by our dependence on the community, the group… but we can
become independent of the million year training of holding to group think…
we can say this another way, for the first time in human history,
it is possible for us to engage with being truly autonomous and authentic self…
we have never had this chance before…I for one am excited by our chance,
the very first time in human history, when we can make making being an autonomous
person, a reality… not just a random occurrence like the making of Goethe, as
the first modern autonomous human being… we can make becoming autonomous,
a goal, like the goal of being wealthy or being famous, but this time, this goal is
one worth reaching forward…
the next step in human history is the step forward in becoming autonomous/authentic
human beings… not dependent on others for our values, beliefs, our place in society,
our character… we can choose who we are, what we believe in, what values should we
hold…in fact, for the first time in history, we can finally answer the Kantian
questions of existence without looking at the state, the society, the culture, the family
for guidance and the answers to the questions of existence…
my values are no longer the values that I was indoctrinated into by the family, the state,
the society, the culture… I seek to discover my values… not the inherited values
I have received from the family, society, the state and the culture…
to become autonomous, I must seek values that reflect who I am, not who
society or the state has determined who I am or what role I will play for them…
I must walk away from such ism’s as capitalism and nationalism because they
determine my values and my role within society… where I must seek and find
the value for which I hold to be true, regardless of whether society, the state,
the church agrees or disagrees with me…
but in order to do so, I must work out the nature of the various ism’s and ideologies
of the society, the state, the church, the culture and the family…I must know
what my values are in comparison to the values of the state, society, the church,
the family to understand in order to make sense of my values and the society’s,
state, the culture, the church, the family values are…
what is the difference between the two? how are my values different between
the values of the state, the society, the family, the church?
I already know I hold distinct and different values then the state, society, the church…
by my being an atheist and by holding that a key value of existence is the value
of love and peace… already, I am in conflict with the society in terms of those
three values…but what other values do I hold distinct and separate from the state, the
family, the church, the society, the culture?
and that is what I am exploring…people hold that one of the strengths of
American is in its military strength… I disagree…we hold to martial values
far too strongly… we hold that the service and sacrifice of the soldiers is the
pinnacle of American values… I disagree…I hold that the true strength of
a human being is found in peace and love and other values which mark us as
human beings, not just animals…I have described these values many, many times
and hope not to describe them once more…
the path to becoming human is not through violence, but through peace and love…
the higher values of human existence…so instead of holding to American values,
such as power makes right and violence is the answer, I hold the true value of being
human lies in overcoming our animal instincts…the instincts of hate, violence,
anger, greed, lust, envy, jealousy… the lower values of existence
the lower values of animals, or of animal/human… I hold to the values of
becoming human fully human…that is the battle…to go from being
animal to becoming human…
to me that is the point of existence… the journey to becoming
human…where we are both connected to our society,
as we must be and yet we are also autonomous and authentic…
and that is the story I tell…
how to be part of the society, the state, the culture, the family
and still be an autonomous, authentic human being…
this a tough road to navigate, but navigate it we must
Kropotkin