another look at existence....

we exists…I am a single human being existing right now, right here…
soon, I will no longer exist…as I didn’t come into existence until 1959…
my own personal existence is limited in time and space…as each of
our own personal existence is limited in time and space…

but we do have some continuity… we have idea’s and ism’s and beliefs
that transcend our own personal existence…that generations prior to us
held and generations after will, perhaps, hold…

and what are ism’s and ideologies? they are attempt to work out and
understand what it means to exist…

so, Christianity was/is an ideology/ism that explains what it means to be
human, to exist… as is Marxism is another ism that offers us a vision
of what it means to be human…as is capitalism and democracy
and Buddhism just to name a few of our current ism’s…
there have been hundreds of visions of what it means to be human…
every religion is another attempt at understanding what is the point
of existence… every single political system is another attempt
to explain and understand our existence…to make sense of
what it means to be human…

the Egyptian religion with its focus on justice and the weighing of the human soul
is another attempt to make sense of existence as is the old Norse religions that
brought us Thor and Odin of the MCU movies…

Thor is simple another ideal or vision of what it means too be human…
as is Loki and Freyja… we can see aspects of human existence within each
god… Loki is the trickster god… and we can see this aspect of humans,
every single day…

of course that is but one interpretation of the ancient gods… just aspects
of what we are…As the Greeks gods seem to have been…

but all these isms/ideologies and mythologies to explain who we are
and what it means to be human have a temporary aspect to them
because every myth and ism has been temporary in nature…
the Christian religion has a thousand years to go before it matches
the longevity of the Egyptian religion and even that religion died out
thousands of years ago…but why the temporary nature of religions
and isms?

we can see that because of the changing nature of existence…
Christianity existed as long as it did because it explain existence
that matched what the people saw on the ground…we can see
that the ism matched what people saw in their daily lives…
the words, the ism matched the actions, the people actions…
and the environment… it is not enough to have isms and ideologies,
the ism/ideologies must match was people see and understand what is
going around them at the time…this changing environment is what
changes belief in isms and religions…capitalism was the “religion” of
America until the changing environment, our current situation,
changed…this last enforced year off for millions of people has
forced people to reevaluate what it means to be human…to reexamine
what existence means for them…

millions of people have left the working environment…
every industry in America is struggling to find and hold workers…
including in my crapping industry… retail… long hours, hard work,
low pay and shitty management… and a meaningless existence at that…
to work retail is to discover firsthand what a meaningless existence
feels like…Sartre was wrong, hell isn’t other people, hell is
working retail…in other words, finding the reason for existence
isn’t found in working… which is not what the gospel
of capitalism promises…that failed religion that promised
that by work, one will find meaning and purpose…and what meaning and purpose
is found in retail’s long hours, crappy pay, management complete
indifference to the life and death of it’s employees…we are simple
expendable parts to the running of the business…what matters and all
that the company cares about is profit, nothing else…
and how does one find meaning and purpose given that reality
of capitalism?

if the promised religion of America, capitalism has failed, then now what?

if it no longer offers us meaning or purpose, then why believe?

those who hold faith in capitalism claim that the other religion,
communism has failed, has failed to offer us meaning and purpose,
then what is left? If we don’t have capitalism and we don’t have communism,
then how do we find meaning and purpose?

hence the rise of old time religion in America… but it is true,
one cannot go home again… although at one time, religion did
offer us meaning and purpose, we no longer believe in the promise
of salvation and meaning within religions… and once again, now what?

hence the battle in America is simply finding something, some
ism or ideology that will give us meaning and purpose…
that is the search in America today… what will give us, me,
some meaning and purpose?

Kropotkin