There have been some threads of late as to how to heal
America…but they missed the solutions because they don’t grasp
what is actually involved in this process…
We return to Socrates, as always, because he understood the question…
healing… Socrates quite often called Philosophy… a healer of the soul…
of the individual soul and collective soul of a people/state/society…
Philosophy was the method he devised to heal the soul…
and this healing was the basis of his very last quote on earth:
“Crito, we owe a cock to Asclepius; pay it and don’t forget”
and who is Asclepius? He was the god of healing and the sacrifice of a cock
was the normal offering of thanks for recovery from illness.
His very words reflect his ongoing concern with healing and the soul…
Socrates was also very engaged with medicine… he quite often connected
medicine and philosophy…he felt they were engaged in the very same act,
that of healing… medicine was to heal the body and philosophy to heal the soul…
so now that we understand the connections, we can move on the philosophy
as healer…
Socrates would assess America (and perhaps the world) as being sick,
specifically being soul sick…the symptoms Socrates would point to
as America being soul sick is quite evident in looking at America and
have been touched on by others…see how divided we are, see how
much disfunction and disarray exists in America today… we are lost
as to what comes next and we fundamentally disagree with each other about
possible solutions…
but it quite clear that we have lost our way in the way basic fundamental
values/principles have been lost or is now ignored…for example, take
the TFH party… formally known as the GOP… tell us what values or principles
the TFH party stand for? none that I can tell…the TFH party is all about the
conspiracies… and they will happily tell one about the various conspiracies they
believe in, but as for principles? they have none…outside of being mercenaries…
ideals for sale to the highest bidder…
it was said about Rush Limbaugh after he died that he would have just as happily
espoused liberals idea if they just paid as well as the conservative ideas…his
ideology was driven by how much money he could make with it…liberals don’t
pay as well, so he offered his services to the right because the pay is better…
( it was his producer of many years that said this btw)
and that particular story reflects exactly the conservative values… on sale to
the highest bidder…and this is our first understanding of the sickness of America…
it values and beliefs are corrupted by money…we hold money to be of higher
value then the values themselves…so the question of “what does America stand for”
really becomes about how everything in America is for sale including the
values and principles that make up a country…
our first understanding of our soul sickness begins here… we have no
values or principles… because if you can buy off values and principles,
you don’t have values or principles…for something to be a value or
principle, you can’t just allow it to be bought and sold like a commodity,
like beer or iron or cars…a car isn’t a value or a principle because it can
be bought and sold by anyone off the street with money and just as easily sold
by anyone for a price…which leads us to a question? what value or principles
can’t be bought in America today?
pro-life? please, that is just a display for show because the pro-life forces don’t hold
onto this principle after the birth of a child…they are pro-life for a fetus and then after
that, they couldn’t care less which means that they aren’t pro-life…they are just
“pro-fetus”…so once again, what values or principles are held as values and
principles and held regardless of the conditions on the ground?
none, that I can spot… everything is for sale in America including our values
and principles…
and so we find our first issue with the soul of America… it doesn’t stand for
anything… we have no values or principles that we hold onto regardless of
the circumstances on the ground…what principle defines what it means to
be an American?
and the fact of the matter, there isn’t a defining principle or value that defines
America… you might say “freedom” and that value or principle left the building
after 9/11 with the so called “Patriot Act”…which I might add the right wing
built and cheer on…but now that we have right wing domestic terrorists,
they try to hang their hats onto the “rights and freedoms” of Americans…
which they happily discarded in the "patriot act…because the “patriot act” was
to be used against the “others” “others” being people of color or of a different
religion or race… and that is perfectly acceptable to the right wing…
they have an intolerance toward anyone who isn’t them… and hold the exact
same beliefs… and that isn’t a principle or a value, it is simple prejudice that
drives this… there is no great value or principles here,
just old fashion prejudice and bigotry…
and in fact if I were to name the one “value” of the conservative, it would be
prejudice and bias and bigotry… but as I said, those aren’t values or principles,
they are hate and anger and violence dress up pretty, real pretty…
so we return to the soul sickness of America…and what exactly does America
stand for? what are our values and principles?
We in America clearly have a angst or malaise or a discomfort that lie around
us like a deep fog in the morning…
think of the words that are opposite of Malaise…
words like calm, comfort, ease, pleasure, peace, healthiness, happiness,
joy or well being… these words clearly don’t describe the America I live in
today…
so step one is understanding that we don’t actually stand for anything,
that we have values or principles that mean anything or that can’t be bought…
so what is step two? understanding that we don’t have a goal or a destination
for us to engage with… what is the goal of America? what is it we
are attempting to do? what are we trying to accomplish? and therein
lies part of the failure of the current pursuit we engaged in, money,
fame, power, titles… they aren’t a goal or an accomplishment that
we can use to achieve the goals we really seek…
for to seek money means that is all we will get, money, and in seeking
fame, that is all that one gets in seeking fame…and in seeking titles or
power, this is no other ending game for this… all you get when seeking money
or fame or power or titles is money, fame or power or titles… you don’t get
anything else from these empty promises of existence…
so that leads us back to what should we be seeking?
should we be seeking the normal paths of existence
such as knowledge, pleasure, union with god, equanimity, justice,
control, peace? these are considered to be deeper values then just
a search for money or fame… and why? because a seeking of these values
brings us something that is more then just more of the same…
let us just take one of these values, equanimity…
if we achieve equanimity, that can’t be bought or sold or even lost
because equanimity is something that can hold us to and last us till
death…and we can use that equanimity to make all our judgments
upon…it can become our lodestar value that we use to make all other
decisions with…and that is the value of this list of values like knowledge or
justice or peace or even love… we can use that one value to make judgements
about all other values or actions or words…If I hold that justice is my value,
then every other action or word I might make, I can use justice, as a value,
to decide about every other action or word I make… it is right to deny
people their ability to free speech? no, and why? because we can judge the
denial of free speech on our value of justice… and justice is always about
equality…those two words, justice and equality are the same word…
but today, can we truly say we have a word or value that we use to judge
all other words or actions we make? no, no we cannot say that…
because we are valueless and without principles… we have no set or fixed value
that we can judge all other actions or words upon…that is, in part, why we
are so lost and full of doubt today…
and so we can use philosophy, the understanding of values and principles to
reengage us into some semblance of knowing who we are and what is our goals/
plans for the future…
the only way to escape the malaise or angst or anxiety we experience today,
in America, as American’s is to engage with value/values that allow us to
make some judgement about any or all of our words and actions…
that is certainly one solid step toward ending the unease and doldrums
that have infected America today…
but we must use the most effective tool in our toolbox to fix
what is wrong with the soul of America and that tool is
philosophy…
so we use philosophy to diagnose what is wrong with the soul of America
and we use philosophy to find a cure for what ails America today…
philosophy as medicine for what ails us…
for what ails our soul… for finding out what has caused us
to become soul sick and what is the cure for that soul sickness…
what is your diagnoses of America and what your cure?
and it is philosophically based?
Kropotkin