a new understanding of today, time and space.

so given what I have laid out, what is the good?

we do good when we help others to achieve their possibilities…
when we help people to achieve their fundamental needs of
food, water, shelter, education, health care… when we help people
to gain the bottom layer of basic human needs, we are helping them
to be able to achieve the goal of reaching the top of the drive to
travel from animal/human to fully human… but that path of
achieving self-actualization only comes if the lower level of
the human needs are met… so, the journey to become human
requires us to help everyone attempt to make their own journey
to self-actualization…

so, if we help people on the road to rising higher on the pyramid of needs,
from the lower basic needs of food and water and shelter to safety/security to
love/belonging to esteem to the next step, note I didn’t say final step, but
the next step of self-actualization…then we have done good… we have done
the right thing… the thing that matters more then the superficial goals of
fame, wealth, titles, houses… mere nothings these things are……

but to help someone grow from animal/human to human… that is a
task worthy of being human……

Kropotkin

if I don’t choose to follow wealth or fame or titles or
promotions or any of the shallow or superficial aspects of our live…

then what? what should I be doing? should I be practicing Ascetism or
living in the wilderness or hiding in my room?

nope… as noted before, if we are living alone, isolated from
everyone else, we have no need for philosophy or morality
or ethics or politics or history or any other social tool…

the question becomes how do we become aware given our
complete inclusion into modern society?

the trick begins once we begin to understand our addictions…

we are addicted to money and the purchasing of material goods…

it is a substitute for our lack of any type of moral center…

we try to be happy by thinking our happiness is tied into material goods
and wealth… but if you are always trying to get the latest gadget or
newest too, the iPhone 11 is an excellent example of thinking that
by buying some new toy, we might gain some happiness……

but materialism is only a temporary fix… and like any other drug,
the high only lasts so long before we need another fix of conspicuous
consumption…a new car or that second vacation home…….

we can engage in something besides the ongoing buying and selling that
dominates our lives…

but it doesn’t mean we must engage in Ascetism… we don’t need to
hold our bodies to harsh treatment to properly engage with what I am
talking about…

what do human beings really need?

we need the basics for sure, food, water, shelter, education, health care…

but we don’t need anything beyond that… we can get by on two meals
a day and nothing fancy… we have animal needs that must, must be
taken care of but we don’t have to make those needs into a fetish…
the end all, be all of existence…we can fill those basic needs with
basic, not fancy foods as we can with very expensive gourmet meals…

we can feed and clothes ourselves fairly cheap…
if we avoid conspicuous consumption in our eating and clothing habits……

it is in shelter that complicates matters but we can just as easily live in a small
one room apartment as we can in a 15 room mansion…

in other words, we can easily pare down our needs, our basic animal needs,
to a pretty minimal level… and easily still exists…

as for our other needs of Maslow’s pyramid… those needs aren’t just
physical needs, the need for safety/security doesn’t need a physical,
actual fence or living in a gated community…our safety/security needs
as all the above higher level needs are not physical, but mental, psychological
needs to be met…

in other words, the only physical need in Maslow is the lowest need level,
all the rest are mental, emotional, psychological needs…

now agreed that if we fear for our lives, it is hard to met the higher levels
of being human, the need for love/belonging or esteem or self-actualization…

but the truth is, we in America and we in the west, Europe, Japan,
Australia, New Zeeland and large parts of south America are actually
fairly safe and secure…

if we don’t listen to the fear mongering of the right, the GOP and IQ45
that try to sell fear as a means to getting elected, then we can see that
we are relatively safe and secure… sure crime happens, but the fact is
and has been documented, that the amount of crime around the world
has fallen over the last couple of hundred years…the world is safer today
then it has been…….

“the only thing we need to fear, is fear itself”

so we need to realize that the higher levels of Maslow pyramid is about
fulfilling our inner needs… love isn’t about a physical need, but it is
about a psychological need…

that is why we don’t need to run about like chickens trying to
fulfill our physical needs with such stuff like wealth or power or
material goods or titles…….

we have to fill our mental, emotional, psychological needs, but
not with physical goods like cars or wealth or houses…

we can fill our mental, emotional, psychological needs by becoming
aware of what those mental, emotional, psychological needs are…

once again, we return to Socrates and his dictum,

“to know thyself”

and “the unexamined life isn’t worth living”

if we examine our lives and we can see that we are trying to
answer mental, emotional, psychological needs with foolish
addictions like wealth, power, titles, promotions, material goods…

you cannot answer mental, emotional, psychological needs with
physical, material goods………

and that is where we have been going wrong… trying to answer inner needs
with outer material goods…

round hole… met… squire peg

inner needs can only be answered by inner goals and answers

and outer needs can only be answer by outer goals and answers…

we cannot eat love… and love is certainly an answer to a question but
not the answer to the question of, how do I meet my physical need for food…

and food isn’t the answer for the question of, how do I feed my need for love?

we must seek the right answer for the right question…

so seek what it is you are attempting to gain?

are you attempting to gain the bottom level of food, water, shelter?

then working and making money is the right answer…

but if you are attempting to gain love or esteem or the highest level,
self-actualization, then food or shelter isn’t the right answer…….

the right answer must fit the right question…

so, so knowing thyself is the proper place to know and understand
what needs you are tying to fulfill… either physical or mental/emotional/
psychological needs, then you must approach the problem with either physical or
mental or emotional or psychological answers… it depends upon what needs
you are trying to fulfill…

we don’t need fancy houses or expensive cars to attempt to answer
the question, what needs am I trying to fulfill?

that is why we don’t need to engage in a search for money or wealth or
fame or titles or power or promotions…

they don’t help us answer the question, what needs are we trying to fulfill?

we can engage in our daily lives but with the question of needs and what answers
should we engage with, on our minds…

I can go about my daily life of working at my crappy store and still be able
to engage in the questions about, what needs am I trying to fulfill?

I can still engage with my family and watch TV and root for the Niners
to go to the Super Bowl and still be able to work out what needs are my
needs……

all it takes is carving out “me time”… time to think about, to contemplate
what it means to be human and what needs am I trying to fulfill?

we don’t need to practice ascetism or anything so radical…

we just need to devote some time in our lives to think about what it
means to be human or what needs am I attempting to fulfill?

to make the goal, not to be wealthy or famous or have fancy cars
or titles but to make the goal an understanding of who we are
and what does it mean in our lives to become self-actualized…….

it just takes time for us to be alone with our thoughts

and nothing can proven to be harder then making time for us
to think about who we are and what is our place in the universe
and what needs am I trying to fulfill?

don’t escape life… simply make time to think…

Kropotkin

part of my objections with the whole materialistic/corporate life
is that they deal only with the basic, bottom level of existence…
of the bottom level of physical needs…… what exactly do
corporations offer us? only money, promotions, titles…
the basic ego driven things of no value…

the capitalistic world cannot answer or fulfill the higher level
needs of human existence… needs like love or esteem or
safety/security or self-actualization…

the capitalistic world can only deal with the lowest level of
our needs…of feeding or clothing or giving us shelter or health care
or an education…….

the capitalistic world cannot answer our questions of our higher needs…

this basic failure of the capitalistic world is why I continue to
criticize the capitalistic world… because it only deals with
the physical needs of human existence…

we can operate within the capitalistic world if we engage our
thoughts to the fulfillment of our higher needs outside of the
capitalistic world… we cannot, cannot fulfill our higher needs
within the capitalistic world because it is only focused upon the
bottom layer or level of human existence………

that is why we must grow beyond the bottom level, basic level
of human existence that is the capitalistic society…

our economic and political and cultural system must become
something more the just an attempt to engage with only our
physical level of existence…we must have an economic,
political, social system that engages with us on our higher
human levels…

that is the value of communism…… it attempts to deal with
humans on a higher level then just the physical level that
capitalism deals with…communism fails when it deals
only with our lowest level of existence…… we must seek
out economic, political and social/cultural systems that
rise above being just merely about our physical, bottom
level needs of food, water, shelter, health care……

we need to embrace social/economic/political systems
that attempt to reach higher then just the physical needs
of human existence……

our need for safety/security and love/belonging and
esteem and finally self-actualization must be included
into our next social/political/economic system……

a rather tall order but a necessary one……

capitalism is a failure because it is only focuses on the
physical needs instead of the higher needs of being human…

communism a step further into a focus into the higher levels
of human existence but only a step… it does focus on
the belonging need of human existence and humans must
met the need of belonging but communism cannot fulfill
the other human existence needs of safety/security or
love or esteem or self-actualization…

so the search is now clear… how do we find a political/
economic/social system that helps us fulfill our basic
human needs of safety/security or love/belonging or
esteem or the most human of all, the self-actualization
level…

the goal we are trying to reach is the goal of us reaching,
both individually and collectively, the goal of
reaching the level of self-actualization…

of being able to reach our full potential of us…
of being able to find and fulfill our possibilities…

again, both individually and, and collectively……

what social/economic/political system will allow us to do just that?

and that is the question.

Kropotkin

When we think about the “final” goal of the Greeks
and the Christian, that of the ever contemplation of
the eternal, be it an idea, the Greeks or be it god,
the Christian, I reject this idea…

there is no growth in the forever contemplation of god or the idea…

it stagnates and remains fixed for ever… and I reject that…

the human path is the path of adaptation and change and evolution…

we evolve from the lowest level of human experience, the bottom
level of trying to fulfill our lower needs of being animal/human…
of attempting to fulfill our need for food, water, shelter, education,
health care… but the real question of human existence is not
to contemplate forever god or an idea but to grow or evolve to
the next stage which is safety/security and then grow or evolve to
the next stage which is love/belonging then evolve to the esteem stage
of human existence and then to the next stage of human existence
which is to become self-actualized… which means to explore our possibilities
of being human and fulfilling them…

but I say unto you, that is not the final stage… for what comes after
our becoming self-actualized?

that is the question… for every stage means that there is another stage
waiting for humans to reach and explore… so there is another stage after
self-actualization… at this point in time, I cannot know it, but
those in the future might and must know it and that will become
their new attempt to reach and obtain…for within every level, every
stage lies the formation of the next stage… within the bottom stage of
fulfilling our basic necessities of animal/human of food, water…etc…
comes the germ of the idea of safety/security and within that level lies
the germ of the next stage, the love/belonging stage and within that
stage lies the germ of the next stage, the esteem stage and within
that level lies the next level, the self-actualization level
and once we reach that, the next stage will become evident to us…
because the next stage after self-actualization will have the next stage,
the next level embedded within it… so within self-actualization lies the
next stage, the next level…and once I reach it, I can see my way clear to
the next stage, the next level……something above self-actualization…

I hope I live long enough to reach my self-actualization stage…

so, where are you in the stages of life?

Kropotkin

the failure of philosophy today is because philosophy
is a “theoretical activity” instead of being part of our soul…

it is not enough to know what a philosophy like say, Kant, said
and wrote…we must have the courage of our convictions
and live out Kant’s philosophy…or if we believe in Hume,
then we must live within Hume’s philosophy…or perhaps
we must live within a school of philosophy like perhaps
the Stoics school or the existentialism school of the 20th
century…it isn’t enough to hold philosophy as a theoretical
activity, we must engage in philosophy as a way of life…

not by practicing asceticism in a monastery but as the Greeks practice
philosophy… in their homes, on the streets, at their work…

do you have enough courage of your convictions to actually
practice your philosophy out in the streets, in your home,
at your work?

But Kropotkin, I don’t know my philosophy……

and that is the point, isn’t it?

you haven’t done a reevaluation of values within yourself to where
you know what values are yours and what values were
indoctrinated within you as a child and in modern day America,
as an adult… by the media, by the state, by the church, by the
culture, by your education, by your work…….

we cannot even begin to exists within our values because we
are unaware of our own values… we have no clue as to what values
are really us… and not the values of indoctrination…

“the unexamined life isn’t worth living”

and who has the courage of convictions to actually begin
an examination of one’s life?

not just a physical examine but a mental, emotional,
psychological, historical, philosophical and yes,
a religious examination of what it means to be you…

to explore what it means to be you, is an exploration of what
it means to be human and to have and hold, our human failings
as something to be explored and understood…

who has the courage to publicly expose their failing?

few, very few have the courage of their convictions to
explore their failings in public……

I am man… and I hold a multitudes within me…

I can have a very short temper, I don’t have the patience
to deal with people that I had when I was younger,
I can be very mean and cruel to others, oftentimes
without even meaning it, I am quite often insensitive to
others and their feelings… I just don’t care enough to notice…

I try to be the model of consistency at work…and I don’t bring my
problems into work…if you come into my line any day of the week,
I will treat you exactly the same…and speed you out of there as fast as
possible…I tend to gossip at work…I am very nosy…I want to
know what is going on at all times………

my failings and there are plenty of them, are what make me human…

how do I correct my failings? by first becoming aware of them,
to examine my life… to know thyself………

that is the first step of every single activity we humans must engage with…

what failings of my many failings should I work on? that depends upon what my
goal is as a human being…….

I tend to exists within my own head… I am inner directed, not outer directed…

this means I engage with the universe less then I engage with my own idea’s,
thoughts, values… I hold long discourses with myself…
of which are these very writings… just another form of a discourse with
myself…I tend to be cold and distant and apart from people…
I can go days by myself and never feel the need to interact with
anybody else…

my engagement with the world has grown less and my engagement with
my self has grown more…I am becoming much more aware of my engagement
with the world in terms of the positive and negative values……

I try to face the world with the positive values of hope and love and peace
and charity and honesty… and I try to stay away from negative values
of hate, fear, greed, lust, anger… and when I digress into negative values,
I try to hold myself accountable for that failure…

I am a work in progress… from infant to extreme old age, we change,
evolve, adapt and become…as I grow older, I am slowly becoming
the person I want to be … I am going from animal/human to becoming
human… where I am in control of who I am and I am in control of my passions
and emotions and feelings…by engaging in my higher angels, I am becoming
more human… when I engage with the lower, negative, animal aspect of me,
I am becoming less human and more animal… the more I engage in reason,
understanding, control…the more human I am…

when I engage in the lower instincts of the animal, they control me,
the are in charge… when I am the higher values, I am in control of them…

and that is my goal… to become engaged in my higher human
nature of me…………when I lose control, that is the animal
inside of me being in charge, when I gain control over myself,
that is the human aspect of me, being in charge…

so, so who is in control over you?

are you animal/human? or are you human?

Kropotkin

I don’t strive to become a better American or a better
philosopher or a better Christian or a better worker…

I strive to become a better human being…
that is my goal…I try to engage with my higher, more
human values of love and peace and honesty
and hope and charity and toleration…

and my understanding of who I am revolves around my
understanding of the values which drive my life…

the values I am striving to become, not just values
I study as a theoretical possibility but values I engage with
on a regular basis with other human beings…….
while I am at work, while I am at home, while I am shopping
and eating out and watching movies… the higher, more positive
values are the values worth engaging in because those are the
values that make one more human……

and that is my ultimate goal… to become more human…

to travel that path from animal to animal/human to being fully human…

to go from operating on instincts to a combination of instincts and reason,
to becoming fully human by operating, by being reason…not instincts…

Kropotkin

so earlier, we laid out the Kantian/Kropotkin questions of
human existence… “What am I do?” “What should I believe in?”
“What should I hope for?” “What values should I hold?” “What should
I spend my energy on?”……….

How does my new understanding impact such fundamental questions
that we human face from the minute we are born?

“What am I to do?” and the answer is, become human…
we have gone from animal, no different then cats or dogs
or bears, to animal/human, where we still are animal in form
and needs but human in our attempting to overcome our instincts
of the animals… we cannot overcome our form or needs, but we can
overcome our instincts and we can become our values… something
that animals cannot do…

“What can I hope for?” I can hope for the courage to overcome
my animal instincts that can control me… where I let anger
and fear and hatred and greed and lust dictate my thoughts
and actions…I have no control when I allow those negative
values to dictate my thoughts and actions…….

but I am in control when I answer to the higher values of human
existence… love, peace, charity, justice, hope…….

when I make a choice to become my values of peace and hope
and justice, I make a choice to become human and follow my
human values…not the animal side of me, but my human side…

“What should my values be?” I have laid out that argument…
we should become our higher, positive values, not only for our own
sake but for the sake of the human race and for the sake of the living…

I am not attempting to become a better American, a more patriotic American,
nor am I attempting to become a better philosopher or a better worker or
a better citizen, no, no and a thousand times no…

I am attempting to, with values of the higher nature, to become a
better human being…….to hold my self to the highest standard possible…
as with any journey, my journey to become the best possible human being
has its ups and it downs…but I keep striving and engaging with that which
is best within me… the higher values of existence of love and hope and
charity and justice and peace and all those higher values of being…

but I don’t make my journey in isolation or engaging in the renunciation of
the body…I embrace who I am and I take my journey in the midst of
the polis as did the Greeks… they searched for their higher being in
the midst and chaos of the city as do I…….we cannot become who we
are in isolation, apart from everyone… no, the path to becoming human
lies squarely in existing with our fellow human beings… for we learn best
from talking to and engaging with our fellow human beings…

I can learn best how to become a better human by being engaged
with my fellow human beings in the city…

as we engage with our fellow travelers, we can compare and contrast
our words, actions, needs and goals with others… and that comparing
and contrasting is how we learn to become better human beings…

that is why the whole isolation of the monastery, the ascetism that
dominated the middle ages didn’t create better human beings…

the lessons to be learned are best learned from our engagement
in the city, with the people of the city…while working, while
studying, while screwing, while eating… you cannot replace that
engagement with others by isolating oneself and engaging in dialogue
with oneself…….

the Kantian/Kropotkin question becomes, “How do I best become human?”

by our examination of who we are and what is possible for us…

to know thyself and to become aware……

to discover what values I have are simply values that were indoctrinated into
me or are they really my values…

to have an reevaluation of values whereby I examine my values to
see if they are really my values…or someone’s else values indoctrinated into me…

to overcome any indoctrinated values and seek those values which
are really are me… to become who I am…

the path to become human is a long one… we have, as human beings, engaged
in this path for over a million years, we cannot expect to become human, to
overcome our animal side overnight…the journey, the road map we need to
take in our journey is clear, but do we have the courage to embark on a journey
that will leave many tormented by what is and what could be…

by asking the Kantian/Kropotkin questions, we can see where we are
and where we can hope to be…“upon what should I spend my energy on?”
another Kantian/Kropotkin question and that question is answered by
the understanding that the goal is to become human…

in the days and weeks and months and years, began to ask yourself,
have I become more human? have I begun to escape that which makes
me animal…my animal side is the negative, attributes of being human
the being under control of our additions is being animal,
the being unable to control our words or actions is being animal…
to engage with anger, hatred, lust, greed as a solution to our problems
is animal.

the road is from animal to animal/human to becoming fully human…

when do you start to make that journey?

Kropotkin

But Kropotkin, are you insisting upon reason above faith?

Faith, we live in faith every single day… I have faith that I
will wake up in the morning, I have faith that my wife will
return safe and sound after her job…I have faith that I will
remain in “sound mind and body” until the work is done…
I have faith that the dumbest man alive won’t blow up the
planet while being president…

I hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are create equal"

I hold this statement as a statement of faith…

faith, no more then reason, are expression of being human…

animals do not have faith, nor do animals have reason…

faith is a tool, just like any other tool, faith keeps us from blowing our
brains out when all looks dark and dismal…I have faith that tomorrow
the sun will shine and the birds will sing…but to me, and perhaps only
to me, does faith look a whole lot like hope… I believe one can use
faith and hope interchangeably…and hope is one of the higher aspirations
of man…

so, there is room for hope/faith in our understanding of what it means to be
human…….

when all looks lost, hope/faith is what allows us to continue despite
overwhelming odds… when a human being loses hope/faith, life loses
all meaning…we might be fine physically and mentally and psychologically,
but once one lose hope/faith, we have lost…game over…regardless of
what else happens, once one loses faith… it is the end…

so we must make room for hope/faith in our understanding of what
it means to be human…the power of hope/faith to get us up every
morning cannot, cannot be underestimated…

maybe, just maybe, today is the day that its turn around and
and my life gets better…I can only hope…

no, we cannot so easily dismiss hope/faith in the modern scheme of things………….

so, I am not saying, either we accept reason or we accept hope/faith…
there is no middle ground between the two… there is always some middle
ground between any two antagonistic or opposing viewpoints or idea’s…
we just have to search for them…in fact, we might even pursue the idea
that hope/faith and reason, are just two equal and opposing idea’s but upon
reflection, faith and reason are two sides of the same coin and upon further
reflection, hope/faith and reason are the same thing… if we look at it
hard enough……

so, is hope/faith and reason simply the same thing?

Kropotkin

that we use reason to gain universal and necessary judgements
about the universe… like Kant…

I don’t think we need to attempt to discover universal truths/judgements
when I am not sure that there are universal truths/judgments…

but that doesn’t dismiss reason as a another tool in the toolbox…

we simply have to become aware of the uses and abuses of reason…

we cannot say, it is either reason or faith we must follow…

reason has its place just as hope/faith has its place…

we just can’t depend upon reason to work out universal truths
and judgments like Kant’s moral/categorical imperative…

but I can use reason to work out what is my best course of action
in understanding what it means to be human… I can use reason
as a tool to create understanding…just as I use hope/faith as a tool
to get up in the morning to work my crappy job… I hope it is a better day
at work today… I know rationally that it is going to suck at work, but
with hope/faith, I can muster enough hope/faith to think, perhaps,
maybe, today will be different. It will be better today…
and I am forever disappointed… but perhaps, perhaps tomorrow
will be better, I hope/have faith…

reason tells me that work will suck, yesterday, today and tomorrow…
I cannot escape the nightmare that is work, at least not until
I retire, which at this point, is the same day I die…….

I can use reason on a small scale way or means of understanding my
role or place in the universe… I may not be able to make such
large scale pronouncements that Kant or Hegel or Spinoza made, but
I can use reason to make small scale understanding of what it means to
be human……and what it takes to go from animal to animal/human to
human… fully human…and reason is the tool I use to make
that judgement……

so, reason isn’t oppose to faith, reason is simply another tool, just
as faith is a tool…

Kropotkin

to expect the universal truths to come from either
reason… Athens or universal truths to come from religion, Jerusalem…
is to first ask, is there such a thing as universal truths?

I have stated before, I don’t accept the idea that there is such
a thing as a “universal truth” that is a judgement of some nature…
for example, a universal truth is “because Adam sinned, all human kind
is cursed with the original sin” that sort of “universal” truth, it isn’t
very plausible or likely…… it is simply a justification to sin without
consequences……

“all men are evil” is another example of a universal truth, that is simply
wrong based on just us looking at the people around us…

universal truths are very hard to disprove…… an example of this seems to
be a slam dunk… “all human beings die” and yet, I am not sure this is true
because we haven’t been able to and won’t be able to examine everyone
who has ever been born… there might be a case, a human being that has
lived for centuries… I cannot know either way… I must remain
agnostic to the idea of universal truths and judgments because I simple
don’t have the information necessary to make such a judgement…

I must reserve my judgment until I have all the facts and in
the case of universal truths/judgement, we can never have all
the facts, so we must reserve our judgements in the cases of
universal/judgements…

but then Kropotkin, you cannot proclaim yourself to be an atheist because
you don’t have all the fact within your possession…

I have reason, which on a small scale can offer up answers to
many of the vexing questions of human existence…

I see no prove of a god…I cannot imagine a situation where
it becomes necessary to imagine up a god… I cannot imagine up
any necessary reason for god… I have no evidence for god’s existence,
I have no reason for god’s existence…now can I expand that into some
universal truth/judgements? I don’t think so… for everyone has their
reasons to believe or disbelieve in some universal truths/judgements…

but locally, within my field of vision, I cannot justify the use of or the need for
god, nor can I find any evidence for such a being…….

hence, I call myself an atheist because I am not trying to reach some
universal reason about such matters, I am simply stating my local truth…
there is no god… I can’t speak for you, but for me, there is no god
and there is no proof of such a being…I reasoned that out…
whereas someone else might reason out otherwise… that is the nature
of reason… it is a locally applied use of a tool we humans have…

Kropotkin

I am a philosopher…

I am supposed to seek the truth…

but I don’t…

I commit blasphemy in the philosophical circles by not
seeking the truth at all cost…

What truth? Whose truth?

I cannot say…

is my truth more “real” then your truth?

I cannot say…

is my truth, more true, then your truth?

I cannot say……

I cannot even say what the word “truth” means…

for I don’t know……

I cannot even say what reality we are trying to describe…

for I don’t know…

I cannot say what the word “understanding” means…

for I don’t know…

for I am ignorant of such matters…

I cannot tell you what is real or true or even understand such things…

I can only ask questions about what they mean…

I have been misinformed about such things… from childhood…

my childhood indoctrinations from the state and society and church and media…

they lied as to what is real and what is true and what is understanding…

the purpose of those indoctrinations weren’t to inform or allow understanding…

no, those indoctrinations were meant to get me to obey…nothing more…

to be a “good” citizen, to be a “good” Christian, to be a “good” Patriot…

and by “good” that means only one thing… to obey, to follow the rules…

what is the great crime of modern society?

Insubordination…….

to prevent the crimes that bedevil societies…

defiance, dissension, rebellion, revolt, revolution, noncompliance…

these criminal acts, all of them……

and what do these criminal acts have to do with “TRUTH”?

For the question becomes, who decides what is the “TRUTH”?

Society, the state demands to be the only arbiter of what is the “TRUTH”…

If I as an individual decide the “TRUTH” for myself, I am a criminal…

for I dare to subvert the power of the state by declaring the truth is

outside of the control, the domination of the state…

but I cannot tell you what is the “TRUTH”…

but to search for the truth outside of the state’s indoctrinations

is to commit the cardinal sin of insubordination………….

I am a heretic because I don’t subscribe to the state’s indoctrinations…

and so I am labeled, radical, liberal, socialist, communist, anarchist,

and why?

because I seek the “TRUTH” outside of the state’s sanction indoctrinations…

and what are the state sanction indoctrinations?

Money, Patriotism, profits, martial, materialism, religious, obedience…

all the phony idols, we American’s bow down and pray to……

I oppose each and every one of these sacred tenets of America…

instead of praying to the state’s indoctrinations…

I seek values worth living for, worth dying for…

values like love, peace, hope, justice, charity…

Un-American values because there is no profits in those values…

and profits are the real religion in America today…

all bow down and pray to the holy ghost of profits…

bow down and pray to Mammon… our real heavenly father…

I shall not bend the knee to such false and nihilistic values…

and what is the “TRUTH”?

Kropotkin

“Whoever is not of faith is sin”

St. Paul, Romans 14:23

and I am not of faith, so I am in sin……

and whomever is not of faith, of the indoctrinations
of the state, is sin……

the articles of faith in America…

Money, Patriotism, profits, martial, materialism, religious, obedience……

and I am not of faith, so I am… sin……

“Whomever disowns me before others, I will disown before my father in heaven”

Never a more patriotic belief was ever held……

For the father in heaven in America is Mammon, profits…

and for my sin, I am disowned before the father in heaven,

I am a poor man… disowned before the heavenly father…

and what is my great crime of insubordination?

I reject the values of America as being nihilistic…

nihilistic: devaluing and dehumanizing humans and their values……

do you hold faith in the indoctrinations of the state?

are you in obedience?

are you a good citizen or a good patriot or a good American?

then you are not… sin…….

but verily I say unto you… I would rather sin then
live in false and phony values that are nihilistic…

and what is the “TRUTH”?

Kropotkin

I seek to understand…

is knowledge and virtue… synonymous?

Socrates certainly thought so…

can one who has knowledge, because of knowledge
be virtuous?

or do the two have nothing in common?

what is knowledge?

Philosophy spent over 200 years trying to understand that
question… From Descartes to Hegel……

but has philosophy put in that amount of effort into
understanding Virtue?

why not?

in America, virtue is holding those values of
patriotism, profits, martial, materialism, money, religious, obedience…

and what of knowledge in America?

does American have any knowledge?

hence the dissociation of virtue and knowledge in America…

have we proven or disproven Socrates?

Kropotkin

today, we see people with knowledge of the bible commit
acts that are not virtuous…

they claim to be Christians and with knowledge of
the bible and god…

and yet, they cheered when America created its concentration camps
and cheered when the poor and the needy are denied the basic necessities
of life and the virtuous ones of the church cheered when a evil man
(evil according to the very bible which provides them with their knowledge)
become president…….

clearly knowledge hasn’t provided them with virtue (according to the bible)

and human’s of reason, failed to protest when these human’s of virtue
created these concentration camps and failed to protest when
the basic necessities were taken away from the poor and needy…

knowledge failed to lead those people to virtue……

to protest acts which are nihilistic and devalues human beings
is honorable and virtuous…

but those acts of protest against the devaluation of human beings,
these acts of knowledge conflict with the values of America…

to be a good American, to be a patriot, to be a good citizen,
means we cannot, cannot object to, to express disagreement with
the stated values of America, the values of materialism and of profits
and of money and martial values and patriotism and religion and obedience…

to state disagreement with the values of America means to be called
a radical, communist, socialist, anarchist, terrorist lover, liberal…….

I have knowledge… I am old… but does that make me virtuous?

You have knowledge… does that make you virtuous?

I have values and you have values……

but what is our values based upon?

are your values based upon the indoctrinations of the state,
the church, the media, the culture?

I cannot say… and because of your failure to
have an reevaluation of values, you cannot know…

“the unexamined life isn’t worth living”

is your life “unexamined”?

Kropotkin

Love it or leave it…

the standard response to a criticism of America the great…

one must accept without any mental reservation to “love”
America…

to hold in faith, the American values of materialism
and patriotism and profits and being martial and of money…
oh, the faith in money must be complete and absolute…
or one is told to “love it or leave it”……

the negation of human values is the basic requirement of being an American…

if I don’t accept this nihilism?

I am a bad American, un-American, traitor, anarchist, terrorist lover,
communist, socialist, un-patriotic…….

I must without any reservations about its values, love it or leave it…

I must have faith in the gospel of America or I am not going to heaven…

“he who is not in faith, is sin”

the faith of America requires, no, demands the complete
and absolute acceptance of the values of America…

there is no middle ground, no deviation from the accepted
creed of American values…

if I so deviate, even an inch, from the “values” of America,
I am suspect, I am in heresy, I am sin……

the separation of church and state in America isn’t really needed
as a clause in the constitution because it is inherent within the
basic voice of America demanding that one must “love it or leave it”,
as faith in the American values that all good patriots must have…
or they are traitors to the values of America……

Love it or leave it……

the last recourse of those who hide behind patriotism
and being a good citizen to commit and encourage
nihilism… nihilism that is inherent in the American values
of profits, money, materialism, being martial, patriotism
and religious obedience to the gospel of America…

love it or leave it…

so says those who hold to the faith of American values which cannot,
cannot be denied or opposed to because opposition to the values of America
is heresy…….and one must leave the country if one has committed heresy to
those values……

the religion of patriotism is the religion of America……

and religion demands the removal of any who deny the faith…

the religion of profits demands the removal of any who deny the faith…

and the religion of patriotism and profits is the exact same religion
in America…….

love it or leave it……

Kropotkin

a quick note and off to work…

I was wondering why I wasn’t getting any type of feedback
about what I was writing about… it seemed to me that I
was writing about important and interesting things…
but I just wasn’t sure because the only voice I could hear was
mine…

so I e-mailed a friend who is a regular around here to ask him…
why wasn’t I getting any type of feedback even though this stuff
seemed to be very important…

He wrote back… he said I “make my fellow American’s uncomfortable”

I thought about it and thought, good… philosophy should make one
uncomfortable… you should read philosophy and get nervous and wound up…

if philosophy make you feel all warm and cuddly, you aren’t doing philosophy…

philosophy done right should make you feel uncomfortable… your basic views
are being challenged and that should make you uneasy…

my friend also suggested that because people seemed to be uneasy, that
I was on the right path… after thinking about it, he is right…

because I am right in the middle of the storm, I can’t tell how big the storm
is, but until someone tells me differently, I am going to assume that by your
silence, I am still on the right path…to the truth………

and I thank my old friend for his guidance… after all these years and
he is still steering me straight… thank you…

Kropotkin

and I thank my old friend for his guidance… after all these years and
he is still steering me straight… thank you…

What are the chances of getting his email address? Guidance? Couldn’t we all use a little guidance? Forgive me, but you don’t write in the style of a man who is rightly guided. Is there a destination? The truth is where you are. Your friend ( the man you see as some kind of guide) should know that. Where on Earth is he seeking to guide you? Beware of men who seek to guide you away from yourself. What you seek is where you are. Tad flowery, but not something your friend can argue with!

If you want feedback, Kropotkin. Some people think the actions of Donald Trump are misguided.

Others think he is 2-1 up on Obama Sin Laden. He only played judge jury and executioner to one.

Donald can sleep well.

Do you think, when he rests his head - all things being connected - he thinks, my actions, my whims, my desires, my orders, led to 59 people being crushed to death. Do you think that he thinks the people on the plane were shot down as a direct consequence of his actions?
Or do you think he thinks… Go on my son, 2-1! Al Bagdahdi - Oh solo mio - hear what I did Melania? Take the piss out of me at the White House Correspondents Dinner.
Don’t be afraid children. It’s a phase we’re going through.

I got your e-mail… no worries…
its all good…

Kant once wrote:

“Reason aspires avidly to universal and necessary truths”

and yet I don’t believe in universal and necessary truths…

I have yet to see one single universal and/or necessary truth…

but I do hold onto reason, within reason, of course ; )

I hold to moderation but sometimes, sometimes…
we must hold to excessive values like love and justice
and hope and honesty……

I don’ believe in moderation in some values… but moderation
in actions……

it sounds like a contradiction and perhaps it is, but it doesn’t make it
less true…

some values that can survive excessive valuation are love, justice,
hope and sometimes even honesty……

I don’t think one can go wrong if we are immoderate in love or in justice
or in hope or in honesty or in charity…

or said another way, you can’t love moderately… or have a moderate justice
or only hope half way… love and justice and hope require, no, demand
a complete usage…with love or justice or hope… its all or nothing…
you can’t go halfway with love or with justice or with hope…

is love a universal truth?.. no, its a universal need…
is justice a universal truth? no, its a universal need…
and the same goes for hope… its a universal need…

without hope, who would get up in the morning?

certainly not me…without love, who would get up in
the morning? not me… and without justice?
hence the appeal of a second life, of heaven and hell
and angels and demons…are these also universal truths?

no, wanting a fair and just life is a universal need… not a truth…

we have to be careful to distinguish between our needs and our truths…

there is no such things as a universal truth, but there is such a thing
as universal needs… among them, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness…
even the founding fathers mistook the needs of life, liberty and happiness
as truths…they are only needs…

but reason can sort out between our needs and our truths…

reason can give us reasons for waking up in the morning…

reason can give us hope and perhaps even justice……

but we can never reason our way into love…….

reason can solve our individual questions…

but reason can not get us to some universal and necessary truths…

for the fact is, universal and necessary truths are really nothing more
then wishful thinking……

but the universe is made up of small, individual truths that we hold
collectively…

the democratic party is not a party with universal truths…
neither is the Republican party

the fact is, as a democratic, I hold small personal truths/needs
and millions of others hold very similar truths/needs and combined
we make up the democratic party…….

that is the nature of parties such as the GOP or the dem’s….

it isn’t about universal truths but about who will meet our needs…

and within churches, its not about the universal truths, but
who will meet our needs?

what needs do you have? and that will tell you if you are liberal or
conservative or moderate or anarchist or authoritarian…

your needs dictate your truths…

that is why there is no universal and necessary truth…

Kropotkin

and in line with the prior post, that there is no, no “universal
and necessary truth”……

I offer up the question that Kant asks,

“What ought I to do”?

In Kant, this is a moral, ethical question…
what should I do morally, ethically in regards
to the questions of both existence and actions…

whereas, I have extended the question, “What ought I to do”
into a general question about what we faced with the questions
of existence, “what ought I to do?”… as a overall, general question
about life itself, not just the moral question of Kant…the ethics of Kant…

I see Kant’s question of ethics, morality as being a part of the question of life,
as being inside the question of life…morals, ethics are a part of human
existence, not the whole of human existence… an important part to be sure,
but just a part…

we have a lasting question/problem from Kant which is
this idea of “Autonomous ethics”…

this is Kant’s famous idea of “acting in accordance with one’s moral
duty rather then one’s desires”

the Autonomy ethics in western philosophy, both in ethics/morality and
political philosophy…

“The state or condition of self-governance or leading one’s life according to
reason, values, or desires that are “authentically” one’s own”…

this suggest? that moral requirements present themselves as being
“unconditionally necessary”… the act of demanding “Autonomous”
ethics has disconnected people from the “old style” ethics, which was
tied up in religious precepts “thou shall not kill” type of precepts…

so the question becomes, do we base our ethical judgements upon
A: religious precepts, thou shall not kill… or do we base
ethical questions upon…
B: Autonomous ethics… In accordance to one’s moral duty rather
then one’s desire… but that is Kantian language…Autonomous
ethics is really : Autonomy: "in Western ethics and political philosophy,
the state or condition of self-governance, or leading one’s life according to
reasons, values, or desires that are “authentically one’s own”

so we have two distinct possibilities: one to obey the moral precepts
of some authority… be it god or some other authority like the state…
or two, to leads one own life according to one’s own reason, values or desires.

do we obey the law, be it gods or the state if the law itself is deemed to
be “morally” wrong… in other words, should we obey the law if the law
accepts such morally repulsive ideas as the Jim Crow laws or slavery
or the denigration or dehumanization of a class of individuals such
as minorities or Jews or people of color or the handicap……

should we obey laws that violate our own “morals in regards to
our own reason’s, values, or desires?”

we have a duty to obey, according to Kant, but we cannot obey if
it violates our own morals…

politically, democracy is founded upon the principle of “Autonomous ethics”
which is to say, we lead one’s own life according to reasons, values, or desires
that are authentically own’s own…

we choose our representatives who act in own name to create laws that
fulfill our own reasons, values or desires…

but that is theory, and we know in reality, that our elected representatives
don’t act in our name to create laws that fulfill our reasons, values or desires…

should we then obey the laws even if, even if they are not our “Authentic values”
but someone else’s? Big pharma for example, buys politicians and then writes
laws and creates laws for the benefit of big pharma and not the citizens of
this country…should we obey the law? the violation of our moral precepts
by this engagement that no longer embraces our reason, values or desires…
do we no longer have the “duty” to obey laws if our own personal
reasons, values or desires or our “authentic” selves is violated?

as we have a long way to go in this post, and I am meeting
the wife to go to the latest Star wars movie, I shall leave you with
one specific thought that will be touched on later…

Do we have character traits?..

Kropotkin

I left you with a question…

do we have character traits?

what a strange question……

but not so strange when we consider the word ethics…

the word ethics derive from the Greek and means, “related to one’s
character, or moral nature”……

ethics is found in one’s character, not in outside actions or right or wrong,
but in one’s character or moral nature…

and who among us demand we have a high moral character?

who even ask for us to consider right or wrong?

all I hear are crickets… because people are seeking things outside
of our character, our moral nature…

the pursuit of fame, money, titles, promotions, wealth…
these things have nothing to do with one’s character or moral
nature……they have nothing to do with ethics as defined by the word ethics…

the question becomes, do we practice our “ethics” with the prevailing
historical precepts of religion? “thou shall not kill” “thou shall not steal”

or do we understand our actions in terms of our own personal autonomy?

the state or condition of self-governance, or leading one’s life according to
reason, values or desires that are (and here is the key word) authentically
one’s own…

as the very idea of a political system that is authentic, is one political system and
one political system only, democracy…the state or condition of self-governance
or leading’s one life according to reason, values or desires that are authentic to
one’s own…the other political systems don’t engage in a system that is allows one
to lead one life according to reason, values or desires that are authentic to
one’s own life…

(the very fact that we have very limited autonomy today doesn’t destroy
the argument that democracy is the only form of government that is in line
with the concept of leading one’s own life according to reason, values or desires
that are authentic to own’s own life… if we ban certain things because
of religion, then we no longer have autonomy in those area’s… if we ban
abortion because of religious precepts, then we no longer have any
autonomy in this regard… I have severe back pain, I could really use
pain pills like Vicodin but because of the so called opioid crisis, where
people become addicted to them, I am forbidden to have these pills
even I am in so much pain that sometimes I can’t function because
I might, MIGHT, become addicted… I no longer have any medical autonomy
in this area…my medical needs are dictated to me by others who don’t
suffer the severe pain that I suffer… I don’t have any autonomy…
but its for your own good, one might say, and you know this how?)

that there is “no universal law of nature that defines morals”
is clear…….

so we can use rationality, Athens or we can use faith, Jerusalem……

do we have a state or condition of self-governance, or leading one’s life
according to reason’s, values, or desires that are authentically one’s own
that is living rationally, Athens…

or do we live life using precepts that are handing down by the
authorities, be it the state or be it religion, or be it a single person?

now the question becomes, is there a third path? somewhere in between
these two opposing idea’s?

it is often said that we are seeking something… some people seek
happiness and some seek knowledge and some seek contentment and
some seek materialistic objects like cars and houses and money
and some seek pleasure, some of it moderated pleasure(seek only pleasure but
not any pain and if we overindulge in our pleasures, we might be in pain, so
we should have only moderate pleasure to avoid pain) and some seek pleasure
at all costs…that there are so many possibilities shouldn’t surprise you…
think of the drives that motivate you to act…

and that is part of the equation of motivation… our needs…
we have needs, biological needs in the form of food, water, education,
shelter, health care, and yes, sex…think of our needs in terms of
Maslow’s pyramid… with the needs of a human being driving our
behavior… the lowest level is our physical needs, the next level is
our need for safety/security, the next level is our need for love/belonging,
the next level is our need for esteem… each level is a need, just like our need
for food and water and sex… the last level is the self-actualization level…
where we have passed beyond our needs and we reach the level of
reaching our full potential… where we find our possibilities and we
engage in reaching and fulfilling our possibilities… that is the last level
of the pyramid…until we find the next level…

so how much of our behavior, our actions is in line with achieving
our needs? I would suggest that ethics, our character, lies outside
of our needs…for example, my need for happiness is different
then my character, my moral nature……regardless of my own personal
needs of food, love, esteem or safety… I can still be a moral person,
my character can still be moral…

the question becomes, “to do the right thing”…

must I know what the right thing is before I can actually “do the right thing”
or can I do the right thing without even knowing what the word “right”
means here?

it has been said, especially in ancient philosophy that we must engage
in the “good life”… and then the ancients described the “good life” as
being virtuous… which they also equated with knowledge… to hold
knowledge is to be virtuous… knowledge and virtue were considered to
be the same thing especially by Socrates…if one committed an “evil”
act, it was because that person was ignorant or lacked knowledge of
the right thing to do… good and evil were questions of knowledge…
and to have knowledge was to be virtuous…

next post will go on…

Kropotkin