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