as I study the seventeenth century, I see a strange mix of science and theology
that sometimes inhabits an age…
we are born into a world which has its ism’s, paradigms, ideologies that give the
world its guidance, (not sure of a better word) in other words, we use those paradigms
and ism’s and use them as a road map to guide us in this life… we are born and
we are trained in the culturally ism’s and paradigms that culture uses…
for example, in America, we have an particular paradigm that drives much of
the debate here and that is this idea of “Rugged Individualism”… the false belief that
a single person like a Rockerfeller or a Ford built a company by themselves…
I built this… Ayn Rand gives life to this ideal in “Atlas Shrugged”…
it is part of the “American paradigm”… it is part of the American ideal, part of the
ism we grew up in… and since we have been inside of this paradigm all our life,
it is hard to escape something that has been part of our existence since birth…
liberals don’t accept this ism… we understand life as a communal and social
affair, not a solitary affair… we have, for whatever reason, grown out of this particular
ism, this paradigm and we celebrate community…not the idea of “Rugged Individualism”…
Now in the Seventeenth century, we see that the bible and religion had a
profound influence in life, thought, beliefs, part of the paradigm that people
were born in was the bible and all that brings forth…Today, we have move
away from that paradigm… in other words, for millions of people, they are no
longer live and breath and die, with the bible and religion…That is no longer
part of the paradigm they grew up and it is easier to step away, to isolate
from that particular paradigm…
which is all well and fine, but the scientific paradigm that has in some part
replaced it, is not very understandable to people, science is hard and most
people don’t want to take the time and understand even the easiest and most
understandable part of science, evolution for example, which is pretty easy
to understand and grasp… but if we no longer have paradigms like the bible,
existing for us since birth and we cannot understand science, what are our
options for us as paradigms? We see it even here at ILP… it is ignorance of
the lowest order… we see it in void for example… he/she is incapable of
a rational argument and instead deals with created list of insults and
name calling… there is one thread where they bash Jews, I think in
the Georgia election thread, nothing there resembles an rational, coherent
argument for or against… it is just anti-Semitism and nothing more…
it is simply a excuse for lazy, vile, incoherent (I can’t say thought, because
there is not thought here) but feelings, it is a paradigm of sorts but nothing
that requires anything more then hate and anger and violence…it is feelings
put into words…a four year old would feel right at home in this thread…
no, I’m not, but what are you? type of thread…
the loss of ism’s and paradigms in American life has a profound effect,
people in search for an easily understood and not very hard to follow
ism and ideology/ paradigm turn to this sort of feelings turned into words
of hate, anger and word violence like the jew bashing of the previously
mentioned thread…it is easier to reach down and access the lower, base
level of human nature and follow the paradigm of hate, anger, lust, violence.
that is easy to do… just follow the example of animals… who operate with
instinct… and we humans can just follow the hardwire aspect of human nature
and simply hate, and have anger and express violence because that is easy for
us…it just means following emotions without any thought given…
but, but there are other paradigms and other ism’s and other ideologies,
we can follow but they require work, they demand we think and they
ask for more of us, then simple follow our instincts…
to think, to rationalize, to study, that is hard work…and that is why people
avoid it… it takes time and effort to think about things and why bother when
you can just be like an animal and use your instinct to hate and have anger?
we are born within certain paradigms and ism’s…we can just follow those
paradigms and ism’s mindlessly or we can be human beings and follow Nietzsche
example and begin to reexamine those values… that is what he means…
not just to accept and follow those childhood paradigms that we are born into,
but to examine them, understand them, reevaluate them… and that is hard work…
but what is the goal of this reevaluation? to lead us to something even greater which
is wisdom and that is the goal of philosophy… not the love of wisdom, but to find
wisdom and what path shall we take, what method shall we use to find this wisdom?
we have suddenly traveled very far from those childhood paradigms and ism’s we grew
up with…and that is a good thing…and the true path to becoming… for we are beings
in whom we are beings that are becoming, we are not is, but we are to be…
and if you understand this one fact, you are on the path to wisdom… we are
beings who are becoming… and what are you becoming? to express oneself
as a being of lower instincts like hate and anger and violence is to say, I am…
and there is not becoming in, I am…because there is no room for growth in, I am,
but there is room for growth when you doubt and when you question and when
you reevaluate…you are then becoming and not is… if you can understand this
difference, you are on the path to wisdom…
Kropotkin