i agree with the central theme(s), i just disagree with some of the supporting points
As I have been on vacation for the last week, I haven’t posted, but I am back and here
is the latest installment of thoughts I’ve had.
I have been gone and so I decided to catch up some on various threads.
I (however distastefully) read the thread about the banning of lys and I had
some ideas. In reading this thread I see where certain people, carleas for example
have drawn a line in the sand. They don’t even understand what their position actually means.
They say that the site must have rules to function properly and lys violated those rules.
On a first look, it sounds reasonable, but if you think about it further you get somewhere
else and that somewhere else is an understanding of who we are.
They, mods, have a shall we say, a mental idea of what this site looks like.
They believe that it contains X, Y, and Z. If the post don’t match X, Y and Z, it is banned.
But they are unable to rationally explain X, Y and Z because it don’t exist. It is a mental picture
of what something is supposed to look like and that is all this place is, a mental picture of what
a philosophy web site is suppose to look like. The important aspect of this is the mental picture.
The fact is we take this mental picture and then we either make reality look like the mental picture or
we change our mental reality to fit reality. The problem with the mods (and everyone else for that matter)
we often mistake the mental picture for reality. The web site must look like X, Y and Z, regardless of
any other fact on the ground. In other words, we must have our mental reality,
conforms to the mods mental picture of the web site if we are to stay here. We must conform
our mental picture of this web site to whatever the mods say it is, which is nothing more than their
mental picture of this web site. So to extend this idea, we have a mental picture of what our government
is suppose to look like and then we try to force reality to fit this mental picture. The government is supposed to
of the people, for the people, by the people. That is a mental thought and then we try to get government to
fit that mental image. Of the people, which people, for the people, to what end, by the people, does this mean
me? We have a mental picture and often the reality doesn’t match our mental picture. This disconnect is
is THE PROBLEM in the world today. How do we fix it?
Kropotkin
A couple of days ago while still on vacation, I went to San Francisco to go see my niece
in a ballet program. After watching the show, my wife and I both agreed that while very pretty
and full of nice movement, the ballet lacked a story, a narrative.
A story, a narrative is something we all look for in just about everything.
We grow up with stories and we watch/read stories all our lives.
We also create stories. Now some stories are creation stories, In the beginning god created
the heavens and the earth. Other stories are how we live on a turtle’s shell. to each his own.
Now we have other stories we tell. We call them ideologies and ISM’S. Catholicism is one such story
and Capitalism is another. Each story has validity for the listener but the key is, do the stories match
the reality on the ground? One story we have comes from Machiavelli, like a leopard which
cannot change its spots, humans cannot change their spots or cannot change. so a human who was
born evil will always be evil and someone born good will always be good. So humans cannot change who
they are. But this story beloved by conservatives is wrong. We change all the time. From birth to death,
we change who we are. We are different at age 5 then at birth and different at age 10 then 5 and different
at 25 and 35 and 45 up until death. We change who we are all the time thus showing the lie of Machiavelli.
We know people who have changed from good to evil and from evil to good. We have seen it. we all know
people who have changed in some manner such as this. The reason I am a liberal is because the stories
we tell match the reality on the ground better than the conservatives stories. The point of these stories
is we often base policy on these stories. For example, conservative because they cannot see change
in people they see prison as a place for punishment and liberals who see change want prisons to be a
place of rehab. The view of the world decides the policy measures taken. so let us make sure
that the stories we tell ourselves fit reality better than before.
Kropotkin
Two Socratic ideas exist that we still listen to, one is “Know thyself” and
the other is “The unexamined life is not worth living”. The two idea’s are connected
(as all ideas are connected) by the idea that we must examine ourselves. It is my contention
that people don’t do this. What people do is this, they find an ideology they like, say
capitalism and by approving of capitalism, they take this to mean they “Know themselves”.
I know I like capitalism so I “prove” I know myself. The ideology of capitalism has certain
tenants that are associated with capitalism. for example, capitalism is associated with
freedom of choice, so by agreeing with capitalism, people assume they agree with the
freedom of choice idea of capitalism. Do people actually agree with the idea of freedom of
choice is not really the point, it is about agreeing with capitalism, an ideology, and they
just follow along with the tenants of capitalism, not necessarily with the idea of freedom of choice.
In other words, the ideology they approve of gives the beliefs they approve of.
It is less about the idea of freedom of choice and more about the ideology.
does capitalism actually give one greater freedom of choice? Thinking about it,
it doesn’t. Capitalism only allows freedom to buy 27 different types of TV’s made by
about 3 companies and 12 types of automobiles which are made by only 4 companies and
56 types of cereals made by 3 companies. the freedom allowed in capitalism is to what products
you can buy and not in any other manner. If you work and I assume most of us work, you cannot
work in a company that doesn’t follow capitalism because they don’t exist. You must work in
a capitalist company that will pay you a fraction of the work you do and that difference between
what companies pay you and what you create is what fuels profits. So if you make 10 bucks an hour
and the company can sell your efforts for 15 bucks an hour, you don’t get that 5 bucks, the company
takes that extra and that is the profit they make. Your work creates profit for the company and
you cannot look for another job or another company that doesn’t follow that standard, so you are
not free at all in a capitalist society. Freedom of choice doesn’t exist for the worker in a capitalism society.
as a consumer, sort of, as a worker not at all. So the choice of capitalism as the choice for freedom fails
once it is properly understood. So you have examined your position in life and found it wanting.
so if we examine our situation closer, we can get closer to the reality of the situation.
The story we tell is closer to the reality on the ground. Marx’s story is closer to reality than
Adam Smith’s story and thus Marx’s is the story we should be telling.
We must examine ourselves by examining our idea’s, not just the ideologies we approve of,
which leads to concepts we happen to agree with that are associated with the ideology.
we must look at both our private idea’s and the ideologies that we approve of.
Know thyself in regards not to the ideologies we approve of but in terms of
who we actually are and what we really believe.
Kropotkin
Those ism’s and ideologies we love so much, capitalism, communism, Catholicism,
conservatism, we live out our lives based on those ism’s. Our work is based on an ism
and our political system is based on an ism and we strive for goals that have no meaning like
happiness. What would happen if we lived life without those ism’s and ideologies?
We simply go about our lives with only a goal in mind, a goal that is achievable and
worth going after like the continuation and perpetuation of the species, not just our species
but all species. We actually take life seriously and at its word and recognize that life has
no other value other than the continuation and perpetuation of the species. For that is what nature
shows us, it is not about happiness or getting rich or popularity or being on TV or dating a Kardashian
but a simple goal. If we change what we are after than we change our entire society. it is no longer
about the gaining or increasing our wealth which is a false and dangerous goal because that only
leads to the decrease of resources that we and our children need to survive. Our long term goal becomes,
how do we increase the survival of the species by our actions today? Each and every action we take has
the survival of the species (all species) in mind. any goal that is different than this is artificial, created
in the mind of humans. We can by keeping in mind the real goal of humans, justify all those actions that
seem to be unnecessary like art, beauty, climbing mountains, running a 4 minute mile, (my best in track was
4:50). We can understand and appreciate those activities that don’t seem to fit into the essential goal which
is the survival of the species by keeping in mind of the two track system. This is put simply is this,
humans have one key, main responsibility which is the survival of the species but we have a second
track which is achieving a goal/goals that we wish to achieve be it travel or learning things. This can be
achieve by removing/ eliminating our current drive to our happiness which is now defined as the
pursuit and acquisition of wealth and goods. We no longer define ourselves by our wealth or amount
of goods we can purchase. We define ourselves in far different terms. We will define ourselves by
what did I do to improve the species chances of survival and what do I do to meet my second track
goals which can be anything I so decide. But this new paradigm requires we forgo our need to list
our achievements in terms of GDP and wealth and how many cars we can buy. We require a new system
to achieve our goals of both species survival and personal growth. This new system is not capitalism because
capitalism is nihilism incarnate, a system which lives by and promotes nihilism. No, the new system
must about the future and is about eliminating income inequality, the lowing the standard of living for
the billionaire’s and multi-millionaire’s and increasing it for everyone else. The new system says the
pursuit of wealth is detrimental to the goal of the survival of the species and is no longer
wanted. We take this first step by understanding that if the species, our species becomes extinct
we have failed. Our lives, your life, my life, everyone who has ever lived, that life becomes
meaningless. It is only by the survival of the species that our lives have any value because that is all
we are, the bridge between past and future. Once our children are born and become adults, capable
of surviving without us, we become expendable. We have no value except to continue on the species.
That is the lesson of nature. We have value in only continuing and perpetuating the species.
Kropotkin
Nietzsche understood what I said about nature which is a shorthand for
evolution. Look at evolution and see what lessons we can learn from it.
What is the goal of evolution? Progress? Efficiency? Neither one of these seems
to be the lesson or lessons of evolution. No, the only thing one can learn or surmise
by studying evolution is that it has only one goal and that is the preservation and
continuation of the species. So what did Nietzsche say about this? His response was
to say that the meaning of life was in the Ubermensh, the so called superman.
He was the creator of new values and that was important for N. It was in the highest of
the species that N. found his purpose or meaning in life. He was wrong.
Kropotkin
The next topic I have waited to do for obvious reasons, but now I must enter the fray.
Take away all preconceived idea’s you have. Look at this fresh without any of our baggage from
childhood or social messages or what you think is even right or proper. Look at this idea like
you are hearing it for the very first time.
Spiritual, religion, god. You, me, virtually everyone reacts when they hear those words
emotionally, not rationally. Hear those words and think.
this is philosophy we are doing today, not emotionalism.
Take what we know as facts. First we are material beings. We are made of atoms into
forms dictated by our genes/DNA which is the software. the software decides the form of the
physical matter, which is why we don’t become dogs or cats or winged creatures.
Our internal organs function like all other organs, dogs and cats and bats and lions.
We are connected to the animal kingdom in very direct ways. our genome/DNA has
connections with other animals. This genome, the software, has connections with other
animals by sometimes as much as 96% the same as other animals. We are connected to
other animals for example chimps and us have a 96% to 98% similarity. Cats have 90% homologous genes
with humans, 82% with dogs, 80% with cows, 69% with rats and 67% with mice. Fruit fly shares about
60% of its DNA with humans and chickens are about 60%. We are from the same family as animals given
our software shares connections with other animals. These are facts. From a DNA standpoint, there
is no such thing as higher or lower. It is all the same, nothing special about any given animal.
We physically must operate as animals which means we eat and we sleep and we shit and
we fuck and we procreate just like every other animal on earth. We cannot do anything different,
outside the parameters of our DNA. We cannot fly, we cannot breath underwater naturally,
we can only run so fast and no faster. Our eyesight and hearing and smelling ability is actually
from an animal’s standpoint, very limited. there seems to be only two reasons we have reached
the top of the food chain, one is our thinking ability and two, the opposable thumb. I see no other
reason for us to come this far with our otherwise very limited physical abilities.
Now notice at no point have I needed to bring in an outside agency to explain our place in
the universe. Material existence needs only material explanations. We do not need to go beyond
material explanations to understand how we got here. We have no need for the spiritual or the religious
or god to explain our journey to this point. To those who demand we add those aspects, are actually
adding unneeded complexity to our answers for our answers are complete enough to explain the known
facts. Now are they the whole explanation to our rise to the top, no. Because as I have pointed out, in
any system and we are a system existing in a system, no explanations can cover all aspects of a system.
All explanations are incomplete and necessarily so. No matter how matter facts you try to cover,
it cannot completely explain a system. We are a insecure and frail system and so to cover that
incompleteness we try to hide that incompleteness with such unnecessary explanations like spirit,
religions, god, instead of just accepting the fact that no system can be explained because of the
incompleteness idea. There will always be gaps in any explanations of a system, always. We are
frighten by those gaps and try to fill it with explanations that aren’t needed.
The gaps are like car’s engines. The engine of a car can never be 100% efficient. There will always
be inefficiency in a car’s engine and a jet engine and the human body, any system actually. No system
ever created can be 100% efficient, it is just not possible. And no system ever created can be 100%
explained. Now we might be able to approach 100% explanation of a system, but gaps will always exist.
For ancient people, the gaps were huge, large and it was easy for them to put god, spirit into that gaps
because the gap was so huge. But today, it is not so easy to force god into a small gap. Thus the
difficulty for people to keep god in any explanation offered today.
Kropotkin
Today I am looking at two idea’s I consider quite important and roughly equal.
The two in no particular order is priority and the end game.
Priority is simple this, what is our priority? What should we focus on.
and the end game is just that, what is our end game? Not in terms of
either species extinction or individual extinction, but in terms of what is next for us
as a cultural or a civilization. Part of our problem has been we don’t have a goal or something
to aim for as a society. We just have more of the same materialist buying which has a very
negative effect on society because this type of materialism has only one ending which is the
depletion of our resources and this is a one way street ending in the extinction of the human race.
So what should our priority be and what should our end game be?
As it is a collective decision, all of us, we must decide together how we are going to
prioritize our efforts. This is clearly one of the major failing of capitalism that no
collective decision such as this is possible in a capitalist system because capitalism
is against such decisions because everything is individual choice (or so goes the theory).
the point to be made is individually we cannot make any type of decision that is gonna
to make some difference. we must decide together because it affects all of us and our children
(should we last that long) I have on several occasions brought up the idea of space exploration
and I firmly believe that is where our priority and end game should be. Not to abandon the earth,
but to take the stress off the earth by moving millions onto other planets thus ensuring our species
and the earth’s survival. Again, we are talking about the end game. Not like a Christian who
seems to take special delight in the end times where everyone dies, no. the fact is we, in
American especially, have lost the sense of what is next? We have no idea what our end game is
or even if we have an end game. I don’t see any politician addressing the future in such a way
that makes sense. The GOP candidates want to recreate some past glory in returning America to
“greatness” but you can’t go home again and any such solutions are doomed to fail because
they are the past’s solutions, not present or future solutions. We have our eyes fixed firmly
on the past whereas we must have our eyes fixed firmly on the future because we have already
been to the past and the present is right now but the future, that is the road we are going to take.
It hasn’t happened yet and can be changed with our actions. So what future do you want? What future
do you want for your kids? What future do you want for your species? It is only by first thinking about
what you want and then, making that possible happen, can it happen. In other words, you make the
future! What are you going to do? The responsibility is yours. You cannot shirk it, you cannot hide
and say, its not my problem because it is your future, your responsibility. Deny all you want, but
you cannot hide from the future. What will the future be?
Kropotkin
“Here I stand for I cannot do otherwise” This was said by Martin Luther during the Diet of Worms.
He had the courage of his convictions born of years of doubt. his faith render useless by
doubt. the path to wisdom is found in doubt. My wisdom such as it is, was refined by years
of doubt. Our leaders have such faith and such convictions but no doubt and thus I cannot
accept their words. Those who leap into convictions and not into the abyss are cowards who
judge convictions as the surer path to happiness. Here they stand because of fear of the road less
traveled of doubt. They feared uncertainty and doubt as a greater danger than convictions born
of cowardice. The greatest fear of today is uncertainty and the greatest danger we have because
to escape uncertainty we listen to those who proclaim the greatest certainty of convictions even
if those certainties are false and we know it to be false. My many questions are not, this is, but, what if?
What if. the path to wisdom is doubt and what if?
Kropotkin
After some thought, I seriously doubt there is a real defense of capitalism.
Now some might say, It created the greatest country on earth, but that is just
confusion on cause and effect and an understanding on what criteria one would
use to call America the greatest country on earth… capitalism allowed us to buy
stuff? Is that a defense of capitalism? I don’t see any advantage of capitalism over
any other economic system. Now one argument might be, well the soviet union fell
and that proves the superiority of capitalism. Now that assumes that the old soviet union
was a socialist society and that is not true. The soviet union was a dictatorship from Lenin
on through and had nothing to do with the socialism that Marx talked about.
The failure of capitalism is clear and obvious to any who look. We have millions
who live in poverty. We have a shrinking and soon to be dead middle class,
we have massive debt and no real way to pay that debt. The only ones for whom capitalism
works is the owners of the means of production as Marx noted. Less than 10% of the population
owns 90% of the wealth in this country. That is not a success by any standard that would make
sense. Capitalism has failed, pure and simple. the question to ask is can we save this mess from
becoming a real disaster?
Kropotkin
If you are like me, you are busy. right now, I am doing laundry while I write all the while
thinking about what is for breakfast. In a bit, I have stuff to do that will take some time.
Like doing the dishes, cleaning out the cat water dish, cleaning kitty litter, then later on
I have to go to work for a few hours. I am kept busy, but do I ever actually stop what I am doing
and just think. What is the point of all this? Suddenly that abyss that lies hidden beneath our
feet becomes visible. do I have the courage to stare into that which frightens all people. is this it?
I am 56 years old. is this it? doing mindless chores while waiting for…
I have roughly 20 years to live (according to latest stats.) Are those 20 years just more of the same?
Even at this age, I have a marked reluctance to leave the house. I just want to stay home and
tend to my stuff. I really only leave the house when I have to. I am not complaining about the day to
day shit, but the long and winding road until death. IS this it? I have done all the things of youth
that seemed fun at the time but now…? What I am doing is finding meaning all the while looking into
the abyss. That emptiness that exposes our lives for the lie it is. Kierkegaard would suggest to take a leap
of faith into that abyss. However I lack the faith because I am a man of reason and we don’t take leaps of
faith. is this some sort of crisis of faith or of middle age? Not at all! just an understanding of the
shaky ground we build our lives upon. We build elaborate lies that suggest our lives, our social order
is built upon firm and solid ground all the while ignoring that which lies beneath our feet. Once I saw
a t-shirt that said “if you are on thin ice, you might as well be dancing” At my age, the only dancing I do,
is to avoid stepping on the cats and it ain’t pretty. And after all this, what conclusions have I reached?
I am a terrible dancer… and not much else, but that is the nature of reflections on the abyss.
(good title for a book, I hereby claim that title for my next book) so now the rest of the day is full of cleaning
and making the world safe for kitty cats in my household. And I am still left with the question, is this it?
Kropotkin
Knowledge. Where would I find it?
I have thousands of books and in those books lie knowledge of all types. Philosophical knowledge and
historical knowledge and economic knowledge and knowledge of the human condition in books like
“War and Peace” and “St. Petersburg” (one of the 4 best fiction books written in the 20th century)
“The education of Henry Adams” voted the best non fiction book written in English in the 20th century.
And books on evolution and physics and chemistry and chess and travel books. 4000 plus books.
I have a computer that can lead me to even more books online and web sites (and some without an X or porn
in the title but even those sites can lead to knowledge) I have a TV set and Netflix and hula and all the
information available on the TV and I have a radio and all the knowledge there and yet with all these resources
available to me, I am sure I can find knowledge but I am not sure I can find wisdom. Is wisdom and
knowledge connected? Less and less I find people with knowledge. Quite often, I am the person
in the room with the most “knowledge” which we can equate with facts, but does that make me the wisest
person in the room? I have found with age comes a wisdom of sorts, but is it the “right” wisdom?
Well one has to ask, what is the goal of the wisdom? What is the purpose of having the wisdom?
Is wisdom for me or should I share my “wisdom” with the young ones. Knowledge and wisdom?
What is the relationship between the two?
Kropotkin
the other day, I wrote about wisdom and knowledge and what is the connection
between the two. We have hundreds of books that go into knowledge and what
knowledge is and how we can be certain about our knowledge. But few if any books on
wisdom. How does one become wise? Socrates felt he had wisdom because he at least
knew he wasn’t wise whereas the others in Athens thought they were wise and they were not.
but if you think about that, it is a very particular wisdom. You are wise because you know
you are not wise. Facts/knowledge doesn’t have this problem. You either have facts or you don’t.
The earth is 93 million miles from the sun. but this “fact” is really not a fact because the 93 million
miles is more of a mean rather than an actual set in stone fact. we circle the sun not in a perfect
circle but an imperfect circle where sometime we are 92 million miles from the sun and sometimes
we are 94 or more million miles from the sun. this so called fact is really more of a approximation
than an actual number. Facts are like that, more of an approximation rather then a true or real figure.
Is wisdom like facts? Not really a set in stone figure but rather an approximation?
How am I too know if I am wise? I guess that is the question for the day. I work with a bunch of kids,
mostly baggers, and I know I have greater information than they do, but that is a function of age.
I am older then several of the baggers parents. I have the wisdom of age, but a lot of people have that
and yet, with that said, I see people who are older than me hold dubious idea’s. for example,
a lot of older people 60’s and 70’s love Donald trump stand on immigration. A rather stupid and
a very damaging idea to America if it was ever enacted. So I cannot fully attribute wisdom to
older people because they clearly favor an idea that will seriously damage America. Goethe once
said, he thought he was wiser at age 20 than he was at age 70. I am not actually sure if he meant it or
if he was joking. Was I wiser at age 20 than now at age 56? that is a no and hell no. So how would I know
if I was wise or not? It would depend on what you mean by wise I guess.
I doubt. I have no real certainty about anything. that doubt, that uncertainty is a wisdom of sorts.
So I have the wisdom of doubts. A rather strange wisdom, but maybe wisdom is strange. If you
feel you have it, you don’t and if you don’t feel you have it, you have it.
Kropotkin
My wife has a common problem which is when faced with a problem, she panics.
Like in cleaning the kitchen, she see’s the mess and she get overwhelmed and doesn’t
know how to get started. When she freaks like this, she just get’s overwhelmed and she
just stops. Just stops. Instead of breaking the problem down into smaller pieces, like
instead of looking at the whole thing, look at one aspect of the problem which might just
doing the dishes. than without looking at any other part, clean the floor, then maybe clean the
counters. Break the problem down into smaller more doable pieces.
We, America is like my wife. We see a whole lot of problems and because they seem so big,
we panic. We need to break down the problem into smaller pieces. If we did that, we wouldn’t be so
overwhelmed. We have several problems but if we break them down into smaller pieces, something
interesting becomes noticeable. Take immigration for example. We have people in our country, illegally,
I will grant you but how do we deal with it? the Donald, in a remarkably stupid response, says let us
deport everyone who isn’t an American. this answer belongs in the hall of fame for answers that
will set a country back in more ways than you can imagine. Deporting everyone who isn’t an American
will destroy the American economy, cause food prices to absolutely rocket upwards, decimate entire
industries. It is a solution that would create far more problems than it would solve. the point of a solution
is to have less problems than more problems.
But to look at the bigger picture, we can categorize our problems into environment, economy,
defense/safety and resources. Environment can be climate and pollution for example.
Economy can be jobs, economic growth, standard of living, that sort of thing. Defense/safety
can be, how do we protect ourselves. Resources can be such things as water, oil, land.
Is that list, THE LIST? Hardly, the list can be made and remade in a dozen of different ways.
But that is a list of issues and will give us some idea of what we are facing. Now the big
brick in the wall is simple, how do we find solutions to all these problems?
I must admit it is hard to find solutions that seem to cover all the area’s that need to be solved.
Until, I broke down the list of issues and reduced the issue’s to a couple of points. then the
answer became obvious. It has two aspects and involves EVERY single human on earth as every
single problem I listed affects every single human on earth. Finding the answers to our problems
is really every person on earth problem. Take pollution for example, it affects every single person on earth.
It is not isolated to just California or America or north America, or even the western hemisphere, no,
every single country on earth and everyone on earth faces this problem. so what is the solution?
The answer becomes obvious if you break down the problem. think about it. I shall give
my answer in a few days.
Kropotkin
As I am waiting for the wife, I shall go over the first answer to my question.
What is the solution for our myriad of problems like pollution, resources, environment/climate,
to name just a few. The first thing to recognize is that if we fail to solve these problems,
we will have a major, major problem on our hands in a few short years. We cannot engage in
what I call magical thinking which is we believe that somehow a person, idea, science or god,
will somehow magically solve our problems. We don’t have to address the climate issue, for example,
because someone, god or science will solve the problem before it gets too severe. That is magical
thinking at its best. this magical thinking is a real danger because people actually believe that
some magic will somehow save us. this is nothing more than putting our heads in the sand and
hope somehow it all turns out ok. That is the path to failure and species extinction. We cannot succumb
to this magical feeling. We must act as if no one is coming to save us and we only have ourselves
to depend on to find a solution.
Now if you look at problems like resources, environment/climate, pollution. They have a common
theme which is they are driven by population. The greater the population, the greater the problem.
So the first aspect must be, we need to reduce the population. This means in terms of practical
actions, we must not only allow abortions but we need to encourage them. We need to push birth
control to everyone on earth. We cannot allow outdated religious concepts to raise the population
to dangerous levels. With each mouth to feed, we put pressure on resources like food and water,
to name a few and with every person, we increase the pollution on earth. We need to understand
we live on a finite planet with finite resources. We cannot and must not have ideologies that
encourage infinite use of resources like capitalism. The concept that he who dies with the most toys
wins, can no longer be accepted. So along with population control, we must have ideologies that
put a limit on our resources use. No more magical thinking. To survive, we must engage in
a realistic approach to what our future needs to look like. That can only happen when we
take seriously the need to address our future. So, we have three steps we can take, population
control, changing ideologies and taking our future seriously. But this is only half the battle,
we have a far harder task needed to ensure our future and that will be addressed tomorrow.
Kropotkin
Now the first part of my answer is what I referenced in my latest piece which is magical thinking.
People engage in magical thinking with regards to such things as god and how we are going to
solve our problems. A belief in god is no different then a child’s belief in Santa Claus or the
Easter bunny. To believe that there is a personal god who love you and want’s you to go to heaven
is magical thinking. It has no basis in facts and hurts you and society in several different ways.
First of all, it allows one to escape responsibility from one’s actions. It’s ok if I kill someone because
all I have to do is accept belief in god and I am going to heaven regardless of any past actions I
have taken. You are escaping responsibility for your actions. Secondly, if god has a plan for you
as many believe, than you are not responsible for your actions as god has already decreed what
you will do and so you once again escape responsibility for your actions. this magical thinking
extends into people thought as in god will provide for us and god will protect me. this is no different
than children believing in Santa Claus or children believing in such magical things. It is time
for children to grow up and it is time for us to grow up. this magical thinking is a sign that
you are engaging in childish thinking. It is time for us to act like adults and discard this
magical thinking. I liken it to being a parent. I am a parent. As a parent, you cannot have
magical thinking whereas you believe if you trust god, you and your child will get fed, house,
clothing. It doesn’t work that way. If you want to fed your children, you have to work for it.
Magical thinking isn’t going to take care of your child, hard work and adult thinking and behavior
will take care of your child. So we must act not only like adults but we must begin to act
like parents. My mom made many sacrifices for her children and acted with her children best
interest in mind even if it collided with her best interests. There was no magical thinking involved,
only hard work and putting her children first. That adult/parent thinking is what we need now.
We must put our own personal interest aside and act for the betterment of future generations
and of the earth. We are the adults/parents and we need to act like it. We don’t have the
luxury of magical thinking. Is it hard and thankless work, yes. No one notices if you
behave and act like an adult because that is what is expected of adults. An adult puts
their own interest aside if it collides with the betterment of the children and the betterment
of society and the betterment of the earth, because that is what adults do.
My wife and I are going to Europe next May, but we haven’t abandon our responsibilities to
our daughter or our responsibilities to our jobs or our responsibilities to society. We
take care of our stuff and then we get to go to Europe. Responsibilities come first when
you are an adult/parent. It is part of what we signed up for as adults/parents. It is not fun,
it is not glamorous, you don’t get any glory or recognition and it is hard work. But that is
what being an adult/parent is and always will be. We no longer can afford to hold
magical beliefs and thinking. It is time to grow up. Adulthood beckons and we must answer.
No more magical thinking.
Kropotkin
As if you had the slightest idea of what was either true, good for society, or mature.
K: it is easy to take shots from the dark, so tell us what is true, good for society or mature?
Kropotkin
Clarify, Verify, Instill, and Reinforce the Perception of Hopes and Threats unto Anentropic Harmony
.
K: I am just going to wait for the English translation.
Kropotkin