children should be seen, not heard…
anyway, after a long weekend of thought, I admit in a different path
then I anticipated…
we have the events in Va, the violence and hate… and what should our
response be? would should our solution be to the hate and violence?
the solution is in philosophy, but a different understanding of philosophy then
we have engaged in…
Recall that our understanding of events changes just as the events themselves
change… what is considered knowledge changes over the years… what we consider
wise has change and will continue to change… events, people, knowledge
don’t remain static, they keep changing and evolving…
Philosophy: the love of wisdom… the problem has always been in this
question of wisdom…what is wisdom? is wisdom, facts? the Greeks thought
that wisdom was knowledge… knowledge of how the world works was wisdom
to the Greeks…what we would call science today… but, and this is important…
Socrates successfully change the Greek idea of wisdom from having knowledge
of how the world work to a more personal understanding of philosophy…
philosophy for Socrates became more about who we are and not what we know…
recall his favorite phrase, know thyself…Philosophy is more about understanding
our own soul instead of understanding what makes the world or how the world was
created…science looks out into the world and philosophy looks into our soul…
that was Socrates idea… philosophy is not about Plato’s eternal forms or
Spinoza one substance, god, but philosophy was about who we are,
how to go from being to becoming… we must become something else
and according to Socrates, that becoming was wise about who we are and
what is the proper subject of philosophy was discovering what was the state
of our soul… he goes on rather a bit about wisdom being found in the
knowledge of the soul…philosophy was not out there, but inside of each of us…
Socrates took philosophy out of the sky and put it inside of each of us…
so we begin… is anger and hate and violence really the way we
want out to soul to be? this is the question…
what type of soul should we be? think of the people you have meet…
think about the people you have read about, heard about…
what was it about their soul that you admired or made you feel good about
yourself…chances are, if your are honest, it is the people who
soul was about love, goodness, integrity, honesty, betterment of life…
think about those who admire and respect people like Hitler and Stalin,
Jack the ripper, think about the soul who admires and respect these
people, I have meet people who admired and respected Hitler and
Stalin… their souls are dark and black, not people we would respect
and admire… who you admire and respect tells us who you are and
who you want to be…name the ones that society respects and
builds monuments to, and they are not the one who hate or the
ones who advocate violence and their souls are not dark and black…
blessed are the peacemakers… and we honor and value
them… Jesus and all other creators of religion are
advocates of peace and love, respect…
these are the values of the peacemaker and we honor them…
but we should also want to emulate the peacemakers…
for they promote values that we already honored…
blessed are the ones who pursue knowledge…
and we honor and value them…
Einstein and all the other creators of science and knowledge
are advocates of knowledge and understanding
these are the values of the seeker of knowledge and we honor them
but we should also want to emulate the knowledge seekers…
for they promote values that we have already honored…
we do not bless the ones who pursue hate or violence and anger
we don’t bless them, we don’t honor them and we don’t value them…
Hitler and all other creators of hate and violence
are advocates of violence and hate and anger
these are the values of the seeker of hate and violence
and we do not honor them…
we do not want to emulate the violence seekers…
for they promote values that we do not bless or honor…
for those who oppose liberalism because we promote values
of the future, then listen to those who promote values of the past…
they have clearly stated their promoting values of peace and love
and charity… they have built monuments to those who have
promoted love and honor and peace and they have taught the values
of love and peace and hope to the generations that have followed them…
we can listen to those who came before us and we can see they honored
the peacemaker and the ones who promoted knowledge and love…
so if we can promote them, we can also emulate them, the peacemakers
and those who value love and peace and hope and charity…
we can train our souls to be like those we honor and build monuments too…
that is the value of those who come before us… they can show us to what end
we must begin to train our soul… what values we must begin to emulate
to become better people… and that is the name of the game…
how do we become better people!
and now we reach the point where we have found a solution to VA and other
places of violence and hate and anger… we begin to emulate those who
values we already honor and build monuments to… the peacemaker
and the seeker of knowledge and those who value love and charity…
if we follow their path, all of us, we will find the solution to VA and
other acts of hate and violence and anger… the solution lies in each of us…
we just have to have the courage to begin the search for the wisdom of
Socrates… to know thyself… and the not the search for the knowledge of
the heavens and the stars and the truths of the universe…
but the truth of the human heart and the human soul…
Kropotkin