as quoted before,
Man is born free and yet is everywhere in chains…
and how does this matter in our understanding of man/individual within society…
ok, we are born within a society with its own understanding of the universe…
we can call these, with no loss of understanding, as habits, prejudice, superstitions…
for they are not a systematic or logical understanding of our universe or our
place within the universe or what we are to do…
no, these are simple myths of what we are do to or what we are to be
in our journey in life…
examples of this are easy to find…keep your nose to the grindstone…
work hard and you will find success…your elders know best for you…
examples of this are easy to find… think of the rules you were taught as a child…
they are simple minded rules of behavior that will ensure one success in life…
but they are nothing more then habits, prejudice and superstitions…
the raising of one to believe in god is just that… a continuation of
long cherished habits, prejudice and superstition…
it is mindlessly taught without any understanding of what it means
to actually believe in god… what it really involves, what it really means…
these mindless rules of behavior that are taught are one means that
a child is to understand our individual place within a society…
depending on the habit taught, it can mean to be firmly within the
rules and boundary of what society demands…
but why should we be beholden to the habits, prejudice and superstitions
of a society?
as we grow into youth and then into adulthood, we either challenge
or we firmly become believers in those habits, prejudices and superstitions
of society…
the chains of habit, prejudices and superstitions are hard to break
and require a certain freedom of mind…
what creates the change required to break free of habits, prejudices and
superstition? as we travel through life, we discover that sometimes
those habits, prejudices and superstitions don’t answer the reality we see in front
of us or they don’t allow growth…
to make the point… we have these prejudices that if we work hard,
we shall be rewarded in life… but the fact is, no, quite often working
hard leads us nowhere and those who are lazy and worthless often
get rewarded far more then we do, even if we work much, much harder then
they do… how do we meet this challenge of finding out that the prejudice/
habits we were raised with, are wrong? how do we resolve this contradiction?
and it is a contradiction, make no mistake…
do we say, oh well, and go on, or are we forced to reevaluate those
habits, prejudice, superstitions? these chains that we have, are wrong,
and what is to be our response? and that is the point of the quote,
man is born free and yet is everywhere in chains… the chains
of habit and prejudice and superstitions…we are not born with them…
they are taught to us by our parents, our church, our society, our media…
we are at the point now, of understanding that the myths and habits and
prejudices and superstitions of our youthful training have failed us in
properly understanding our place in the universe, our role in society…
we are faced with a contradiction… and how do we resolve this contradiction?
here now, we can properly understand the conflict between the individualist,
Nietzsche and Ibsen and Kierkegaard and the calls for our heeding to the
habits, myths, prejudices and superstitions of our youth…
what is a good citizen? one who obeys the myths and habits installed in
childhood… who is a bad citizen? one who discovers for themselves,
one who proclaims… I alone, can decide for myself, what is my role and
place in society and in the universe…
a person who thinks for themselves is an enemy of society, for
they don’t follow the accepted myths, habits, prejudices and superstitions
of their society/culture…
the real battle of our life is simply this, do we blindly follow/accept
the myths and habits and prejudices and superstitions that we were
taught as children or do we strike out on our own and discover for
ourselves, our own rules, our own mission statement, as it were…
the declaration of independence stated…
"we hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created
equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable
rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness"
and it is in this myth and habit and prejudice and superstition that
we discover we have the right to the pursuit of happiness…
but it is not in happiness that we find our truth… for searching for our happiness
has lead us into ruin on many an occasion… I have search for my happiness in
booze and sex and the buying of material goods…and in searching for
those myths and habits and prejudices and superstition of my youth…
this path is the path of being chained… those useless myths of my youth
are the chains I must be free of…
but how do we begin? the first step is becoming aware… always the path to
true understanding begins, by becoming aware… there is no other path
to understanding… the path after that widens and becomes many, but the
first step is becoming aware…
and here we see how the many diverse posts I have delivered in this
thread becomes clear… each step leads us to further understanding
of where we stand in our individual and collective understanding of who we
are and where we need to be…
we are both individual and a collective… we exists individually
and we exists collectively, within may diverse systems… the
exact relationship between our individual and our place within
society is always changing and evolving… what is right and proper
today, is wrong tomorrow because of the changing needs of both
the individual and within society/culture…
when we find our path outside of the myths and habits and prejudices
and superstitions of our youth, we discover our relationship to the society
and culture changes… and when the society/culture changes, that changes
our individual relationship with said society/culture… this
rapidly changing relationship is a process, which is another word
for evolution…this is why discovering who we are in respect to
society and culture is so hard to discover because it is an always changing
process…we change and society changes…sometimes we are in tune and
sometimes not…right now, we as individuals and collectively are not in tune
with society or with each other… that is part of, part of, our discord within society…
we are not in synch with each other or with society… we are alienated from
society and from each other…how to synch with each other and within society?
by first becoming aware of this discord and then by creating a
end path for us to follow… not the means, but an end…
but this ending is not a moral ending, for morals are means but
never an ending place… you can’t find an ending place for morality…
only a means, a path… this just another brick in the wall for understanding
who we are and who we need to become… it cannot be moral for there
is no destination in moral lessons, just an ongoing path… and this is the
failure of moral instruction… it doesn’t see it is a path that never ends…
onward and upward but no destination… so the path into the future must
not take morality as an ending… so what is the answer?
perhaps, perhaps there is no answer today… but as we break free of
our chains, we can see an answer tomorrow
Kropotkin