Peter Kropotkin:conservatives hold security as the primary goal and
interest of government…security as in a strong defense
force in the world… to “protect” us in an insecure world…
the liberal ask, what is the point of a strong defense if
we don’t allow such values as freedom and the right to
our “inalienable rights” as defined by the declaration …
“the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”
and those “inalienable rights” have been extended by generations
of Americans to include the right to the essential
necessities of life which include food, water, shelter and healthcare
and education…
the conservative considers those essential rights of life of food, water,
shelter… as to be of less importance then the right to security…
as they, conservatives, have pursued a public policy of increased
“security” spending over increased essential necessities like food and water…
this is self evident by their spending bills of conservative congresses
and presidents…in the last spending bill, they cut social services
and increased defense spending… those actions tell us the values
that conservatives hold…safety/security over freedom or the essential rights of man
as defined by the declaration…so which values should we hold?
now the second point of understanding political philosophy is
what is the role of the individual within society/government?
it has been said that political philosophy is really about two things
and two things only… who is in charge and who pays for things…
that is all political philosophy is engaged with… who is in charge,
who makes the decisions and then who pays for those decisions…
but nowhere in this cynical viewpoint of political philosophy
is any commentary or concern about values and which values
should, we as a society or government hold?
and that includes which values we as individuals should hold in
regards to governmental actions or policy…
in which lies my second point, which values should we as individuals
should hold and engage with politically?
the oath of the President states: “he” will to the best of his ability,
preserve, protect and defend the constitution of the United States"
this lead us to an interesting conclusion about this oath…
it doesn’t say, to "defend the United States… no, it says the constitution
of the United States…the constitution is a continuation of the
“declaration of independence” which is a document about values…
which values shall we uphold…and what is the role of the
individual citizen in our government…
as government and political policy seems to be about values…
is the same to be said about our economic system?
K: ok, in terms of the economic, what seems to be “our” values?
we have profit… modern capitalism is all about profit…
and both human beings and human values are irrelevant, because they don’t contribute
to profit…thus modern capitalism is nihilistic… anti-human, anti-life…
so, we ask, what is the role of the individual in regards to capitalism?
clearly, the individual has no value in modern economic theory, the
individual has no value in capitalism outside of being a worker or
a consumer… that is the extent of capitalism interest in the modern worker…
either they work or they consume… and the creation of profit is the sole
and only concern of capitalism…this leads us to the understanding that
capitalism has no values…we cannot engage with capitalism in terms
of values because capitalism has no values… so what is the role of the
individual in regards to capitalism? the role of the individual within capitalism
is simple to be cannon fodder for the capitalist… to be used and abused
as capitalism see’s fit and then discarded when no longer necessary…
we must engage in capitalism in these terms… we must remove or
eliminate the only goal of capitalism which is profit… until we remove
profit from capitalism, we are only a tool to greater profit, a tool which
has little or no value outside of the creation of profit… we, we humans
are expendable and only have value for our role in the creation of profit…
we have no other role in capitalism…
so, we have “inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”…
but our rights are denied by the corporation right to profit… we are dehumanized…
because of this fact that our “inalienable rights” are deemed to be of far less
value then profits… which has come first for corporations, life or profits?
that answer is quite evident for anyone with eyes… our liberty is sacrificed to
the alter of profits and the only pursuit of happiness allowed is the pursuit of
material goods and our lives are defined and given value by our creation of wealth…
both personally and collectively… we, Americans call ourselves the greatest country on
earth due to its GDP and for no other reason… we define ourselves due to our
economic activity and not for our virtues or goodness or values… but economic
activity…and this is how we define the pursuit of happiness… economically…
and not by any other standard…
so the political and the economic exists on separate fault lines…
the economic being the far greater danger and far greater
tyranny to our well being…
Kropotkin